My wife Allie loves to give gifts. Christmas time is one of her favorite seasons because she is very generous… sometimes I feel too generous. That’s because I'm a more reasonable gifter. She might say stingy, but I like saying reasonable. I know what I can spend, and I don’t even dream about extravagant gifts. While there is a balance to be had, I think Allie’s impulse is the godlier one.  Read More

If you’ve been around Arborway for any amount of time, you've probably realized that my wonderful wife is an amazing cook. There is no meal that we eat at the church that she does not contribute to. You may think that you’ve never tasted Allie’s food, but if you have attended on a Sunday morning, you probably have. Did you know that she wakes up at 6 AM and makes the donuts for church? And get this, she makes them from scratch.  Read More

When you are about to go through big changes, it’s nice to have an idea of what those changes will be. While most of life’s big changes are surprises, some are regular enough that people write books about them. Let me give you a few examples.  Read More

We've reached the final Sunday of 2024. This is a week affectionately referred to as “Youth pastor Sunday.” I’ll share a little more on that later. Hands down, 2024 was the most growth we have experienced as a church. So here, at the end of the year, I want to reflect on how God has grown Arborway in 2024. Let's look at it by the numbers.  Read More

Don’t judge me too hard for this. My wife thinks I’m ridiculous, but I’m done hiding it. One of my favorite Christmas movies is the live-action Grinch with Jim Carrey. I know, in a sea of Christmas classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol, liking the critically panned live-action Grinch is not very sophisticated of me.  Read More

I’m not sure what you did in the first half of June, but I definitely know what I did. Our whole family was glued to the TV watching the Celtics destroy the Dallas Mavericks in five games. Every game (except for game four) was a blast to watch. Watching Tatum, Brown, and Pritchard shred the Mavericks was a joy I didn’t know I needed. Luka and company really had no chance.  Read More

Have you ever walked into a room and felt invisible? Have you ever felt like a nobody? Today my wife talked to me about how in middle school and high school, she was always known as the sister to her older brother. Then when she switched middle schools hoping to finally make a name for herself, she was known as her younger sister’s sister.  Read More

Let me caveat this quick story by saying that my parents were amazing and sacrificed so much to make Christmas magical every year. We got almost everything we wanted (And more) for Christmas even though we were not well off. But in the particular year I’m about to discuss, my desires were a little bigger than their wallets.  Read More

Helen Keller’s life is an amazing story of overcoming great adversity and disadvantage. Yes, Hellen Keller is real. There is film footage of her available on YouTube. Stop with all that nonsense.  Read More

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