Sara Eisinger
sara@thesmokymountaintimes.com
A tallit prayer shawl hangs over the wooden cross at Impact Church where Pastor Robert Owen and his wife, Melissa, uphold the deep Jewish roots of their Christian faith.
Owen was pleased to announce that Consul General of Israel for the Southeastern United States Anat Sultan-Dadon will be its guest speaker during a church service Sunday, April 6.
“Mike Clampitt, our house representative for the state of North Carolina, comes to this church,” Owen said. “I just happened to see a picture of him with the consul general and her staff going into a community that had been devastated by Hurricane Helene. I said, ‘Mike, this is really awesome. Good for you.’ I was joking with him and said, ‘Why don’t you ask her to come to Impact Church?’ He goes, ‘Well, I am going to introduce you and you can work that out for yourself.’ I said, ‘I am just joking and he said, ‘Do it.’”
Owen contacted Sultan-Dadon’s assistant and everything, reportedly, fell into place. She agreed to come speak.
“I would love to hear from someone in Israel,” Owen said. “What is going on in this Israel? What is the truth of the Gaza Strip?”
Owen stated that Sultan-Dadon will actively participate in church service.
“This is not a political rally,” he said. “We start church at 10:30 a.m. We are going to do our normal praise and worship time. I am going to introduce her and she is going to speak. She is going to talk about Israel and the church and how it can support Israel. Then, she is going to open with questions and answers.”
Impact church houses Jewish religious objects such as the menorah, a sacred candelabrum; shofar, a ram horn used in ancient religious ceremonies to remind people of the sacrifice made by Abraham, calling them to repentance and spiritual awakening; a cross with the Star of David on it; and Jewish showbread or lechem panim, referring to the twelve loaves placed on the golden table in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Owen would not call his nondenominational church “extreme.” Rather, he quoted John 14:2-6 New King James Version to outline the importance of understanding Judaism as Christians.
“Let’s look at the word of God and back it up with the word of God,” Owen said. “When you look at the Old Testament prophesy, it was fulfilled in the New Testament. Jesus said, ‘In my Father’s house there are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be, also.’ We are going, ‘Is it really a house? Are we really getting a mansion? When you get into the original Greek, it’s not. ‘In my Father’s dwelling place, there are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.’”
Jesus was referencing Galilean tradition.
“He is the groom and we are the bride,” said Owen. “In their culture, when a man and a woman wanted to get married, families would get together at a table and sign a contract. The woman had a choice. She could either refuse it or accept it. If she accepted it, there was a signing and gift given to the family. From that point on, they were legally married, but they could not consummate the marriage until the father took the son, who was now married, back to his house and build on to the house for the bride to come. ‘If I go away, I will come again,’ so tradition is it would take almost a year for him to build on. The father, usually at midnight because it says, ‘He comes like a thief in the night.’ Usually, the father would go to his son and say go get your wife. He would come again and receive her unto himself, that where she is, he would be, also. Unless you understand the Jewish reference, you will be like, ‘Oh, it’s just a good story.’”
The Owens started Impact church approximately 10 years ago.
“Melissa and I moved here in 2011,” he said. “The Lord brought us here. I got a job at Elder’s Ace Hardware and worked there for seven years.”
When the Mr. and Mrs. Owen arrived in Bryson City, they thought they had left preaching in the dust.
“In South Florida I was the associate pastor, administrator, music minister and youth pastor all at once for a church,” he said. “That covered many areas, plus, working full-time as a mortgage lender and I just got burned out. We moved here because I was burned out in ministry. I was kind of done. I am going to sit on my front porch and look at my view and God said, ‘No, you’re not.’”
“In 2013, there was a young man who unfortunately played what they call a choking game at a party,” Owen said. “He lost his life. One of our friend’s sons was on a quad runner that week and got killed. I had been in ministry my whole life since 18, whether a youth minister, youth pastor or associate pastor.”
Owen felt pulled back to ministry and launched Impact Youth Outreach.
“We were doing free youth festivals on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons for free at the high school,” he said. “We did three, maybe five of those in a row. It was accepted well by the churches that participated. In 2015, during this process, we were helping support another person start a church. We were supporting them with sound equipment and different things to help them get going. Out of that, the church fell on to our lap and we were asked to be the pastors when the pastor who started it left. Here we are 10 years later.”
The Owens held their first church service on their current 7.37-acre plot three years ago. Originally, they had purchased the barn on 7.23 acres.
“7.23 Meant manger, barn, stable in Hebrew,” Owen said. “The 7.37 acres we got originally met the bride of Christ. It also met that healing would come through music. He has taken the barn and has converted it into His bride. When you get into 100, our number 100 Impact Drive, it means the bride of God (holiness).”
The 4,200-square-foot building includes many rooms with additions to come in phases.
Impact Church will welcome Consul General of Israel for the Southeastern United States Anat Sultan-Dadon as its guest speaker during church service at 100 Impact Drive at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, April 6.
Impact Church streams its church services on website, Facebook and YouTube.