Joshua and Brittany Holloway said they knew at once that Brookway Church of Christ was the congregation for them. Joshua, the new minister at the church, said the family at Brookway has given them the warmest of welcomes.

“They’re a great group of people,” Joshua said. “We tried out at a few congregations before coming here, and we had a little bit of an option of where we wanted to go. Brookway really won us over because they’re just a really loving group. We came down for that weekend to try out and half the congregation met us in a restaurant to come meet us.”

The Holloways moved from a small town in Florida to the Memphis School of Preaching, where Joshua enrolled to study 12 hours a day, five days a week for two years at the school. During that time, Brittany took classes as well, and now she will be involved in children’s Bible classes at Brookway. When school was out, the couple looked at and tried out about five other churches in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. Joshua had his first “try-out” preaching at Brookway on Superbowl Sunday.

“When we came to Brookway we knew automatically this is the place we wanted to be,” Joshua said. “We were excited about the town and the atmosphere of the town, but we were more excited about the congregation, they’re just such a great group of people. Something we wanted to be a part of.”

After meeting the congregation, the Holloways said, the church kept in touch with emails and cards to let the young family know they were thinking about them and praying for them during their move. Joshua, 27, and Brittany, 26, have a 3-year-old son, Jackson, and a 3-month-old daughter, Rayleigh.

“We came down to look for a home, and they threw my wife a baby shower,” Joshua said. “Like [Brittany] said they’re like a big family, that’s the atmosphere with the entire congregation. With one another all the time and caring for one another. They had a crew here waiting for us when we came down to move, some of them took off of work and were here to help us unload our trailers. They had come down the weekend before and cleaned our home and cut our grass for us.”

“That’s one thing that we were looking for was a congregation that was involved with each other, you know enjoyed being together, and they were more than what we were expecting,” Brittany said.

The city of Brookhaven has charmed the warm couple as well, and they said they are comfortable in their new home, especially because there are about five church members who live in the area.

“It’s big enough for convenience but small enough for a pleasant lifestyle for our family,” Joshua said. “We plan on growing here, having more children, and we’ll be here for a long time hopefully.”

Joshua will assume his role as preacher at Brookway Sunday. Brookway Church of Christ is located at 716 Brookway Boulevard. Service times for Sunday are 9 a.m. for Bible class, 10 a.m. for morning worship and 6 p.m. for the evening service. Wednesday night service is at 7 p.m.