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.