Some of the brattiest words I ever said to my mother left my mouth. My mom gave me the look and sternly shot back, “You're never going over to Jacob’s house again!” I sat in stunned silence as she continued, “Every time you go to his house you start acting just like him.” As I replayed in my mind what I had just said, I knew she was right.  Read More

In my final point of last week’s message, I mentioned an interesting reality of Christian friendship. Christian friendship is forever. As with the rest of the Christian life, our time on earth is practice for Heaven. That means we better learn how to get along here. You see, God is going to give us opportunities and test us at our obedience.  Read More

Recently, I audited the messages I’ve preached since we started Arborway a little over seven years ago. I have preached about 350 sermons equaling over 200 hours of content. In all those sermons, I have preached several times on romantic and marriage relationships, once on relationships with our co-workers, a few times on familial relationships, several times on church community, and of course, I speak every Sunday about our relationship with God.  Read More

Think different. This was a slogan actively used in Apple advertisements from 1997-2002.  Read More

Where I grew up there was practically only one mode of transportation: Car. In many places, there were not even sidewalks. That means if you walked or rode a bike you were forced to hug the yellow line and pray drivers would not run you over.  Read More

Last Sunday, we celebrated our church’s seventh anniversary. One of my dreams from the beginning of Arborway is that we would be a church that loved our neighbors. Early on, when I was first asked about the vision of Arborway, I described it as a church where each member was like a beacon of Christ’s light on their blocks.  Read More

So far I have really enjoyed The Art of Neighboring, and it sounds like a lot of you are benefitting from it as well. The material is so helpful, and from the response, I’d say it has been challenging and eye-opening for many.  Read More

Recently, Allie and I began using a new budgeting app. I like it for two reasons. First, it gamifies budgeting. Which makes budgeting more fun for my dopamine receptors. Second, and more importantly, it helps us budget every single dollar we earn. Every dollar has a name and a place. This may seem counterintuitive, but we even have spontaneity built into our budget.  Read More

Not many people know that I was an art minor in college, with an emphasis in graphite (Pencil drawings). I was always pretty good at drawing and art was an easy A for a little GPA boost.  Read More

Last night I found myself out with the family at about 6:30 PM. We were going to picnic at a local park and enjoy Boston's September weather. As enjoyable as that sounds, I was not very happy. I was, what you might call, a little hangry. I wanted to eat and I wanted it now And I did eat, eventually. I ate a wonderful sandwich prepared by Allie, and I was happy again.  Read More

I am honestly one of the most forgetful people you will meet. I don't mean that I can't memorize things. If I put my mind to it, I can memorize as well as the average person. I mean that I will be told to do something, and then five minutes later I cannot remember what I was told. I don't mean to be that way. Honestly, I'm sorry that I am that way. It's just who I am.  Read More

I'm going to tell you about a part of my life I don't talk about a lot. I used to race go-karts. And I don't mean the kind you might find outside a local arcade. I mean real racing go-karts. At the age of 10, I would race go-karts that would go interstate speeds. I both loved it and was terrified by it.  Read More