April ‘08: Blake has this crazy feeling that God wants us to leave our comfortable life and go start a new church. Rebecca amazingly says “Let’s do it!” and the journey begins.
June ‘08 After much prayer and research, we “connected the dots” and the picture became very clear that God was leading to a town just south of Nashville TN named Smyrna.
-Smyrna is located in one of the fastest growing areas of Tennessee. The low taxes, scenic foothills, recreational activities, and incredible school systems are attracting young families like crazy. In fact the town directly south of Smyrna was just named one of the best places in America to raise kids by Business Week Magazine. It’s a perfect fit for our heart and vision to reach young families.
August ’08: Blake tells our church family that we will be leaving in October to start a new church in Tennessee. We put our house on the market and we begin fundraising.
September 08: We accept an offer on the house and go to our first Church Planter’s training conference. The offer on the house turns into a rental agreement as the buyers can't sell their house.
October ’08: We take a tour of Texas, visiting with 3 churches in 3 different cities in 5 days. We share the vision and the plan for what we are going to do in Smyrna. When we come back from the "tour" and we spend the next 2 weeks packing. We squeeze all our stuff into three fourths of a semi-truck (thanks to Rebecca and all the tetris loving packers) and head to Tennessee.
November ’08: We find a house to rent on our first day in Tennessee and we get moved in. Later in the month we launch a website (http://www.crossbridge.tv/), and sign a contract that will make the brand new theater in town the first location of The Crossbridge Community Church starting in September of 2009! We got to go to the Grand Opening of the theater and watch the Mayor cut the ribbon. We keep searching and praying for a local support church.
December ’08: We get our first Tennessee snow! And we send out a Christmas newsletter to all of our friends and family.
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