07/28/2026
So I want to tell you about imPACT, how it came about and why we do it. It all started years ago with something missing. I view our journey with the Lord as exactly that, a journey. On a journey you learn new things, you take different paths, sometimes you turn around and go back the way you came, sometimes you keep pushing through something until it breaks open. A journey can look kind of like a puzzle. Sometimes when you are headed in a certain direction, you have ideas, keys, pictures (usually in bits and pieces) but it is kind of like a puzzle and you have to navigate how it all fits together. Which is actually exactly how the prophetic works. Our journey has led us to imPACT. For years while my kids were small we were avid church attenders. Like, never missed a Sunday. My kids grew up in a small church surrounded by the same handful of people that sowed into our life. Good, faithful people that loved on us for some tumultuous years. The Lord used them in many ways to help us through some dark seasons of our journey. I was so hungry for the prophetic back then. I got prayed over every single time I had the chance, which was often. The prophetic drew me like nothing in my life ever had. Hearing the word of the Lord in real time and it fitting exactly what I was walking through was life giving back then. Some of those words given in those seasons were what kept me hanging on. The more someone heard the Lord for me, the more I wanted to hear. This pushed me to start trying to hear the Lord for myself. I prayed for that. I genuinely did not know at the time where those prayers would lead, one of the many reasons that the Lord only shows us in pieces. Sometimes if we actually knew fully where we were going or what it would intel we wouldn’t go. Actually, probably more often than not. I have always (from the time I was young) had a strong sense of family. The Church we attended while my kids were small was that for me. They were a family that held me up through years of addiction (the kid’s father) trying to rip my life apart. They prayed with me, counseled me, followed Holy Spirit and at times helped me financially. They believed that the Lord could restore my family as much as I believed it. They stood in the gap with me and in the hard places that no one else wanted to touch. A group of us that were really hungry for more of Jesus met in different homes on the weekends, ate together, worshipped, and prayed over each other. That season was so pivotal to me, especially those house meetings where we had the opportunity to establish deeper relationship and actually minister to each other with no time frame or set schedule. I always enjoyed that more than the official church services. Then one day we just kind of stopped doing that and looking back I am not really sure why. Then I came into a time that just like in a real family as I “grew” up, things started to shift. Nothing “bad” happened, things just started changing. I started hearing for myself and I began to not need them as much. I began working out my own relationship with the Lord and began eating real meat and no longer needed milk. The relationships started to change and I couldn’t fully understand why or what was happening. I started feeling a little more like an outsider. I started noticing that while I was friends with everyone, all of their relationships (based on way more years together than I had been there….at this point around 7 years for me) were much more solid than my relationship with any of them. The Church that had held me up for so long eventually changed leadership and most of the people connected to the church left and while I maintained a good acquaintance with everyone, I realized that I no longer fit with them or the new church. At the time it hurt like hell. I couldn’t understand why my support system didn’t look the same and people that I loved and that I believe loved me grew so distant. I also couldn’t fully understand why they all still seemed to be close but I was on the outside. One day after a season of being frustrated, hurt, and angry the Lord showed me that I had outgrown them. Not in a negative context, but in the context of how often times people that have walked with us in pits and hard places often see us the same as we were then when we are up close and can’t fully see us where we currently are. It is kind of like in a real family when our older family members still view us as little kids even when we are full grown twenties, paying bills and working just like them. There was no malice, no anger or hard feelings, just the perspective that can come with being close to someone and knowing all their junk and still viewing them from that place. In that season, I would not have made it without all those people, and that season really taught me the significance of family and the significance of who we surround ourselves with. As good as it was, seasons change and once it did we began to look for somewhere to belong, somewhere to put down roots and connect, a place for family. We went other places. We were searching for the Acts Church but at the time we weren’t even aware of it. If you look at the early church, they gathered regularly. They broke bread together and followed the leading of Holy Spirit together. They did life together. They built relationship. There was always this deep hunger within me to connect to others and to form relationships. Looking back now, I realize that my desire was God’s desire all along and that I was just searching for what I knew was needed in my Spirit. We found a place for a season with good people that loved Jesus. We had good experiences there and they began a deep transition while we were there into a new way of doing things (having the church services in their home) and it was good. It had some of the very real elements of the Acts Church that we were unknowingly searching for. It was a more intimate setting and allowed for deeper conversations. As good as that season was, I still felt like something was missing. I looked at our relationships and tho we had good ones there, there was an element of depth that was missing for me. The kids were getting deeply involved in theatre at this time and I wanted relationships where people came to support them and their activities. I wanted to do daily life with others, get together outside of the church walls. Things were a little slower back in the early church days and life was not as rushed or busy, but I believe the intentionality of the way they lived is one of the key components missing within the church (us) today. Looking back now, I feel that all the things that I was desiring was actually what the Lord desires for the Church to look like, but I had no idea of that at the time. So tho again nothing “bad” happened, the kids and I were still on a search for what we were hungering for. An unexpected encounter at WalMart eventually led us to a church that we would call home for a season. This place had a lot of the relational elements we were looking for. The kids got deeply involved here and formed many deep relationships. I also formed some pivotal relationships in this season, at the Church and in the theatre world. In years of traveling to different places in the church world and in the theatre world, the kids and I have learned that sometimes lessons involve learning what not to do rather than what to do. This was very much that season for me in so many ways. As a matter of fact, I am still learning and growing from some of the connections from that season even tho it was years ago. This church provided what the kids especially needed relationally during this time. They had found a place that they felt they could call home at church and at the theatre and so did I. For the first time in our lives they had people that supported them at their theatre events, people that attended birthdays. They had friends. During this same time the church began having meetings outside of the church building in a home and they were so much more powerful and life giving than the actual church services. We always ate, worshipped for a bit, then just prayed for each other. People would get prophetic words spoken over them, deeper relationships were being built, and there was a community closeness that wasn’t always present within the church walls. We did an outreach together and the kids absolutely loved it. Then one day it just all stopped. During this same time, we got to visit a unique place with some theatre friends. We all gathered in a barn and just fellowshipped. Not long after this visit, Jordan came to me with a dream that he had had. In his dream we were all gathered in that barn that we had visited. He said that there was some music playing but that it wasn’t worship, just music. He said kids were running down the hallway of the barn playing, food was being prepared (the barn had a living room space and kitchen), and he said suddenly in the midst of everything someone said that they had a word. They began to share the word, then someone else said that they had a song and everyone began to sing. As soon as he came to me with the dream, I knew that what he had seen was pivotal (had no idea how pivotal at the time).I told him that he had seen the church and what God intended for it to look like. I shared it with a friend from way back to the first church and he agreed. Jordan saw the church and God’s intention for it. That dream is something that we have held onto for years (not realizing how many elements were actually in the dream….as it was not just about what they were doing but also about what they weren’t doing….the entirety of that season for us actually now that I think back on it), because we knew that it is what the Lord wants. Slowly things at that church started to shift, the nights that were so good ended and the kids and I began to notice some things shifting in relationships as often happens. The Lord moved us out of that church and out of the theatre that we had called home all around the same time. This time when we left both places there was some bad and a lot of hurt. Relationships ended with no explanation, people that had really loved us, suddenly didn’t. Even people that had been the real deal and stayed close for a short time eventually just fell away. We saw a repeat pattern of out of sight, out of mind. It was the same at the other places we had left, tho the leaving looked completely different. People we had been close to at one time were soon just acquaintances. The kids tried for a time to maintain relationships, but it didn’t take long for them to be the only one reaching and one thing we have definitely learned is that relationships are a two way street. You have to have commitment on both sides. Looking back now, I see similarities that I did not see then. When we were seeking the Lord together in homes the relationships were stronger and closer. Giving each other prophetic words and praying over each other often gave us God’s perspective of each other. Don’t get me wrong, I do know that seasons change and some relationships are only for a season and that is ok, but even for seasonal relationships if we view each other through His lens (which come by connection vertically and horizontally) then I believe separation when it comes could be viewed through a different lens. After a long painful season of healing, no church home and some theatre stops along the way; we started visiting churches again. We visited places, but after Jordan having that dream and all of us experiencing the nights of encountering the Lord with the smaller groups, understanding what we were looking for relationally, we couldn’t find a place that fit. We started realizing that everywhere we visited was set up on man’s schedule and man’s agenda. Some of the things that began to stand out about the dream were not just what they were doing, but looking at it now, also what they weren’t. There was no one person in charge. There was no schedule. There was no platform, no stage, no lights, no sound equipment. Just a gathering of believers doing life together; cooking, eating, playing, worshipping, releasing the word, talking. As a family (the kids and I) when we look back over our lives some of the most profound moments of revelation are in the moments of just sharing with each other; what we are seeing, what we are hearing, what we are experiencing. After we got a church building for our theatre we started feeling led to do imPACT nights (Jordan came up with the name bc we should be taking what we get out of our nights and using them to imPACT the world around us). Nights that we just gathered with friends and shared. Sometimes we worshipped, sometimes we just talked, sometimes we played games. We always ate and checked in with each other. Then we kind of got away from doing it for a while. We got busy, some friends that had been a huge part of our nights moved away. Another of our friends in that season informed me that the last thing we needed in the area was another church. I realized eventually that that was exactly what the enemy wanted me to believe and that he used a half truth to blind me to what we were supposed to be doing. The last thing the area needs is another church, at least one that is set up by man. We need to be the church and in order to do that we need to be discipled. What we do need is a place that is set up to grow relationship with the Father and with each other. We need a place that we can be real and completely ourselves, a place that we can connect. We need a place where Holy Spirit is allowed freedom to do things exactly as He sees we need. We need a safe place where we can connect through worship and prayer with others. We need a place where we do life with each other, we support each other, we give where there is a need. We need a place of freedom to share our hearts and what Holy Spirit is sharing with us. We need a place where schedules are on the back burner and we do not quench what Holy Spirit is doing. A few minutes of fellowship before and after a Sunday morning cannot equal doing life together. Even an occasional church dinner cannot equal doing life together. Sitting and listening to one or two men or women share all they know and have learned cuts out so many voices, ideas, ways to grow, testimonies, etc. Pastors are actually called to shepherd the people. Shepherds spent hours on end with their flocks, they protected them from harm, they pulled them back in with love if they began to stray. They did not get up on a stage and speak (not that sharing is wrong). Worshippers in the Acts Church did not need a worship leader to stand on a stage and lead the people into worship. Someone played, someone sang and everyone joined in. People being on the stage often leads to looking at them instead of looking at Jesus. There is nothing wrong with using our gifts for the Lord, but if we need a stage to do it, is it for the Lord? I believe that the Lord does gift people musically and that they can play or sing and even follow Holy Spirit in the direction He leads leading others in worship. The question is if someone else has a song are they willing to step back and let them take over? Because in the Acts Church there were no stages. This all may sound harsh and I truly don’t mean for it to; but I do know tho that the Lord is calling for us in this season to do “church” different. I believe all my past encounters at different churches was the Lord trying to steer us in that direction. I think each church has had something or a couple somethings. Things that they could sense that caused them to start hungrily searching. Unfortunately I think what happens is we start out on the journey, we get pieces to the puzzle. We begin the journey but we either get busy and go on auto pilot and get back to doing it the way we know and what is easy or comfortable; we hit a slump and feel like it isn’t working as quickly as we would like and stop (pioneering is hard and it requires grit and a whole lot of don’t give up); we love the stage and being a “leader” too much to give it up; or a mixture of all three. A friend of mine often talks about the church being a huge ship that turns really slow. I agree with him, however, I believe that is in part to many in the Body waffling on the fence. We often take 2 steps forward to take 10 steps back. I believe that in this season He is calling us to stop straddling the fence and actually follow the path that He has set out before us. Someone has to go first. A prophetic word I read long ago said to stop begging for scraps at tables and set a table. That is what imPACT is for us. Tho we gather in a church building, we treat it as our home. We cook, we eat, we play, we worship. We are setting the table and inviting anyone that is hungry to come and dine. I believe we are entering a season where apostles and prophets need to come together to discuss the vision and start bringing the Church into alignment with the Father’s heart. There is a place for the entire five fold in this shift. It just doesn’t look like what we always thought it did. If any of you have a similar vision and want to join I deeply encourage it. If you are just curious, come check us out. If you have questions, thoughts, ideas, we want to hear them. If you are an apostle or prophet and this has peaked your interest, let’s talk.
