The Simple Pastor reaches first milestone

It occurred to me today that I've been actively blogging for a while now and it turns out that I started this blog on the 18th December 2006. So The Simple Pastor has turned one and I didn't even realise, which isn't unusual when it comes to me and birthdays, they often go unnoticed until after the event.

On the whole I would say it's been a positive development in my life, it's given me a creative outlet as well as a positive use of the internet, it's introduced me to new people and conversations, opportunities and ideas. I've enjoyed the discipline of regularly writing and updating and enjoyed the comments that I get. Thank to you everyone who has read this and especially those of you who have taken the time to leave a comment, it was really appreciated.

Adrian Warnock has (probably unknown to him) provided a fair share of this either with blogger tips (he's been doing it for 5 years now) or debate. In particular the debate that occurred on his blog on the atonement (sadly it's gone now since he removed comments from his blog although I think Peter Kirk saved them on his blog somewhere) was very thought provoking and I joined in a number of times. For me having grown up with Penal Substitutionary Atonement and belonging to the same church family as Adrian which wholeheartedly holds this view, it was somewhat unsettling to feel uneasy about the way some aspects have been presented and it caused me to go back to Scriptures (always good) and think afresh. I'm still working on the fruits of that labour. Over the year I've become the 37th leading referrer to his site which may indicate how often I've looked at his blog more than anything else.

Jeremy over at Make Wealth History writes an excellent blog and in so many ways does what I had hoped to do only he does it better. If you want provoking insight into our currently unsustainable lifestyles and ways to change that then reading his blog is a must. I always read his blog and regularly add his posts to the headline sidebar.

Matt Hosier is a new entrant to the world of blogging but if he keeps it up then you'll get a diverse and thoughtful perspective on many issues of faith and life.

There are others but those are blog friends and regular bloggers, so I'm looking forward to the journey continuing. No doubt I'll change the look again, I'm already feeling restless...