Raising Arrows

Send us Fan Mail Last night I asked my wife if she’d ever resented me. She said “Oh, yeah” before I even finished the question. In this episode of Raising Arrows, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart get honest about resentment, the quiet thing that can build in a marriage for years before anyone says a word. Connor shares what Hailey finally told him about the season she was pregnant with Beau....

Send us Fan Mail Nobody hands you a manual when your first baby arrives. You just figure it out, usually by getting it wrong first. In this episode, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart get honest about the mistakes they made as new dads and the advice they wish someone had given them before day one. If a buddy told you he was expecting his first kid, what would you tell him? For Connor and Scott...

Send us Fan Mail I never thought about walking out on my family. But there was a season when I mentally checked out, and I was still sitting at the dinner table every night. In this episode, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart sit down with Galatians 6:9: “Do not grow weary in doing good, for in due season you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.” Connor shares the season that almost broke...

Send us Fan Mail You got the raise. The number went up. So why does it still feel like it’s never enough? In this episode, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart get honest about money: what it reveals about our hearts, why lifestyle creep sneaks up on even well-meaning families, and how to tell if you’re chasing more for the right reasons. Connor opens up about his own struggle with impulse spendi...

Send us Fan Mail Preschool waitlists. Which sport they'll play. Whether they know their colors yet. As dads, it's easy to get so focused on what our kids will do that we forget to focus on who they're becoming. And honestly, the same thing happens with us. In this episode of Raising Arrows, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart dig into Proverbs 22:1: "A good name is more desir...

Send us Fan Mail A few years ago, Connor was spending hours at the gym just to avoid going home. His company had just been sold, he didn't know what was next, and his wife Hailey had a peace and joy he couldn't match. She was going to church alone. He was convinced he could figure it out on his own. Then he walked into a service, sat in the back, and everything changed. In this episode o...

Send us Fan Mail An affair doesn't start with a kiss. It starts with a thousand small yeses nobody else sees. In this episode, Connor and Pastor Scott have an honest conversation about one of the most sensitive topics in marriage: guarding your eyes. Anchored in Job 31:1, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman," they talk about how temptation has beco...

Send us Fan Mail Ask the Pastor: How Do We Actually Release Control? Letting go of control, sounds simple until you're the one white-knuckling your way through a situation that feels totally out of your hands. In this episode of Ask the Pastor, we tackle one of the questions every Christian wrestles with at some point: what does "releasing control" actually look like day to day? Pas...

Send us Fan Mail Ever seen a friend's highlight reel and thought, "Their life just looks easier than mine"? You're not alone — and you're not crazy. In this episode, Connor and Scott break down the comparison trap: the sneaky cycle of seeing what someone else has (the pool, the vacation, the "together" marriage) and starting to believe something's wrong with...

Send us Fan Mail We thought adding a second kid would just mean more of the same — a little more chaos, a little less sleep. We were wrong. It didn't add to our plate. It multiplied it. In this episode, Connor sits down with Pastor Scott Stewart to talk honestly about the leap from one kid to two — and the ways it exposed selfish habits Connor didn't even know he still had. They dig into...

Send us Fan Mail Worship isn't just what we sing on Sunday — it's every yes we give God on a random Tuesday. In this Raising Arrows devotional, Pastor Scott Stewart unpacks Psalm 95:6 ("O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker") and makes the case that obedience itself is an act of worship. Scott gets honest about something every parent knows...

Send us Fan Mail What do you do when God feels far away and your problems feel painfully close? In this Raising Arrows devotional, Pastor Scott Stewart walks through Psalm 13 — David's raw, honest cry of "How long, Lord?" — and shows why worship isn't reserved for the seasons when life is going well. Scott breaks down what it really means when Scripture calls God "generous...

Send us Fan Mail Somewhere around month three, Hailey looked over at Connor in bed and said, "I don't even know what you've done this past month." That sentence cracked something open. In this episode, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart get honest about the temptation every new parent faces — letting the marriage quietly slide to the back burner while the baby's schedul...

Send us Fan Mail Connor once asked his dad a question it took him thirty years to ask: what did you miss because of work? The answer involved a championship Little League game, a canceled meeting in Latin America, and a regret that never fully went away. In this episode, Connor Sykes and Pastor Scott Stewart tackle the question every ambitious young dad eventually has to answer: what does it actua...

Send us Fan Mail The Long Game of Fatherhood Here's a question no exhausted dad wants to sit with: are you parenting your two-year-old, or are you parenting your twenty-two-year-old? In the season finale, Connor and Scott close out Season 2 by zooming all the way out. Every tantrum, every popsicle meltdown, every moment you choose patience over frustration is quietly training the adult your c...

Send us Fan Mail Connor almost called it "the Book of Jonathan." There is no Book of Jonathan. But there is a moment, pre-Beau, when Connor wasn't the one leading his family to church — Haley was. This week, Connor and Pastor Scott sit down with a statistic that stops the conversation cold: if a dad doesn't go to church, only 1 in 50 of his kids will become a regular worshiper....

Send us Fan Mail Is your calendar raising your kids more than you are? In this episode, Connor and Pastor Scott welcome a special guest to the table — Mark Martinez, husband to Jenna and father of three daughters, Kate, Belle, and Claire. Mark opens up about growing up the son of immigrant parents, a disciplined military dad, and how watching his father live out his faith taught him more than any...

Send us Fan Mail   Every dad has a moment where the discipline voice turns into the punishment voice, and you don't even notice the switch until it's already happened. In this episode, Connor and Scott get honest about the difference between correcting out of love and reacting out of frustration, and why so few of us were ever actually taught the difference.  Connor walks through the rea...

Send us Fan Mail There is a study Connor heard in college that he never forgot — and once you hear it, you won't either. Your daughter is most likely to marry a man who treats her the way her father treated her mother. That single truth is either one of the most motivating things a dad can hear, or one of the most sobering. Probably both. In this episode, Connor and Scott get into what it act...

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Send us Fan Mail There is not a parent alive who hasn't felt it. The slow burn turning into a flash of heat. The voice that comes out louder than you meant. The moment after you lose your cool with your kid where you just... sit there. Anger is one of the most universal experiences in fatherhood, and one of the most avoided conversations in Christian parenting spaces. Connor and Scott are don...

Send us Fan Mail Nobody told Connor he was supposed to lead. He was the one following Hailey to church while she went alone every Sunday. He was the one sitting at home, convinced he didn't need it. And then, somewhere between her consistency and his growing hunger for something more, the switch flipped — and suddenly the weight of spiritual leadership landed on his shoulders. The problem? He...

Send us Fan Mail You've probably already told your kid to put down the iPad today. But when's the last time someone told you to put down your phone? That's the conversation Connor and Scott are having in this episode — and they're starting with themselves. Connor opens up about something that might surprise you: he's never really struggled with phone addiction. Not because...

Send us Fan Mail One in four men have six close friends. That's it. In 1990, it was one in two. We're more isolated than we've ever been, and if you're a new dad, the isolation just got worse. In this episode, we talk about why male friendship isn't optional—it's essential. They tackle the stats (and they're brutal), the reasons we let our friendships die the mom...

Send us Fan Mail Three Questions Every New Dad Should Ask God (And What Actually Happens When You Do) What do you pray for when you become a father? Not the surface stuff—the real questions that keep you awake at 2am. In this episode, Connor sits down with Scott to tackle the three questions every new dad in the faith grapples with: How do I lead my family spiritually? How does God actually speak...