It is not unusual for me to encourage people who are struggling with purpose and direction. So many of us can get caught up in what feels like a rat race. We may feel like we are waking up every weekday to do the same old thing and in the same old place. Then we enjoy our weekend, go to church, and start it all again on Monday. Without purpose and perspective, it can all seem meaningless.  Read More

The joke is that pastors only work one hour a week... during the church service. I mean, what is a pastor supposed to do with all those other hours during the week? Well, these pastors got extremely creative with their work hours.  Read More

In case you missed it, the Christopher Nolan directed historical drama on J. Robert Oppenheimer's quest to build the Atomic bomb was a hit. And you may say... it blew up. Excluding Barbie and Spider-man, a drama on a 20th century theoretical physicist was the highest grossing movie of the summer. "Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived," Director Christopher Nolan contended to Time Magazine. "He made the world we live in, for better or for worse.”  Read More

In a college class I took about student ministry games, camps, and activities, they taught us about "True danger" and "Perceived danger."  Read More

Allie and I have opposite perspectives on time. I run on "clock-time" and she runs on "event-time." Clock-time means that when an event starts at 10 AM, you show up at 10 AM (If not earlier). Event-time is far less rigid. Event-time means certain events are completed during the day, but there is no set schedule or defined start or ending for them. The next event starts when the last one ends.  Read More

Do you know how blessed we are in New England during the summer? We might have one month of temperatures near or around 90º. But get this, there were some places in the U.S. yesterday that were over 100º! I don't mean Death Valley. I mean regular places where people live. With that in mind, I saw a friend from one of those regions recently post this meme. In New England, though, August signals the...  Read More

Olan is my fourth-born child and he is turning eight years old tomorrow It's true what they say, the days are long, but the years are short.  Read More

The first centuries of Christianity were hard, and Peter wrote his book to encourage Christians facing great difficulty. The earliest known account of this Christian suffering outside of the Scriptures is found in the second-century martyrdom of Polycarp.  Read More

You will have to pardon my lack of culture. I first heard this poem in connection with the hit TV show Breaking Bad. One of the final episodes of the show was titled: Ozymandias. To promote the episode Bryan Cranston, the star of the show, recited the poem with his terrifying interpretation.  Read More

I have been told my whole life that I look just like my mom: Kelly. There was more than once that people were stunned at how similar we looked. Admittedly, as a young man, that didn’t sit well with me. What 11-year-old wants to look like a girl?!  Read More

It's time to celebrate Arborway! This week we had our yearly basketball clinic. We call it Basketball Nights. Some churches do VBS (an old-school summer Bible camp), but we do Basketball Nights. It is hands down one of the most tiring weeks of the year for our staff and volunteers, but it is SO completely worth it.  Read More

The Patriots are a mess. This once perennial Super Bowl-contending team is now predicted to be last in their division. Within four years of Tom Brady's departure, the Patriots have absolutely fallen apart. When you hear this news, some of you don't care, some of you are giddy, and others, like me, are immensely sad.  Read More