Emily at work in Florianopolis, Brazil

Union University felt like the school I was supposed to attend. The problem: I had no clue how I was going to get there. Tuition was way too much for my family, and my test scores were not high enough to apply for academic scholarships. I almost gave up, but decided to take the ACT one more time, a few months into IMPACT 360. The test seemed so much easier than it was in the past, but I wasn’t going to get my hopes up before I received the scores. I needed a 31 to apply for scholarships, and I was blown away when I got the letter. A 32 overall score, with a 35 in the reading subsection – one question from perfect! I was nowhere near those scores before IMPACT, and knew all of the reading and critical thinking had really made a difference.

I applied and was accepted to the scholarship competition. Over 160 students were competing for just a handful of scholarships, ranging from 50% to 100% tuition; the grand scholarship including room and board. I had three different interviews to prepare for: One was a group interview about a “hot topic,” another was based on a book they sent us, and the final was a personal interview with three professors.

I began to read the book and was astounded. Each chapter correlated with a module we had been taught at IMPACT 360, so I had a full and comprehensive knowledge of all of the major topics presented. When I walked into the interview and saw the word ‘postmodernism’ written on the whiteboard in block letters, I was overjoyed. We had spent a good portion of the first semester at IMPACT talking specifically about this topic, and I was able to take the different aspects of postmodernism to the next level and apply what I had learned with confidence.

Next was the individual interview. One of the first things they asked me to do was describe myself. We had taken and discussed StrengthFinders in class the week before, creating a personal branding statement based off the results. I gave this to the interviewers, along with details I had learned about myself during my time at IMPACT 360.

The last interview was a little harder. The interviewer picked the topic when we entered the room, so there was no time for preparation. We ended up talking about bioethics, and even though we had not yet gone through the topic at IMPACT, I used what I had learned through wrap-up, and the biblical knowledge gained this year, to formulate an opinion and hold my end of the group conversation.

A few weeks later I received a call from Union University. They were pleased to inform me that I had received the full tuition scholarship! All I would have to pay for school was room and board. I was overwhelmed with joy – God had heard and answered my prayers.

I also applied to the Honor’s program, where questions like ‘What is beauty?’ and ‘What is wisdom’ are studied through interdisciplinary study. I was soon after accepted to this program as well.

I had prayed constantly during the scholarship interview weekend, and the honors application process, for my words to be God’s words and my thoughts to be God’s thoughts. Looking back, I can see that God was preparing me all throughout this year at IMPACT, displaying His thoughts and words through scripture reading, devotions, class lectures, and wrap-up debates. He taught me how to focus on Him, and how to view the world. IMPACT 360 is the medium God chose to work through my life, and prepare a way for my future.

Thanks!

Emily Pace

Miriam Beard with Del Tackett

This week Impact 360 had the honor of welcoming Del Tackett as our visiting professor. If you’ve never heard the name before let me set a little background. Dr. Tackett  is a name most commonly associated with a video series known as The Truth Project, a project designed to bring the Christian Worldview back to the body of Christ. He teaches at Focus on the Family Institute, and served more than 20 years in the Air Force. Overall, he was an absolutely incredible professor to listen to.

Although he was only with us for 3 days, he took us through a variety of topics that left us wishing we had more time to explore and learn. Dr. Tackett focused on the different social spheres and orders and our relationships within them. He brought up so many questions that forced us to just sit there and THINK. You would think that after 7 months at Impact we’d be used to thinking hard and thinking well…but I guess it’s something you never get completely used to! All three days of class had us sitting on the edge of our seats trying to get to the root of the different problems within the social systems that Dr. Tackett was bringing up. But the fun didn’t stop there!

Outside the classroom brought on even MORE interesting interactions with Dr. Tackett. We learned that he is QUITE the talented Frisbee player….it quickly became an issue of not what team HAD to take Dr. Tackett but which team WANTED to take Dr. Tackett. Also, he was entertained by a group of dancing students while they cleaned the kitchen…even though at the time they didn’t know he was watching.

Our class was very thankful for the chance we were given to learn under this incredible mentor and teacher. He brought to mind many new issues to ponder and instigated many interesting conversations throughout the week, both inside and outside of the classroom. Thank you Dr. Tackett!!

IMPACT 360 is shaping leaders in our world. Meet one of those leaders and hear her story about life after graduating from IMPACT 360…

I Am IMPACT 360 – David’s Story from IMPACT 360 on Vimeo.

IMPACT 360 is shaping leaders in our world. Meet one of those leaders and hear her story about life after graduating from IMPACT 360…

I am IMPACT – Corinne’s Story from IMPACT 360 on Vimeo.

IMPACT 360 is shaping leaders in our world. Meet one of those leaders and hear his story about life after graduating from IMPACT 360…

I Am IMPACT 360 – Jonathan’s Story from IMPACT 360 on Vimeo.

IMPACT 360 is shaping leaders in our world. Meet one of those leaders and hear her story about life after graduating from IMPACT 360…

I Am IMPACT 360 – Chaarity’s Story from IMPACT 360 on Vimeo.

This seems to be a recurring theme recently, both inside the classroom and out.  What with guest speakers, early morning devotions, and even now in independent reading on Spring Break, it just keeps coming up. I speak of the passage in John where he quotes Christ,

 ”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. … Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me  you can do nothing.” ( John 15: 1-2, 4-5)

It’s a passage we’ve heard many times. In Sunday school, in Bible Studies, in sermons. I’ve even heard it as quasi-threats for us to do devotions daily without fail. But I think we can often just read a passage and entirely miss the point. That we can ignore God’s guiding indwelling within us, and merely use the mind to “figure out what it says”.

And as we’ve been asked to read this passage so many times the past few weeks, and just let the words themselves speak, something new has stirred in my heart. Something more than good works and daily devotionals.

One of our guest speakers at Impact this past week was Hule Goddard. An incredible man of God, he had a tidbit about this passage that was new. He spoke of preaching this exact passage one day and having a botanist come up to him later. The botanist explained how for a branch to be connected to the vine, to be literally a part of the growing and living process, the absorption and distribution of sunshine, nutrients, and energy, it would be similar to the pressure of a dam let loose, shoving all the vitals from the vine to the branch. That when a branch is connected to the vine, it is literally pulsing with the essence of the vine.

As Christ is the vine, His essence, His life-giving force is pulsing through to us when we “abide in Him.”

But do we? Do we really abide in Him?

And perhaps I quote her too often, but Ann Voskamp never fails to hit it on the nail, as she did today,

 ”[quoting 1 Corinthians 6:17] ‘But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him,’ … He’s calling for a response; He’s calling for oneness … Jesus says there is no other way to take up the faith but complete union: ‘I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’ [John 14:20] I think on being in Christ and Him being in me and He is wind whisperer and I am leaf and He stirs and I tremble: ‘Remain in me, and I will remain in you.’ He’s calling me to graft on, become one with the True Vine, the vine the biblical symbol of joy, festivity… fullness. He’s calling to come and celebrate being made one, and in Him, by Him, to bear the fruit of the full life round.”

Do we graft on? Do we take up complete union with the True Vine, abiding in Him, allowing Him to slam us full of His pulsing, life-giving essence?

Or are we the fig tree in Luke 13, who after being planted for three years still bore no fruit and was cut down? Are you barren in fruit? Have you no connecting, no grafting into the vine? Perhaps the fear of the dam being unleashed frightens us. It’s too overwhelming, too much. Walter Brueggemann says it eloquently,

 ”The shock of such a partner destabilizes us too much. The risk is too great, the discomfort so demanding. We much prefer to settle for a less demanding, less overwhelming meeting. Yet we are haunted by the awareness that only this overwhelming meeting gives life.”

Do we fear the pruning shears? The potential pain in the growth? The slow, aching perfecting by the Great Gardener? But did you expect your lone branch, unconnected, un-grafted to produce anything? Away from life to grow? No, you will be cut down, withered on the ground.

 Ann Voskamp speaks from the heart, “Yes, God as partner shocks and I’m too ugly, spiritually, physically, too filthy, too … low to be courted by God and He lavishes His love, the uncontainable riches and can I trust His love and part of me is right anxious to flee. Yet I am haunted. Only this overwhelming meeting gives the fullest life…”

The uncontainable riches, the pulsing life-giving essence of the Creator.  John Owen, the Puritan theologian says it best,

 ”Would a soul continually eye His everlasting tenderness and compassion … [then] it could not bear an hour’s absence from Him; whereas now, perhaps, it cannot watch with Him one hour…. Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from Him; but it the heart be once much taken with the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot but choose to be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto Him.”

For when the leaves of a tree in early morning light leave behind the dull, flat shades of the night, and burst forth in bright, translucent hues of lime and gold and vibrant citrine, I can’t help but be in awe. Are we leaves, that when we absorb the life-giving light, then change color? Then reflect the glorious light? The glorious grace and love and hope? Are these not our shades of color?

Do we absorb and reflect back the Light?

It was good to see the hope that our work brought, and it is good to think of the hope that will continue to come at the women’s shelter. Even more, it is very good to think of all the hope that can be brought by men who reject passivity, who take responsibility, and who lead and serve courageously.

Josiah Brown
IMPACT 360 || Class of 2012