Over the past few years, our church in Atlanta has become immersed in a new ministry, our eyes opened to a deep need in the community we had never recognized before: affordable housing. Today, we are a local center for citizen education and advocacy on housing issues. We host community organizing meetings every month. We have adult Sunday school classes on affordable housing. Our members attend city and county commissioner meetings to speak on housing issues. "Affordable housing for people in our community" is the main mission goal in our current three-year church plan.

Have we gone off the deep end with affordable housing? We don't think so. We are increasingly convinced that affordable housing is the foundation of beloved community. Housing is a profound and even holy good. To understand why, we must understand what home is and what it means.

The first house I ever lived in was an old farmhouse on a hill in Vermont. Then there was our little yellow tract house in a North Carolina suburb, with a backyard and a swing set and boys all along the street who never tired of playing deep into the evening. The year I began fourth grade, in the mid-80s, we moved to Ohio, to a house on a quiet street with massive oaks and flowering crab apples. From that home, I could bike to school, to the park, to the house of the girl who was my first crush.

Home is a structure, but it's more than that. Home is a whole environment. It's what you see out the window; it's the neighbors next door; it's the opportunities in the community to learn and grow; it's feeling safe ... or not. It's the sounds you hear at night before you close your eyes and dream. Home is a universe. Home makes us who we are.