Top 10 Highlights of Our First Year in Boston

On August 14, 2017, Emily and I took our last one-way flight from Charlotte, NC to Boston, MA. Now, we celebrate one full year in Boston! We couldn’t be more excited to call this city our home and we look forward to the many years ahead here! God has done a great deal in us personally and through ministry opportunities here so we created a list of our top 10 highlights from this past year. It is our hope that you will read the below highlights and celebrate with us over all that God has done!

1.  Four New Community Groups

In one year, we have had the privilege of launching four new community groups in the Brighton area. Two of these groups meet on Boston College’s campus and are student-led. One of the groups is a mix of college and graduate students as well as young marrieds that meets in our home every week. And the last group we began is made up entirely of our church planting launch team families to prepare and equip us for starting a new church in Brighton next year! In these Community Groups, we discuss the sermon, dive into Bible passages, talk through theological principles, develop friendships, disciple one another, relate the gospel to everyday life, share the good news of Jesus with each other, pray together, eat a meal together, and so much more. These groups are truly a vital part of the Christian life here in Boston!

2.  Movie Night in Brighton Common

When Emily and I first planned our movie night in the park, we prayed for 75 people to attend from the neighborhood. Our friends and many of the church staff and members came alongside to support us in the planning and preparation, including set-up and advertising the event. This was going to be our very first event hosted by our church plant, City on a Hill Church in Brighton. This night greatly exceeded our expectations! Not only did over 300 people show up to our event, but we also had personal conversations with many about attending our church and about the gospel. To this day, we still meet frequently with a family from that night to have faith conversations and they now regularly attend City on a Hill Church. God is certainly good in how He brings people together.

3.  Apartment/Community Gatherings

Meeting our neighbors and spending time with them has been one of our favorite things to do this past year. We have held nine community events for our particular apartment complex by hosting Friendsgiving, game nights, a Christmas party, July 4th cookout and more. Many of our neighbors have been coming to each of these events since our first one held in September 2017. Through these events, our neighbors have become our friends and we are thankful for the immediate community we have built here in this complex.

4.  Preaching Opportunities

I’ve mentioned previously that Boston has a brotherhood of church planters. Picture a band of brothers with the same vision and same goal making active strides within their specific group of people to further the good news of Jesus. Because of the Kingdom of God perspective (rather than building a personal kingdom of a single church), the brotherhood of church planters greatly leans upon one another. We depend on each other for counsel, guidance, resources, time, missional opportunities, and even times to fill a pulpit. I have had the privilege of preaching eight times at five different local churches in the metro Boston area within the past year. The brotherhood of fellow planters has been one of the greatest blessings for Emily and I as we all pursue God’s Kingdom in Boston!

5.  Volunteer Teams

This past year has been filled with 11 volunteer teams coming to support the ministry happening here in Boston. That is almost one volunteer team per month! Our partner churches have been extremely supportive in sending people and resources to help us accomplish the mission of spreading the good news of Jesus by loving our neighbors and city well. These volunteer teams helped with community events, block parties, prayer walks, service projects for schools and non-profits, and shared the truth, love, and hope of Jesus. Needless to say, we would not have been able to do all that we did this past year without their help!

6.  College Ministry at Boston College

Boston College is just a mile away from us and has almost 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students. There is huge opportunity for the good news of Jesus to be shared on this campus. Emily and I have built a partnership with a campus ministry, which allowed us to host an evangelistic event at Boston College called The God Question. This event had close to 60 students each night that heard the good news of Jesus through answering questions like “If God is good, then why is there evil, pain, and suffering in the world?”. The God Question was a great opportunity to speak individually to students about their current beliefs and their thoughts on God. Not only was the event a success, but we also got to share the gospel numerous times with students while advertising beforehand through a proxy station on campus. We also got to know some Boston College students by inviting them to our Community Group and to City on a Hill Church. Emily and I continue to pray for God to make Himself known on that campus in the hearts of the students who attend there!

7.  Shelby’s Baptism

Emily and I jumped right into ministry when we moved to Boston. In fact, I started my residency at City on a Hill Church the day after we landed in Boston. This gave the both of us the opportunity to quickly meet new college students coming back for the 2017-2018 school year. Just a few short weeks after moving, we met a Boston College junior named Shelby. We learned that Shelby not only went to the college that was less than a mile from our apartment, but also lived directly across the street from us. From the time we met Shelby, she became an integral part of our Community Group and eventually our lives. We had the opportunity to have numerous gospel conversations with Shelby to talk about her faith. Shelby communicated to us her faith in Jesus and subsequent desire to be baptized and on June 3, that’s just what we did. Her baptism was a testimony to God’s grace in her life through her belief in Jesus alone and it was beautiful to see! Shelby has now brought friends to church as well as to Community Group and has helped to further the mission of Jesus in Brighton. Emily and I have been blessed to have Shelby as a personal close friend who is now a genuine part of our family as she spends time with us almost daily in our home and in our lives. We are thankful to call Shelby our family, but more importantly, our sister in Christ.

8.  Foster Care and Adoption

This past year has been a whirlwind for us personally after we became parents to a one-year-old little girl. Emily and I felt called to foster as well as to adopt because of our adoption into God’s family through Jesus. We have a safe and loving home and desired to share that with children in need of stability and permanence. We felt this desire to be foster parents before leaving North Carolina but were unable to pursue this avenue until after we moved knowing it would not be fair to any foster children in our home if we disrupted their placement by moving to Boston. So, we waited. And we are so thankful for God’s timing in the midst of our waiting! Shortly after moving to Boston, Emily and I filled out paperwork to become licensed foster parents. We got approval to begin our training classes in the next session which began in January. By March, we were finished with classes and almost done with our home studies (things were moving quickly!). By May, we became full-time foster parents. However, God’s timing was certainly perfect in that on November 3, even before we started our training classes, we met a little girl (we’ll call her baby K) through a friend of a friend. Since the start of November, Emily and I have actively pursued this little girl to be in our home as our foster daughter and, prayerfully one day, as a part of our forever family. After a lot of uncertainty, fear, and worry, we got the call on July 26 that baby K’s case was finished in court and that the judge ruled in our favor so that we could move towards adoption! There are still a lot of pieces that must fall into place, but we are beyond thrilled to take steps in bringing baby K into our home permanently. We look forward to one day soon introducing her to you!

9.  Our Launch Team

It takes an entire team to start a new church and we are very lucky to have great teammates alongside of us! Our final two launch team families moved at the beginning of this month. The core/launch team for our Brighton church plant is comprised of 9 different family units, including ourselves, with 16 adults and 7 kids. Part of our launch team consists of families that moved to Boston from North Carolina to specifically help with the church plant and the other part consists of dedicated families here in Boston that were already a part of City on a Hill Church and are joining us to further the mission in Brighton. These people have become our Boston family. We eat meals, run errands, throw parties, pray, read the Bible, have gospel conversations, and simply live life together. The community we have in Boston has changed our lives in how we view the good news of Jesus in the family of God. We wouldn’t want to live any other way.

10.  Much More to Come!

This may not seem like a highlight from this past year, however, Emily and I are still extremely excited about all that is ahead. We have truly been amazed at God’s working here in Boston. In the next two months, we will begin paperwork for baby K’s adoption, move in neighbors for The Big Move (September 1st turnover), host another Movie in the Park in Brighton Common, have a house party for our fellow neighbors including those in our complex, and So. Much. More. We may be a year in, but we have so much further to go and we couldn’t be more excited. We are deeply thankful for you and your partnership with us, even in simply reading this post. Please pray alongside of us for the good news of Jesus to change hearts and shape lives in Boston in the coming years.

A 4 Month Reflection

Aaron and I recently visited home in Charlotte, NC for a wedding and for the week of Thanksgiving. While home, our Hickory Grove church family was so good to continually check on us. “How is Boston?!” was the prevailing question. Every time I gave the simple truth: Boston is a ton of fun, Aaron and I love the city and its people, and we are learning a lot in this new culture!

Over the past four months of living in this new-to-us city, Aaron and I have indeed learned a lot. A lot about ourselves, a lot about dependency on God, a lot about our marriage, a lot about people and how to reach them with the gospel.

And in the past 4 months, I have learned several big things about Boston:

1.   People are willing to have a spiritual conversation.

Everyone believes something and while Protestant Christianity is not the claimed religion by the majority here in Boston, many are willing to speak about where they stand spiritually. Aaron went to a local museum in our neighborhood a few weeks ago and struck up a conversation with his volunteer guide, a woman who had lived in Brighton for 70 years. She knew the people of Brighton and the many changes over the decades, including how open or closed the culture is to spiritual things. Aaron was able to speak with her for a couple of hours, share the gospel explicitly, and made a time to continue the conversation again in the future. We plan to see her this Friday to further build the relationship.

So, whether you are in Boston or in North Carolina, take a chance, share the gospel, be bold for Christ. Trust the Spirit to work in any and all situations.

2.   People are sometimes reserved, but always friendly and kind.

People in Boston would say that New Yorkers give them a bad name for being rude and unfriendly because everyone lumps New Englanders into the same category. Aaron and I have found the opposite to be true. We walk our dog regularly and, without fail, we strike up a conversation on the street with someone in our neighborhood. One afternoon in the fall we took our dog Charlie to the park and spoke for 30 minutes with one of the local neighbors who currently lives in the house he grew up in. And any time we call for a ride somewhere via Uber or Lyft, almost every single driver openly talks with us about their lives and where they are at spiritually.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:35

3.   City living is nothing like I expected it to be.

Brighton is just one of 23 “neighborhoods”/towns within Boston’s city limits. Within each of these neighborhoods are thousands upon thousands of people. In Brighton alone are 44,000 people in less than 4 square miles. Even so, we love this neighborhood! It feels like a small town within the big city. There’s Brighton Common for local concerts held in the open square. There’s Jim’s Deli where local firemen and police officers eat lunch during the week. There’s Abbott’s ice cream on the corner of Washington and Chestnut Hill that makes fresh ice cream every day. There’s Business Trick or Treat where small businesses on Brighton’s main streets open their doors to families and pass out candy. In this city life, there are a ton of people, but also an unending source of potential for community, unity, and love for others.

The North American Mission Board says this about cities on their website: "It's been said if you reach the cities, you'll reach the nations. With 83% of the population now living in metropolitan areas, the major population centers in North America are vital mission fields for kingdom growth and influence."

We look forward to the many months and years ahead as we learn more about this wonderful city we are in and as we grow more in love with this place and its people. We are certainly praying for gospel revival here and are eager to see how the Lord will move!

We're Here...Now What? Part 2

Last month Emily and I focused on how we are planning to reach the college students in our area. (If you haven’t read it yet, check it out!) This month we will look at our strategy to specifically reach our neighbors.

Our prayer is to help our neighbors find and follow Jesus.

As of September 1, Emily and I moved into our apartment at Colborne Place in Brighton, MA. There are 28 units in total and approximately 50-70 people in the overall complex. We believe that God has placed us in this very complex to be on mission, love our neighbors, and serve the community around us. Through Jesus, we have been brought into the family of Christ, so how much more should we invite others into our family? Emily and I pray that we will be an overflow of the love, grace, and family that God offers us through His Son.

To display the love of Christ and invite them into our home, we plan to reach our neighbors through two specific ways:

1.       Monthly Apartment-Wide Events

Emily and I hosted our first apartment-wide event the weekend we moved in. We had a cook-out and cornhole tournament where we met 16 of our neighbors! The overall excitement from the group was a great indicator that community is something that each of our neighbors is looking for. Loneliness and isolation are epidemic in the Boston area so we are excited to build a culture of community and friendship with those that live immediately around us.

We will continue doing these monthly outreaches:

·       October: Pumpkin Carving and Apple Cider

·       November: Friends-giving

·       December: Secret Santa/Christmas Party

·       January: New Year’s Celebration

We pray that community will be fostered and that Christ will be made known through our display of love and truth in our friendships, our home, and these monthly apartment outreaches.

2.       Outreach to the Brighton Community

Brighton is a neighborhood of Boston proper with 44,000 people in less than 3 square miles. While there are a ton of people, it has a small town feel to it. Just yesterday we went to the park with our dog and struck up a conversation with a man whose family has lived on the same street in Boston for almost 60 years.

We plan to reach the community through hosting:

·       Movie nights in the park (Rogers Park and Chestnut Hill Reservoir)

·       Game and sports tournaments (ultimate frisbee, cornhole, flag football, etc.)

·       Regularly visiting and recommending the same restaurants, cafes and shops

·       Serving local schools (for example, Brighton High) and the local YMCA

·       Serve the Brighton branches of Boston’s Public Housing Authority

Emily and I truly desire to use the avenues that are already in place to make the name of Jesus great among our neighbors and among the community of Brighton.

Ultimately, our goal is to help our neighbors find and follow Jesus.

However, regardless of whether our neighbors and community come to know Christ or not does not determine our love or service to them. We will serve, love, and invite our neighbors into our home regardless of their faith determination because we can be an extension of the unending love Christ has given to us.

We're Here...Now What? Part 1

Now What?

Emily and I just arrived to Boston this past Monday and there is a LOT to do. So, now what?

It helps to break down our ministry plan into measurable goals and this blog post will specifically focus on our strategy to reach college students. (Stay tuned for next month’s blog post “Now What?: Part 2,” which will focus on reaching our neighborhood and apartment.)

There are over 250,000 college students in Boston. That’s 250,000 gospel opportunities spanning over 150 different nationalities. If we reach them, we can reach this city, the nation, and the world for Christ.

Our overall vision for college ministry in Boston is to:

Make, mature, and multiply disciples at Boston College and Boston University.

To accomplish that vision, we have 5 goals plus a few examples for each:

1.       Launch fall plan and schedule for college ministry

• August:
  • Boston College move-in on August 23 and 25 (first year and returning students)
  • Meet college students connected with City on a Hill church
• September:
  • Start a College Community Group that will meet each week at our apartment
  • Monthly outreach gatherings: Cook-outs, movie nights, game nights, etc.
  • Boston University move-in on September 2
• October - December: 
  • Community Group each week at our apartment
  • Thanksgiving dinner specifically for international students
  • Christmas party

2.      Establish a leadership pipeline for college ministry

• Create a mentoring process for church members to invest in college students
• Systematically disciple students and plug them into the new college community group

3.       Partner with campus ministry staff (IV, Cru, Bridges, and FCA)

• Meet with campus staff and attend campus meetings
• Assist in campus ministry initiatives

4.       Build discipling relationships with Christian college students

• Meals and coffee on campus and at our home
• Study parties on campus and at our home

5.       Outreach to non-Christians on campus

• New Student Outreach Week through IV and Cru
• Partner with campus ministries, including movie nights, game nights, and care packages
• Meals and coffee on campus or at our home with students we meet through on campus outreach

Be praying for these opportunities as we seek to further the gospel mission in Boston among college students in connection with City on a Hill church. Emily and I are praying that by God's grace we can make, mature, and multiple disciples at Boston College and Boston University.

Launch Team

what is a launch team?

And why do we need one?

If you've wondered about either of the above questions, that's okay! Emily and I always enjoy discussing our current thoughts on church planting and Christian living and greatly enjoy learning from others' views and experiences.

We believe that God saved us to send us. Emily and I are extremely excited about moving to Boston, but we also have no desire to do this alone! In fact, we don't believe that would be wise or the most biblical approach in church planting. All throughout Scripture we see men and women serving the Lord in community with other believers and we want to follow that biblical model portrayed to us once we move to Boston. A Launch Team is a team of missionary servants who commit 1–2 years to living in Boston who use their jobs, resources, and relationships to advance the Gospel.

Our team plans to accomplish this through a three prong strategy that we expect our Launch Team to be fully invested in:

1. Life on life: Our Launch Team, including Emily and I, will be expected to share their lives with one another. There are so many "one another's" in Scripture that we have the opportunity to implement in our lives through our love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Because of this bond, we desire to spend time with each other in our relationship, normal rhythms of life.

2. Life in community: Our Launch Team, including Emily and I, will be expected to live their lives in community with all other believers. The world should know the Lord through our love for one another as a church as a whole. For example, our vision trip team was able to attend a church-wide picnic held by our partner church in Boston. That picnic was a great example of life in community as those from Hickory Grove were able to learn from, encourage, share with, and pray over other believers from a different congregation in a different city. 

3. Life on mission: Our Launch Team, including Emily and I, will be expected to live as an ambassador, a "sent one", of God. Because of Christ, believers carry a life-changing message and we have the privilege and responsibility to share that message of the gospel with unbelievers in our daily lives. We must live our lives intentionally seeking opportunities to tell others about Jesus Christ by living on mission at the grocery store, in the workforce, at the gym, and any other place that Lord has us.

Boston doesn't need people in its city. Boston needs more people that are willing to use whatever platform they have in order to advance the gospel for the glory of God. And that is the purpose of a Launch Team: to ultimately help our new church plant by individually and corporately advancing the gospel through their everyday lives.

Our Vision

What is Our Vision?

Emily and I believe that the gospel changes everything. Our vision is for our church to be a family of missionary servants.

Family: As believers, we are all part of the family of God as His children as found in Ephesians 1. Because of that, we should care for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Just like a family, we should be part of one another's daily lives by sharing meals, working alongside each other, and generally living our lives side by side. We should encourage one another, pray together, cry and laugh together, and ultimately love each other as people adopted by the same Father. Family guards each other from sin and works together in times of need. A family lives life in community. We believe the gospel makes us a family.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
- John 13:34–35

Missionary: Christ came to seek and save the lost as it says in Luke 19:10. We are commanded as God's children to follow the same mission that Christ portrayed for us. Jesus Christ was the ultimate missionary by coming to Earth to save sinners through His perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection. Believers have the honor and privilege to serve in the same mission by sharing the love of Jesus with everyone we come into contact with. Believers are empowered by the Holy Spirit to "seek and save the lost" with the message of the gospel. We have the opportunity to invite unbelievers into the normal rhythms of our lives with gospel intentionality. We believe the gospel makes us missionaries.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
- Matthew 28:18–20

Servant: In Philippians 2, we see that Jesus was a perfect picture of a servant when He willingly was obedient to the Father, even to the point of death on a cross. This picture should then push us to live similarly, humbly laying down our lives for the sake of others. We can do this through service to the church, the community, our families, our friends, and so many other avenues. We serve as Christ served us: joyfully, willingly, and unconditionally. We the gospel makes us servants.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- Romans 5:8

Emily and I pray that the Spirit would continue to refine our lives to model the characteristics of Christ, specifically as we seek to be a family of missionary servants. No matter where you are and in what context, we should always be asking ourselves, how can I live with gospel intentionality?

- Aaron & Emily

Our Story

Many people have asked Emily and I, Why Boston? The Lord brought us to this point through a process that actually started in 2013, shortly after we were married.

I felt a call from God to go plant a church. I saw the distinct need of gospel-centered churches through the information provided by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and we wanted to be a part of a gospel movement in a city that was far from God. That is our desire: to see people far from God come to faith in Jesus Christ.

We couldn’t shake the overwhelming number of cities in the Northeast that needed more gospel influence. More churches. More Christians.

Ultimately, Emily and I came to the same conclusion as many before us and as many will after us: we had to go. So, we began to pray. We didn’t know the specific direction or place, but we eventually narrowed down our desire to the Northeast region.

We were naturally drawn to Boston. We couldn’t ignore the demographics of the city:

• 5.8 million people in the metro Boston area
• Only 3% evangelical (if that)
• 250,000 college students at over 80 universities and colleges
• 150 nationalities represented

I went to a Catch the Vision tour offered by NAMB to scope out the area. Up until this point, neither Emily nor I had recently been to Boston. Within a day or two of the tour, I remember sending Emily a text saying, “This is it.” “We need to get you up here to see the city.” Seeing the need, meeting the network of church planters, and hearing their vision for the city, that’s when we knew: Boston would be our new home. Boston would be the place where we would do ministry. Boston is where we, prayerfully, will see great life change through the gospel. “This is it.”

We contacted NAMB and began the many hours of paperwork, questionnaires, interviews, and assessments. After being accepted as approved church planters within the NAMB network, Emily and I began preparations for fundraising, building a launch team, and packing up our lives to move.

We grew in our love for the city and the pieces of Boston that make the city so unique:

• The density of people in such a small area = A massive opportunity for outreach and community
• The high quantity of college students
  • If we share the love of Christ with these students, what’s to say they won’t end up across the nation or around the globe sharing their faith in Jesus Christ?
• The strong representation of the nations
  • What if people of all nations living in Boston came to know the Lord? What if they then communicated to those within their home country to share the gospel? That believer is now a missionary to their home context.
• The history of the city
  • Boston points to a long-lost foundation in Christianity. We believe that another Great Awakening could happen there and we desire to personally see it happen.

So, even when we ask ourselves, Why Boston?, we always go back to our overly simplistic answer: We love this city.