BLANCHESTER, Ohio (BP) — Tom Leach has a shirt that says, “I never met my hero, but they live inside me.”  It testifies to his calling to preach the gospel, but also to a stranger who fills his lungs to proclaim that message.

In the spring of 2021, Leach walked into his home in Blanchester, Ohio, where he is also pastor of Faith Baptist Church. It was evening, and he had been cleaning out the chicken coop.

Coughing isn’t unusual following such a chore, but Leach had a fit of it that wouldn’t stop. His wife, Kathy, grew concerned and soon thereafter, they visited a specialist in Cincinnati. Tests revealed the need for a lung transplant.

“I’m one of those types who doesn’t go to the doctor much,” said Leach. “At the time, they didn’t say I needed a double lung transplant, but they said it was getting pretty bad.”

The specialist diagnosed emphysema. Further tests by doctors at Ohio State University said damage mainly came from Leach’s habit of not wearing a mask as he did things like metalwork, wielding and painting.

Within a year, his lung function dropped from 60% to 35%. That number plummeted to 8% over the next six months.

“I just fell off a cliff,” said Leech. “I went on oxygen and during my final breathing test, I learned that I would need new lungs, and soon.”

He went on the transplant list at the beginning of March 2024.

Number 7

Zach Doran was the kind of kid whose lungs were constantly working.

A football star for Mustang (Okla.) High School, he was a fierce competitor who also loved dancing and karaoke. Doran was active at Together We Church in Yukon and had been a regular at Fellowship of Christian Athletes camps for years.

He was also serious about MMA training. On March 3, 2024, just months before graduation, Doran collapsed from a cardiac event while sparring at an MMA gym. Doctors placed him in a coma for his recovery, but Doran died at 10:57 p.m. on March 13.

His death reverberated through the community and beyond. Jason Doran, Zach’s father and a football coach at Mustang High, said about 1,1000 attended the celebration of life at Together We Church while 2,000 watched online from 38 states and six countries.

Zach wore number 7 for Mustang High and loved its symbolism of completeness in God’s design. He was also an organ donor who blessed seven recipients. One of those was Tom Leach.

Tent church

Leach grew up the son of a Southern Baptist pastor, but most of his adult life didn’t reflect it.

His testimony includes a time when he and his wife were considered the “ma and pa” of adult online entertainment, investing in websites just as the industry’s growth coincided with that of the internet. It became incredibly lucrative, and they didn’t even have to leave their Dayton suburb for Los Angeles or Hollywood.

One day the couple was driving in Leach’s truck. AC/DC’s song about … destinations, if you’re familiar, was playing. Leach says he heard a different voice that didn’t mention a highway, but it did call him to come home.

“I turned the radio off and told Tracy we needed to reach my sister and find out what time church started on Sunday,” he said.

Conviction didn’t happen all at once. He stopped allowing new content on the sites but didn’t turn them off. Continued Bible study convinced him to shut those down, but everything was placed on servers that were then stored in his basement.

“If this Jesus thing doesn’t work out, at least I’ve got this to come back to,” he said of his way of thinking at that time.

People came offering to buy the servers and their images.

“Big money, millions,” he said. “But I told them I wasn’t going to do that. Then the Lord got a hold of me again, and I had the servers erased.”

Leach, who now has a successful business in coating and customizing guns, decided alongside Kathy that they wanted to downsize their home. They originally planned to move to Tennessee, but a house in Blanchester, closer to his family, suddenly became available.

“We pulled into the driveway and Tracy said, ‘Look, there’s a little church right there in the front yard,’” said Leach. “I thought that was kind of interesting.”

After making the offer on the house and it was accepted, Leach called his mom to tell her. He also mentioned the church next door. Leach had been in the church before, she told him.

Always working

Kenneth Leach, Tom’s dad, served as the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in South Lebanon, Ohio. In 1970, he oversaw the planting of Faith Baptist, the church near Tom’s house, and preached the first message when the congregation met under a tent.

“It came back to me,” said Tom. “I was a kid, but I remembered the tent church. It blew my mind and reminded me how God puts us in the right place.”

He and Tracy began attending. In late 2018, the pastor at the time announced he was retiring and the church may be closing down soon. Membership was in the single digits.

“The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of the church saying we weren’t going to close the doors and I would preach for no salary,” said Leach. “I started in January 2019 as the pastor.”

The church averaged 50 in worship attendance in 2024 and reported three baptisms. Giving for missions through the Cooperative Program has grown from just over 1% in 2019 to 9.37% last year.

Leach always liked the number seven. He tried to convince others of it as a name for one of his grandchildren, to no avail. The connection to Doran wasn’t lost on one of Leach’s daughters.

“She called me and said, ‘Well, Dad, now you have seven living inside of you.’

“I’m just a guy preaching the Word,” said Leach. “God places people in certain times in others’ lives and he’s the master jigsaw puzzle worker. You just have to trust what he’s doing in the background of your life.

“Whatever you’re dealing with, whatever you’re going through, he’s always working.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)