According to their motto, Impact is a "multi-cultural gathering of people committed to sharing the…read morelove of Christ with the world." Their tagline is : "Doing Church Differently" . After about five years of attendance here, I can attest that both these things are true. This is an awesome, awesome Christ-filled church unlike any other church you've attended (and that's coming from someone who's attended A LOT).
Impact has only been in existence for eight years. When we first starting attending, service was held in the auditorium of a middle school (Brown middle). From the first time we stepped into the auditiorum, something about Impact struck me--it felt like HOME. Being a PK (preacher's kid), I was raised in church and had become a bit disillusioned by it after some bad experiences. But, since I knew that the problem revolved around the CHURCH and not in GOD, I knew I just needed to begin a journey to find the right church home for me. Once I moved to Atlanta, that's exactly what I did. I must've visited dozens of churches on my quest; some I liked, others I didn't, but none seemed to really grab me. I also had some stiff non-negotiables that I refused to compromise on.
1)The church needed to be diverse racially, and in sex, age and sexual orientation. 2) the praise and worship team needed to be the BOMB 3) the preaching had to be more like teaching than just screaming and "falling out in the spirit". 4) there needed to be ample opportunities to volunteer in and give back to community. Most churches I visited had SOME of these qualities but not one had ALL.
ONLY Impact surpassed all my expectations and gave me even more than I asked for. I felt love and warmth the moment I stepped foot into the sanctuary. Then I heard the singing and the preaching and I was in love. At first the church felt like our little secret (which a church definitely is not supposed to be) but then it got bigger, and bigger and bigger.
I remember when they announced that the church had become so popular that they had to add two extra services every sunday. Then last year they finally finished their new sanctuary which is so beautiful and modern, including a juice bar/coffee stand, awesome kids play/learn area and so much more.
All Impact's success is a testament to the fact that God has truly blessed them. For a church to have only been around eight years yet they house thousands per service and are settled into their own beautiful building, built from the ground-up ...and are debt-free, that's unheard of!! It takes some churches twenty years to do that and then they end up paying it off for years. I am constantly blown away by Impact's vision and drive.
Pastor Olu is a young, dynamic preacher who TEACHES rather than just shouts at the congregation. Again, as someone who grew up in church my whole life, I learn something new every Sunday and my wife who didn't grow up in church also learns so much and never gets lost due to christian jargon etc.
The praise and worship team is INSANE. Impact does not have a choir but I guarantee if you just stood outside in the parking lot on a Sunday morning and listened to the praise team, you would not believe me. There are usually no more than 5-7 people on stage at a time yet they sound better than some full choirs I've heard in my life. Not only that but the style of singing and the team members themselves rotate constantly so you never get bored.
The church is very diverse which is important to me. When I walk into a church I like to see that it appeals to ALL people . Black, white, asian, latino, gay, straight old, young and in-between. As a gay woman who attends with my wife, I feel very comfortable there and we've never gotten a dirty look or stare.
Impact is always giving to the community. They provide a small scholarship for college students, they canvass the community, they build house via habitat for humanity and the list goes on.
I'll stop here because I could go on and on about how much I love this church. The only other thing I'll say is, come experience it for yourself!