Impact 1993 Change Your World

Impact 1993: Takin it to the Streets/ Change Your World- The theme this year was confusing. Very few people actually know what the theme was that year. Here is the behind the scenes story. Lee Milam ordered a bunch of shirts with a pre-bought logo that said "Takin It To The Streets" he got a good deal on them and had hundreds of the shirts made in multiple colors. That was great but the official theme was in fact "Change Your World". So everyone was confused as to what the theme was. Of course this was back when nobody stuck to a theme anyways. Well I cannot recall hardly anything about this year. I remember being so excited about it because it was so fun in 1992. I also remember walking up for counselor training wearing a sweatshirt. It was chilly that year. I had arrived a little late and the counselors were already gathered in the "Bison Square" singing devo songs. Alex Loyd and Greg Anderson were in charge this year of the training. We did some pretty exhaustive training that year, using counseling techniques I would re-learn as part of my youth ministry classes at Lipscomb. I was interning at Greenwood Park in Bowling Green, KY for a youth minister named Russ King. I met Jeff Walling for the first time, although he did not remember me for years and subsequently re-met me time and time again over the next decade. I cannot blame him. I mean how many people does Jeff Walling meet in a year? I do remember the girls of course. There was one from well (pause) I cannot remember where, I think she was from Atlanta or Chattanooga? I was talking to her and kind of interested. But then we had this thing called the Impact talent show (yes we had a talent show) on the steps of Alumni. At the show she did an interpretive dance. I thought that was weird and stopped talking to her. Nice guy huh? I ended up meeting another girl from Chattanooga, whom I will call "Chattanooga" for the sake of this discussion. From time to time for the next 5 years we would go out, we were really good friends who if given the right circumstance might have dated but we were always so far apart. We would just randomly go out whenever we were in the same area. With all that being said I was kind of in pre-dating mode with a girl from Bowling Green where I was living that summer. On the last night I was sitting next to "Chatanooga" and then out of nowhere. The girl known as "Bowling Green" shows up on the Impact stage, where did she come from? I did not know she was coming that night, no less showing up on stage. Apparently she and some of the others from Bowling Green had come to visit Impact and when they were walking in the back Jeff Walling flagged them down and asked them come on stage to be examples. This led to a somewhat uncomfortable moment. I had to explain to Chattanooga that well I am kind of off the market, ouch. Anyways this was the first year for the water slide, more on that later. Oh, and we still took a group picture, more on that later as well. The real big news from this year was the mass defection from Uplift by a lot of youth ministers who wanted an event with a little more freedom. You were still forced to wear long pants at Uplift and no instrumental music acts were permitted. These youth groups that switched to Impact were among the biggest in the southeast, instantly doubling the attendance. Youth groups like Vaughn Park, and University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa were among them. Impact was set with a whole new crowd of youth groups. There is room for Uplift and Impact and we are allies in the cause. Uplift is full every year just as Impact is. The biggest change this year was that we moved to Impact’s home for the next 14 years, Alumni Auditorium. There was some worry that Impact would loose its intimate appeal. Does that remind you of the move in 2007?