Well, Crys, Phoenix and I have officially been residents of Knoxville for just over two weeks now. Overall, we love it here. I’d say we’ve gotten off to a fantastic start. The townhouse we’re living is has us a little bit cramped in general, but we’ve managed to get everything in place and are living pretty comfortable. We really love the place we’re in. Its quiet, there are great views, there’s great places to take Phoenix for a walk, and the location is fantastic.

The first two weeks of work have been great. I can tell already that Scripps is going to be a great place to work. I’m still waiting for a few things to fall into place so I can move forward with some of the new stuff I’ll be working with, but I’ve gotten settled in fairly well I think, and have already started helping contribute some work to the team. Speaking of the team, from what I can tell so far I really like the team I’ll be working on/with. I’m surrounded with many very nice, very smart people, which always makes for a great environment to work in. I’m very excited about the new job.

The search for a church home has gotten off to a great start as well. The general church climate in this area is going to take a little bit of getting used to. In Dayton, the church we were involved with for so long had thousands of people regularly attending the various services each weekend, and had generally become considered to be one of the largest churches in the area comparatively. Here in Knoxville, churches like that are a dime-a-dozen. Sunday would be an optimal day to commit an organized crime in this city, as it seems that the majority of the police force is dedicated to directing traffic flow outside of churches. Its pretty crazy.

Crys’ parents came down and visited last weekend, and the five of us visited Grace Baptist church. One of the many large churches in the area. It was a very nice experience, and we enjoyed the church. There were a LOT of similarities between the way they conducted their services and the way Apex is run, with the HUGE choir being the one notable difference. We enjoyed our time there, but in the end, neither of us really felt like it was the place God wanted us to make our church home. So we decided to try to check some other places out.

So last night, we still hadn’t figured out where we were going to go. We talked about it more, and after considering several different options, we decided to try out a church called Northstar. So we got up this morning and hit their 10:00 service. It was REALLY enjoyable. The worship felt very genuine, and the pastor was a great speaker and God used him to share a great message on Acts chapter 2. Northstar is a considerably smaller church than many in this area, but we felt very comfortable there. The people were very friendly, and we had the opportunity to meet several people who were very nice and who we felt very comfortable around. We were really made to feel very welcome, but not pressured at all, which was fantastic. The icing on the cake though…the detail that just might end up becoming the deciding factor for me (just kidding…really) was when one gentleman that we met found out through conversation that I liked hunting and fishing, and told us that the Pastor, Scott Cagle, hosts his own hunting and fishing show called Northstar Adventures. A pastor that loves to hunt and fish?! That’s GOT to be a glimpse of what *real* community is like.