Impact 2001 Ten "The Search for the Covenant
2001: Ten/ The search for the covenant- Man what a great stage set that year. It was an ode to Indiana Jones. There was just a really good vibe that year with, the debut of the Baron Von Jacob Jingleheimer without the Schmidt as our skit’s villain, the Bible School Boys, and the Impact Action Team Toys. All three of these things have become Impact legends and the Baron appears one way or another every year. This year was most memorable to me as Paul Skidmore's first year doing our goofy videos. Paul and Steve Bodiford both did video for us. We made this really elaborate Indiana Jones video with Jon as “Tennessee Jon”. Paul is so talented and has really been the morning impact team member nobody knows. This could be remembered as one of the worst Impact t-shirts ever
One of the things I cannot remember, maybe someone out there can clear this up, is that I think this was the year we had a lot of tornado warnings. It was during Junior Impact, still only a weekend. Every time the weather would get rough they would call all the campers to Alumni Auditorium while Skid and I had to kill time with games and etc..We were on stage for hours. One night the weather got bad and we were on stage for like 3 more hours trying to entertain junior high kids. We tried everything including an hour of stupid human tricks a standard time killer back then. We were just trying to survive out there on stage until the concert. Then in a very untimely fashion our music act that night cancelled at the last possible minute, creating a lot of frustrated people. This meant more stage time for us to kill. In a last gasp effort we contacted the Nashville speakers group, a group that manages a lot of Christian acts and they understood our situation and sent us "Petra" guitarist Pete Orta to perform. To his credit he dropped whatever he was doing. He came straight from who knows where and did not have a guitar. When we finally found one for him (remember this is a Church of Christ event, not many guitars) the strings broke. More time to kill. Skid and I were on our last legs. I was reduced to leading camp songs like "Whose the King of the Jungle?" and "Time Like This". I asked Skid to go get Jon to help us out, but Jon was busy finding guitar strings for Pete Orta off stage and “communicated” this to Skid. I think I was left just standing there with nothing left to say for a couple of minutes. Finally they found the strings after much frustration and he played, black leather pants and all. One foot note to "Ten" was that I remember hanging out with this guy David Rubio. I liked him and thought he would be a good fit with Skid and I. I did not have much to base this on but I just liked his vibe. Lost and Found debuted at Impact that year and became Impact regulars. There are certain acts that kind of make there way back to Impact year after year because they either become favorites of the teens or the board members themselves. For example CPR, Lost and Found, Bob Stromberg, The Nobility (formerly Jetpack) and Third Day (when we could afford them) were loved by the teens but were actually invited back because they are Impact board favorites. In fact whenever CPR preformed they would stay a couple of extra days and sat in on our board meetings and added comedy/input. Now the teens favorites over the years have been Acapella, One Time Blind, and Grits. Subsequently all of these groups and individuals have been to Impact numerous years. On a slightly negative note, it really became kind of a tradition for teens to walk out and sit on the steps during the concerts, either because it was too loud or they just wanted to hang out on the steps and talk. Every year we talked about changing this but in my opinion most of the teens were just walking out because they always did. The concert would start and by the second song the place was only half full and the steps were full. This created nightmares for our security.
Pause Impact Security: Inspired by Youth In Action Birmingham, Howard Todd leads a team of guys whose sole responsibility is security. These guys do a great job and are a major reason youth ministers feel at ease at Impact. They take a lot of heat. I mean they have to play bad cop a lot, but you can sleep a little easier knowing that they are up and patrolling the campus.
In 2007 we finally cut the concerts and went to comedy/novelty acts. These acts over the years were the only ones who could hold the crowd inside with few exceptions. As far as Morning Impact goes its funny how some things get forgotten but before the whole Rubio/ Skid ball race war Johnny Markham actually captained the left side of the auditorium, and before that it was Mike Sheperd and I squaring off. Skid and I really felt good about Morning Impact and our creative collaborations, but we both thought we may need someone else to take it to the next level. This was also I believe the debut of the "Coffee House" a second stage for music acts and random talent. Over the years the Coffee House has become an Impact staple with acts like Grits, Through The Glass, and The Nobility (formerly Jetpack) This was an immediate hit and Jeff Fincher did a great job eventually handing it off to Jon Micah in 2006.
One of the things I cannot remember, maybe someone out there can clear this up, is that I think this was the year we had a lot of tornado warnings. It was during Junior Impact, still only a weekend. Every time the weather would get rough they would call all the campers to Alumni Auditorium while Skid and I had to kill time with games and etc..We were on stage for hours. One night the weather got bad and we were on stage for like 3 more hours trying to entertain junior high kids. We tried everything including an hour of stupid human tricks a standard time killer back then. We were just trying to survive out there on stage until the concert. Then in a very untimely fashion our music act that night cancelled at the last possible minute, creating a lot of frustrated people. This meant more stage time for us to kill. In a last gasp effort we contacted the Nashville speakers group, a group that manages a lot of Christian acts and they understood our situation and sent us "Petra" guitarist Pete Orta to perform. To his credit he dropped whatever he was doing. He came straight from who knows where and did not have a guitar. When we finally found one for him (remember this is a Church of Christ event, not many guitars) the strings broke. More time to kill. Skid and I were on our last legs. I was reduced to leading camp songs like "Whose the King of the Jungle?" and "Time Like This". I asked Skid to go get Jon to help us out, but Jon was busy finding guitar strings for Pete Orta off stage and “communicated” this to Skid. I think I was left just standing there with nothing left to say for a couple of minutes. Finally they found the strings after much frustration and he played, black leather pants and all. One foot note to "Ten" was that I remember hanging out with this guy David Rubio. I liked him and thought he would be a good fit with Skid and I. I did not have much to base this on but I just liked his vibe. Lost and Found debuted at Impact that year and became Impact regulars. There are certain acts that kind of make there way back to Impact year after year because they either become favorites of the teens or the board members themselves. For example CPR, Lost and Found, Bob Stromberg, The Nobility (formerly Jetpack) and Third Day (when we could afford them) were loved by the teens but were actually invited back because they are Impact board favorites. In fact whenever CPR preformed they would stay a couple of extra days and sat in on our board meetings and added comedy/input. Now the teens favorites over the years have been Acapella, One Time Blind, and Grits. Subsequently all of these groups and individuals have been to Impact numerous years. On a slightly negative note, it really became kind of a tradition for teens to walk out and sit on the steps during the concerts, either because it was too loud or they just wanted to hang out on the steps and talk. Every year we talked about changing this but in my opinion most of the teens were just walking out because they always did. The concert would start and by the second song the place was only half full and the steps were full. This created nightmares for our security.
Pause Impact Security: Inspired by Youth In Action Birmingham, Howard Todd leads a team of guys whose sole responsibility is security. These guys do a great job and are a major reason youth ministers feel at ease at Impact. They take a lot of heat. I mean they have to play bad cop a lot, but you can sleep a little easier knowing that they are up and patrolling the campus.
In 2007 we finally cut the concerts and went to comedy/novelty acts. These acts over the years were the only ones who could hold the crowd inside with few exceptions. As far as Morning Impact goes its funny how some things get forgotten but before the whole Rubio/ Skid ball race war Johnny Markham actually captained the left side of the auditorium, and before that it was Mike Sheperd and I squaring off. Skid and I really felt good about Morning Impact and our creative collaborations, but we both thought we may need someone else to take it to the next level. This was also I believe the debut of the "Coffee House" a second stage for music acts and random talent. Over the years the Coffee House has become an Impact staple with acts like Grits, Through The Glass, and The Nobility (formerly Jetpack) This was an immediate hit and Jeff Fincher did a great job eventually handing it off to Jon Micah in 2006.
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