The Impact Blog

  Impact 2023 “The Fog” Romans 8: 38-39  38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, [ a ] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. On the last night of Impact Senior 2022, we asked students to stand if they struggled with any of these lies…. No one needs to know Your past will define you It's not that big of a deal You are the only one Don't tell the truth Did God really say that God won't forgive that And…. You are not enough. When we asked students to stand who felt they were not enough ... .well the entire arena full of teens stood, and at that exact moment the 2023 theme was being born.  “The Fog” took shape. The Fog is a place we all travel from time to time, and when you are there you can feel lost and alone. The key to the “Fog” is turning the trap into an exit.  So thi...

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since that first "Super Christian" skit changed the way we did Impact. I mean that single skit in 95 changed everything. It took Impact to a different level and changed many church camps all over the southeast. After Impact 1995 many church camps understood they could do more than camper vs. staff ball games.  Major youth events all over started doing dramas because of that one little skit in 95. That's when we all realized drama appealed to campers who did not fit into a box. So here are my 2024 updated rankings.  30. Not Of This World 1997 29. The Journey 2000 28. Ten 2001 27. Unmasked 1999 26, The Mighty 2007 25. Deep 2003 24. Shield About Me 2002 23. TV 31 2020 22, RPG 2014 21. Go West 1998 20. Hidden 2009 19. Major League 1996 18. Abandoned 2015 17. Hyde 2016 16. Buried Alive 2010 15, The Fog 2023 14. This Mystery 2004 13. Escape 2005 12. The Secret 2021 11. The Con 2022 10. Stranger Than Fiction 2012 9. Super Christian 1995 8. ...

  Impact 2022 “The Con” For the last 15 years or so on the day after Impact I have started writing a yearly summary. It is really my way of extending the event a little longer and it has become an annual tradition I look forward to as much as anything else involving Impact. But this year is a little different. I really cannot explain it, but I just don’t know how to start. The week was incredible. Impact was back in every way. From the dorms to the dancing, from the counselors to the characters. It was truly 100% Impact. And as I returned home on Saturday I had two primary thoughts. That was too fast We are not guaranteed anything. None of us had a clue in 2019 that when we walked off that stage Impact would not return to normal until 2022. That being said, on with the story of 2022…. I was on a zoom call with Rubio and Skid. It was March and we really still had no idea what the theme was going to be. That’s pretty late. We usually have this decided by January or February, sometime...

 Impact 2021 "The Secret"  I am really not sure how to own up to this, other than just getting on with it.  I was irritated I was frustrated I was not content…. Those were the feelings I had when I found out Impact could be digital again. Look, we did the best we could last year. But I for one did not want it again. Then things started to open up.  So when Lipscomb offered us the option of running a three day version of Impact, where we had to find our own housing. I honestly did not love it, but I had to put on my best Phil; 4:13 face. It was not “fully” what I wanted but it was all I needed. So the Impact board went all in. So enough about all that stuff. To quote the theologian Bob Seager….Let's “turn the page”  “Impact 2021 “The Secret” The 30th Year of Impact. What a reunion! Incredible! Fabulous! Those are the only two words I can think of. For the last two years, about once a day, I have heard Brewer say, “I want my Impact back”.  We got Impact back,...

I just watched Impact 2020 wrap up. It’s officially over. I can’t say I am happy. This one was a roller coaster. I have the same feeling I have every year driving back home, because even though it was different, it was still the same. A community, a family, my best friends in the world, and although there were far less of you here, I still got a little misty eyed driving home. And so this one’s gonna be different. I’m gonna tell you what happened, the whole story. This ones gonna be long. Every year a group of us meet to discuss what the Impact theme will be. Some potential themes get brought up and subsequently passed on for years, before we finally decide it’s time to use it. For example 2016’s Hyde was almost our theme for many, many years before we finally rolled with it. Well for the last five or six years, one of the potential themes has been a local television station. But with 2019’s “Bound”, which focused on the Psalms, and expressing ourselves to God, we finally ...