Introducing Antioch Church: A Plant On Louisville’s South Side

Intro to Antioch from Antioch Church on Vimeo.

Hey Sojourn family. My name is Todd Robertson and I’m a church planter.  Many of you who have been around a while know my family and me.  Some of you may remember when I preached a couple of months ago.  And still others of you don’t really know us at all. For those reasons Daniel asked that I introduce myself, my family, and the new adventure that God has called us to, Antioch Church.

My wife Kim and I have been married for more than 20 years.  We have three sons, Alec who is 15, and twins Nathan and Nicholas who are 12.  We have been in Louisville for over twelve years.  We are currently in the process of moving to the Iroquois/Beechmont area on the south end of Louisville.

Our history with Sojourn really goes back to the very beginning. I was pastoring a church in Louisville and was one of the few pastors in the city at the time with church planting experience. As a result I was blessed to become a sounding board for Daniel during the early days.  A short time later God moved me into a role as the Mission Strategist under the North American Mission Board and Long Run Association here in Louisville.  It was during this time I met Les and we became great friends. Les and I went on a vision trip to Ethiopia and God began to work on Les’ heart, calling him back to Ethiopia. He also began to work on my heart calling me to Sojourn.  We came to Sojourn as a family in 2002 and the following year I became an Elder.

Our years at Sojourn were a huge blessing.  It was like no church we had ever been a part of.  It was during our time at Sojourn that we learned to truly be in biblical community.  We were able to serve by leading the Community Groups development. We helped shape the early vision for families at Sojourn.  We participated in the mission efforts of Sojourn, both locally and abroad.  God blessed us with a very fulfilling time of ministry.  It was also a life shaping time to serve as a part of an elder body and it was very difficult for us to leave.

However, four years ago God led us into a new season of ministry when I became the Associate Pastor, Missions, for Walnut Street Baptist Church. It was a call back to full-time local church service in a truly urban mission field.  It was a call to consolidate our lives in many ways and it was a decision that came with the counsel and blessing of the Elders.  A part of our vision at WSBC was to reignite a long-held passion for planting churches.  WSBC has been a direct or secondary part of seeing over 100 churches started in her 200 years.  Our passion to see the fire re-lit has started with the unexpected call for us to be the “match.”

We believe that God is using us to help begin a new work called Antioch Church.  Walnut Street has embraced our vision and has blessed us to send us out on this new mission endeavor.  We are thrilled that the Sojourn Elders have blessed us with a desire to partner as well.  It is not to be missed that with Antioch, one of the oldest and youngest missional churches in our city are joining in partnering to send us.  This is an awesome move of God.

So that’s an intro to the story of my love relationship with Sojourn.  God is already calling out a number of Sojourners to be a part of the Antioch Core Team.  Antioch Church is being planted in the south end of Louisville around the Beechmont/Iroquois area.  This new church has a vision to pursue intentional gospel relationships to display Christ’s glory among the nations.  A key passion is to be a church that engages the incredible diversity of an area with at least 64 nations represented. You can already see it from the small town barbershop, to the trendy coffee shop (Sunergos is coming), to the multi-ethnic grocery, to some of the best ethnic restaurants in the city. We believe it should be seen in the church as well.  We’ll be writing more in the days to come but I hope you’ll watch the short video below to catch a feel for the amazing place where God is calling us.

To learn more about Antioch Church check out their website at www.antiochpeople.org or follow them on Facebook.