Faith
Following Jesus.
Christianity isn’t one of my interests. It’s the foundation everything else is built on.
Christian before anything else
Before I’m an entrepreneur, a writer, or anything else, I’m a Christian. The Word of God is the lens through which I try to understand the world, make decisions, and order my life.
Jesus is the ultimate why behind how I want to live. That means there is always more room to grow in obedience, character, love, service, and becoming more like Him.
How it shapes my life
My faith shapes the way I think about work, leadership, ambition, money, family, service, discipline, and the things I build.
I believe work matters. Excellence matters. Discipline matters. Building useful things matters. But none of those things are supposed to become ultimate things.
Following Jesus comes first.
Faith & work
I don’t see faith and work as separate things.
Avodah is a principle I try to live by. For me, work, worship, and service belong together.
I want the businesses I build to genuinely serve people. And while I want them to grow, their ultimate purpose is bigger than growth for its own sake. I want the time and freedom they create to give me greater capacity to serve God, serve people, and make disciples.
Avodah Collective
Avodah Collective is another place where my faith intersects with what I build.
It’s an invite-only community for Christian entrepreneurs who want to master their craft, build excellent things, serve people well, and do business in a way that reflects their faith.
I don’t believe business, ambition, or earning money are inherently opposed to following Jesus. The deeper question is what we love, why we build, and what our work is ultimately for.
The goal isn’t to make business success a measure of faithfulness. It’s to pursue excellent work without making money, growth, or success our god.
Why I started Acts House
I started Acts House because I didn’t want to only talk about what the church in Acts was like. I wanted to pursue being that kind of church.
I wanted greater intimacy in Christian community, a place where people genuinely know one another and grow together.
And I want to see the family flourish according to God’s design. I want marriages, parents, children, and households brought increasingly under God’s teaching and shaped by it.
Acts House is our attempt to pursue those things together.
It’s also where much of my church and ministry work lives: one of the places where faith becomes practical through community, serving, teaching, encouragement, and helping people follow Jesus together.
Stewardship & discipline
My faith has also changed the way I think about health and physical discipline.
Running started as part of losing weight, but over time I began thinking more seriously about stewardship, self-control, endurance, and what it means to take responsibility for the body and life I’ve been given.
I don’t think physical fitness is a measure of spiritual maturity. But for me, learning to practice discipline physically has become connected to the broader way I think about stewardship and endurance as a Christian.
What I believe
Summarized from the Acts House Statement of Faith.
Read the full Statement of Faith- The Scriptures
The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God.
Scripture is true, trustworthy, and authoritative and is our final authority for doctrine, faith, conduct, and the life of the Church.
- The Triune God
There is one true and living God, eternally existing as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; yet there is one God.
- God the Father
God the Father is Creator and sovereign Lord over all things.
Through Jesus Christ, those who believe are adopted into God’s family and may know God not merely as Creator and Lord, but as Father.
- Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a completely sinless life and perfectly revealed the Father.
Jesus willingly died on the cross for our sins, bearing the judgment sinners deserved. He was buried and bodily rose from the dead on the third day, defeating sin and death.
He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, intercedes for His people, reigns as Lord, and will personally return.
Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation and the only mediator between God and humanity.
- The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is fully God and personally active in the lives of God’s people.
He brings about new birth, indwells believers, teaches, guides, sanctifies, comforts, empowers, and produces spiritual fruit within God’s people.
- Humanity and sin
Every human being is created in the image of God and therefore possesses inherent dignity and value.
Every person has sinned and falls short of God’s glory.
Our greatest need is reconciliation with God.
- The gospel and salvation
The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures.
Salvation is entirely a gift of God’s grace and cannot be earned through human works.
We are saved by grace through faith for good works, not by good works.
- The Christian life
Salvation produces a new life.
Good works do not purchase salvation; they are the fruit of genuine faith.
- The Church
Everyone who belongs to Christ is part of His body, the Church, of which Jesus Christ is the Head.
Christians were never intended to follow Jesus in isolation.
- Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Jesus commanded His disciples to practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Neither baptism nor the Lord’s Supper earns salvation. Salvation is received by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
- Marriage and family
Marriage and family were designed by God and are foundational institutions for human flourishing, discipleship, and healthy churches.
Marriage was established by God as a covenant union between one man and one woman.
- The mission of the Church
Jesus Christ has commissioned His Church to make disciples of all nations.
Every Christian is called to participate in God’s mission by bearing witness to Jesus through both word and life.
- Christ’s return
Jesus Christ will personally return.
There will be a bodily resurrection of the dead and final judgment before God.
Those who belong to Christ will enjoy eternal life in God’s presence, while those who remain outside of Christ will face God’s righteous judgment.
God will ultimately make all things new, and His people will dwell with Him forever.
Soli Deo gloria.