Aaron Armstrong's Blog

2025 is officially halfway through, and it’s been… well, it’s been a lot, hasn’t it? While I’m sure we all have thoughts and feelings on it all, I wanted to share a quick life and ministry update.

As I shared elsewhere, it’s been a challenging season for our family. As much as I wish I could say, “But it’s all better now and here’s what God was doing,” the truth is, it’s not all that much better. The hard parts are still really hard. It’s hard to see what...

Depending on what part of the world you’re living in, the summer schedule is either just kicking off or you’re in the thick of it. Whatever the case, there’s a good chance you’ll have some reading time available over the weeks ahead. But what should you read? I’d like to help with that. While I’m always tempted to overwhelm people with reading recommendations, I want to suggest three different books (and maybe one extra) for you to read between now and the end of August.

My Friends by Fredr...

Another Father’s Day has come and gone. I don’t know how this one was for you. People have complicated feelings around their parents, and how they’re doing as parents.

Many of us fathers feel like failures.

We look at families in our churches and in posts on social media—families that seem to be thriving in Jesus—and we love them. But we also can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. After all, despite all the books and podcasts, family discipleship never really came together in a consiste...

Back in college, long before I became a Christian, I worked in a bookstore. It was one of my favorite jobs, despite the pain the lights caused, and constantly being overstimulated by noise and interacting with people. Why? Because I was around books all the time, and I had coworkers I liked. It’s hard to beat that.

One of my coworkers was a young man, a few years younger than me. We’d gotten to be friends. Over time, he shared that he was gay, and it had been difficult for his family to unde...

Church still feels a bit strange every week. It’s been nearly nine months since the last service at Refuge Church. Nine months is a long time. Yet it’s not, especially compared to the more than seven years we called it home.

It didn’t take us long to find a place to land, which is something I’m grateful for. A good friend, the pastor of the church we’re attending, knew our church’s story and encouraged us to come. No pressure to do anything—just be.

Although we visited a couple of other...

It’s official: My new book releases today!

Faith Simplified: What We Believe and Why We Believe It invites the curious, questioning, and committed to discover the truths that make Christians Christian alongside someone who has been in their shoes. In this book, we look at all the big stuff together—who (and what) God is, what we believe about the Bible, the existence of good and evil, angels and demons, what makes a person a person, how Jesus can be God and human, and so much more—to see th...

2025 brings another life milestone, with our eldest child graduating from high school. We’re excited for our hardworking big kid, who gets to embark on a new journey in the fall as she begins college. Fellow parents, you know all the feels I’m feeling. I’m sure you’re feeling them to—or you will be soon if your kids are a bit younger than mine.

But all the feelings have had me thinking about what I’d love, not only her, but all graduates to know. So with that in mind, here are a few things ...

My next book, Faith Simplified: What We Believe and Why We Believe It, releases on May 20th. Today, I’m sharing book’s foreword, written by my friend Trevin Wax.

Whenever I see a book that promises to lay out the basics of Christianity or present the big story of the Bible. I become immediately curious. There are countless ways to tell the “old, old story.” So I begin to wonder: How is this author going to sum up the Bible? What themes will they choose to emphasize? How will they handle...

One of the areas of study I continually come back to is church history. My collection of history books is always growing (partly because there’s always more story to tell). But there are some volumes I keep coming back to. One of those, is Church History in Plain Language.1

Years ago, I remember reading about the events of the Catholic Reformation, itself a response to what we know today as the Protestant Reformation. it was in that era that Ignatius of Loyola founded the society of monks we...

Did you know that I can hear people chewing across a crowded room? It’s true. And irritating. I can hear lights and electrical currents, too. When I’m in social situations for too long, my ability to speak becomes severely impaired for hours afterward. I can quickly see the outcome of different choices and decisions, which can be a good thing—but has also landed me in trouble more than once.

I’ve spent my entire life dealing with these issues. But I never really knew why I had to at all. It ...