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Sandblast was Incredible!

We got back late Monday from our 4-day run together at Sandblast!  After living, eating, and breathing together in such close proximity you could feel the bonds of community as strong as ever.  The first night everyone symbolically linked arms together all across the entire auditorium, and that picture truly became a depiction for what happened by the end of camp.  Right now we're celebrating an incredible Spirit-filled experience.  We took more students than we can ever remember taking before, many students got clean with God and made renewed committments to living by faith, and twelve students put their faith in Christ for the first time!  So, we're not the only ones celebrating, all of heaven is doing the same!

Sandblast!

About 560 of us will arrive this Friday at 9am to register and load up busses at the West Entrance to head to Sandblast!  This is the largest group we can ever remember taking to Sandblast and we're expecting BIG things to happen.  Pray for us that meaningful relationships are formed, students grow in their knowledge of God, and significant moments take place to shape this community.  We'll be arriving back Monday night at 8pm!

Impact Road Trip

Summer and Road Trips just go together.  Summer is always a time to unplug a bit, take a step back from the normal routine, have a lot of fun, be spontaneous, and connect with friends.  We're not only going to be taking this kind of road trip ourselves as a ministry, we're going to do it while diving into the five most famous Road Trips in the bible!  If you want to use this summer to ensure your life is on the right road . . . don't miss it!

World Religions 101 graduation

It was good to see so many of you 'graduate' from your first World Religions course here in Impact! JP did a great job informing everyone of the religion of Scientology, and now we're looking forward to the crazy events of May. This coming weekend we'll be together for Mother's Day, and the following weekend is our Senior Service! Our Seniors will be running the entire service from start to finish, including the kind of welcome to freshmen only Seniors are capable of giving. Can't wait to see you all there!

Wicca and Scientology

This week Bryan Jones taught us about Wicca and how it compares and differs from following Jesus. It was very powerful to wrestle with the reality of spiritual influences in the world, yet acknowledge that no power compares to our God who raised Jesus from the grave and set him above all things! Next week we're plunging in deep as we address Scientology, hope you'll join us!

Paramore

Yes, it is in fact true . . . Paramore will be at Student Impact this Sunday!  If you were here this past week, at the end of our service addressing the differences between Islam and Christianity we gave everyone a heads up that next week we would have a special visit from the band.  Now, to right-size expectations we won't be having a concert or anything like that.  We're going to dive right into addressing the New Age religion, along with it's claims that truth is relative.  If you've heard yourself or a friend saying, 'what is true for you is true for you', or 'all paths lead to God' then you've heard the influence of New Age at work.  Paramore grew up in a youth group like many of you and are now in deep with a world where just about anything goes.  Come this Sunday to hear from them as they hold onto their faith in a 'New Age'.  And they will of course play a couple of unplugged/acoustic songs for us too:)

Back from Break

Over Spring Break some of you went on vacation, some of you did absolutely nothing (and loved it), and of course many of you went on a serving trip with student impact!  Wherever you fit on the spectrum we're glad to get you back in the deep end this week with Student Impact.  We're about to launch our series entitled World Religions 101.  Don't let the class-room theme scare you off because this series is going to be anything but boring.  We're going to be taking a 3-dimensional look at mormonism, islam, scientology, new age and wicca over these next 5 weeks so don't miss it.  Also, house groups are back in action this week so we can't wait to reconnect with you there!

Making an 'X-Stream' Impact

Salem's X-stream high school ministry and us came together to make an 'x-stream impact'.  Although a 2.5 hr. worship service was much longer than we're used to it was a great experience!  The theme of Willie and Shane's talk was building a bridge toward unity, and as we worshipped together, played games together, participated in the worshsip service together, and even ate together it was very clear that God was in fact building a bridge between our two communities.  The impact staff team is so proud of our students for sacrificing a whole day to make a clear statement that we do care about racial reconciliation, and we do believe that unity should describe the church.  Great job Impact!

IMPACT MEETS AT SALEM BAPTIST THIS WEEK

Our whole Impact community is jumping on Busses and heading to Salem Baptist Church on the south-side of Chicago. Join us this Sunday March 16, 2008 as we make history with a huge combined worship service as we lead the way with racial reconciliation.

WE'RE GOING TO SALEM BAPTIST!!

This weekend is your last opportunity to get your permission forms in for our ROAD TRIP to Salem Baptist Church on the south-side of Chicago. CLICK HERE to sign up. Lynne Hybels did a killer job last week firing up our passion for Global Poverty and the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Don't miss a powerful message from ROB BELL this week at 11:15 am in the Lakeside Auditorium.