Looking for a Home

It's hard to believe that we've been in Louisville, KY now for almost exactly a month (we officially arrived in Louisville on August 13th).  Since that time we've been making ourselves at home in our new apartment, at the seminary and in the city.  Yet the search for two new homes is really just beginning.

God has truly blessed us in two amazing ways: Louisville has really cheap housing and our parents have been extremely generous with us!  In light of those two factors, our time in this current apartment is limited and this weekend marks our first weekend ever of the "home buying process"!  Yesterday I headed over to Fifth Third Bank to get pre-approval for a loan and I walked out of the bank with an official pre-approval letter in my hand!  Today our real estate agent sent us over 45 listings to look through!  We've looked through almost all of them and tomorrow afternoon we are actually going to look at a few homes!  It's a little bit daunting, but more than anything it's super exciting!  (We'll see how long that lasts...)

But the more important decision that we have to make has actually been ongoing for a long time.  Not only are we looking to buy our first house here in Louisville, but we are also looking for a local church to call "home".  To some, this might seem a decision of far less priority, but to us -- this is crucial.  Being trained in seminary is good, helpful and in some senses necessary as it is equipping me for pastoral ministry.  What is even better, more helpful and more necessary is that we find a good church where we can be taught, where we can be in community, where we can serve and where we can see models of godly marriages and families.  Seminary classes might make great Biblical scholars and theologians, but I want to be a pastor and you learn to pastor by both being shepherded and by watching a shepherd feed, guard, protect, defend and lead his sheep.  You learn to be a pastor in a local church.

So our search for our first house began today when we started looking at pictures, comparing square-footage, looking at neighborhoods and comparing prices.  But our search for our next "home", our next local church, actually began a long time ago.  It began when we both became Christians, it developed in all the various churches we have been a part of, it continued as we ourselves studied the importance and the marks of a healthy local church and it continues even now as we visit different churches, talk to different members and pray that God would give us His guidance in this choice -- this crucial and essential choice.


Here are the churches we have been to/plan on visiting:
Sojourn Community Church
3rd Avenue Baptist Church
Immanuel Baptist Church
9th and O Baptist Church

Auburndale Baptist Church  
Baxter Avenue Baptist Church
(And two additional church plants...)