Last Month’s Ministry Letter Recap: Volume Finale - Completing MPD
Janurary 1st, 2025 - Happy New Year
Congratulations on making it to another year, I thank God for allowing me to see another 365 days; and this year I was privileged enough to spend my 365th day in Atlanta, Georgia at our Impact National Conference, which was AMAZING!
And with all that being said, this conference now marks my 3rd ever Impact Conference, and it’s pretty remarkable when I look back over the years…
December 31st, 2021 - My First Impact Conference
Four years ago, during the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, I travelled by myself to Indianapolis to attend my first ever Impact Conference. The theme of the conference was Reemerge: A Movement From the Margins, and I entered the New Year with an excitement to share that God loves doing things through the outcasts and the marginalized. So, I felt burdened to share about my experience back on campus, and you can click here to read more about that process!
December 31st, 2022 - Rally the Troops
Exactly one year following that first conference, I soon was joined by six other UMass students, as well as both my parents, and three family friends! The theme of the conference was Kingdom Download: Living On Purpose, and somehow UMass ended up winning an award for New Chapter of the Year.
December 31st, 2024 - Starting to Lead
And now being a graduate and also a member on Impact staff, I cannot express how wild it is to look back over the years and wonder how God took me from knowing nothing about Impact to speaking in front of hundreds of college students about my experience and how they should consider joining staff. The theme of the conference this year was The Fight: Fear, Identity, Grief, Healing, Tenacity, and I am truly blessed to quickly mention some highlights during during the event!
Something Familiar
About a month before the conference I received a text from my friend in Maine that said…
“Hey Maurice are you going to the Impact Conference? We have a student from Maine who is going but she doesn’t know anyone else.”
Having been in that student’s shoes before, this text really uplifted me. Nonetheless, I responded yes, I will be at the conference, and after wrestling through the logistics that student ended up making it to Atlanta! It was a blessing to see her there, and I love the growth in New England representation!
Testimonials
“Hi Maurice, I hope you’re having a great start to the new year! I just wanted to thank you for being supportive before and during the conference. I appreciate you and your leadership.”-Impact Student at West Chester University
“The naked eye wouldn’t know this is your first year on staff. You’re doing a great job and I’m so grateful you’ve invited me to this space.” -Imani Gunnison (Conference Worker)
You Are An Evangelist
Lastly, while having numerous conference jobs as a seminar speaker, coffee house co-director, missions panelist, and more, I think out of all the jobs I was assigned “Evangelism Training” was definitely the most challenging for me.
If you are not aware, I am not a pastor, I haven’t been to seminary, I just graduated from college, so I don’t know why in the world Chase Grogan the conference director asked me directly to help with this training.
Yet, I decided to be obedient and felt driven not to act or perform, but just be me. I showed people what tools have been helpful for me when sharing my faith (I’m a big fan of Impact’s resource called The Passage); but maybe most surprising of all was my suggestion of incorporating Ahaslides during the workshop.
Ahaslides is an anonymous program where the crowd can interact in real time with the information and questions from the facilitators; and one of those questions that we incorporated was “On a scale from 1 to 10 how confident are you that you’ll make it to heaven?” (See Figure Attached)
What the responses revealed was that half the room (50 of the 99 responses) responded within the 1-9 range feeling uncertain about where they’d spend their eternity.
Yet, following the workshop there was a beautiful moment in which all these students came up to us staff, and asked about becoming a 10 (not a single staff person wasn’t talking to someone). From there we looked at 1 John 5:11-13 which says “He who has the Son has the life,” and from there we guided students through the scripture and promises that God has given to all who receive Christ.
Nonetheless, I am incredibly grateful for The Impact Movement, and I am truly blessed and honored to have been able to serve during the conference this year! I thank God for the privilege and blessing to be able to start this next year in his presence, and I look forward to what God has for me in 2025!
My Prayer Requests
1. Pray for this next year of ministry for me (who God is calling me to).
2. Pray for students as they prepare for the spring semesters.