Between college and Uni? Between Uni and Work? Want to take a gap year or just want to spend a year of your life serving God? Then FP Impact is for you!
YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD WILL DEEPEN as you spend the year serving him and pursuing him. You are put in an environment where you are forced to trust and rely on him for provision, faith, courage, boldness and much more. You will be surrounded by godly men and women who are for you and for your growth in God. I once heard it said that doing FP Impact is like getting three years growth in one year...I would agree!
YOUR THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING WILL GROW as you travel to your training base to undertake sessions which will both intellectually and practically challenge you. The bible will come alive as you dive into its truth. You will get sound teaching on topics such as the kingdom, creation, eschatology, the cross and resurrection, the church and many more.
YOU WILL MAKE DEEP AND LASTING FRIENDSHIPS. Impact allows you to get to know many different people. One great thing is that you are all in pretty much the same place when you come into the year. It is a privilage seeing others grow and deepen in their love of God. Mutual encouragement is a big part of the year.
WHAT IS GOD CALLING YOU TO DO? You may have some idea already. You may not. In both cases impact will help you along the road. You will be given guidance, will be prayed for and will be taught to walk in God's promises for your life.
IT WILL BE GOOD FOR YOU...See above!
Those are the benefits for you...however there are many more benefits! Your church will benefit from your service. You will impact and bless many peoples lives. Consider it...you will not regret it!
Those of you who have been following me for some time will know that I travel to Bristol on a fairly regular basis for Theological training. This has been richly rewarding and I cannot thank God enough what he has done, the input he has given me and the friends he has allowed me to make.
This past week was the last time I shall be in Bristol for some time. Training is finished! Time flies! It seems like only yesterday that we were on the train there for the first time. It seems like only yesterday that I walked into a room of thirty people whom I didn't know.
Ten months on I have made some fantastic friendships. One thing that stood out about our group was the unity. Usually when you bring thirty people together cleaks are formed. Not with our group! It was beautiful!
We were extremely blessed to be looked after by two fantastic men of God. Simon Walker and Jonathon Bradshaw do a fantastic job of organising all our sessions, arranging brilliant socials (Boat trips included) and generally getting along side us throughout the year. We have been blessed by their service.
Brothers and sisters from the Bristol base, it has been a pleasure sharing this experience with you. We have been through a lot and I thank God for being faithful to us all. It seems fitting to end this post with a prayer.
Father, I thank you for your faithfulness to us all this year. I want to ask for your blessing upon my brothers and sisters as we all move on to our next phase of life. Lord, I thank you for what you have done with us this year and I pray that we would all continue to mature and grow in you. Would this year just be the start of a life sold out for you, living every day for your glory. I pray for protection in whatever you have for us next. May we never lose sight of you! (Psalm 19:14) Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our rock and our redeemer. All for Jesus AMEN.
Palmerston Park, Southampton. One White Marquee, One God and One Gospel. What a week?!
When approaching an event like Park life you never know what to expect. God always likes to surprise us, and this was no exception. I soon learnt that little formal advertising had been done and in fact the main way of getting people to the meeting was through scattering.
Scattering was the term used for the hour before the meeting where we would go out into the city and talk to people and invite them along. I was blown away by the openness of so many people---especially the younger generations.
Have you ever wondered what New Testament church would have been like? I certainly have and I think I experienced something very close to it last week. Never have I seen so many responses to the Gospel (38 over the Wednesday to Saturday meetings, and then several more on the Sunday), people so open to be prayed for and people from different walks of life coming together under one canvas to hear about the risen King Jesus.
Among the healing seen were a broken arm mended, a semi-blind eye restored and a leg growing (I missed it but apparently it was pretty cool). God was really wanting to restore physical bodies and our faith was stirred to push into him more. One of my highlights of the week was on Saturday night when after many responses to the Gospel we all piled down to the front and worshipped our hearts out. Among those dancing and singing were Christians, drug addicts, recovering drug addicts, alcoholics, recovering alcoholics and I swear there may have even been a dog running around. Being able to serve at Park Life has really changed my life. Seeing God work that powerfully in an English city (with all it's scepticism) was really a kick up the backside. We need to be pushing into all that God has for us and not allowing our culture to get in the way. Let God use you...I dare you!
This week I will be heading over to Southampton to join up with the Life Church Crew and other Impact students. We are going to be part of Park life, an annual event that Life Church run in one of the parks in the city centre.
The idea is that they preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, in a marquee, in the park, at several meetings throughout the day. What a great opportunity!
Life church have done this for the past few years and have seen lots of fruit come out of it. Each year they have seen people saved and added to the local body. Holding an event like this also gives the local communities a lot of exposure to the church and more importantly Christ. If you are in Southampton at all this week, why not pop over to Palmerston park and check it out.
