While there has been a visitation ministry at Heartland for many years, the “Impact Ministry” was commissioned in 2002. The main purpose for the Impact Ministry is to make sure that every person who visits Heartland feels especially welcome and special. The ultimate goal is to support our Pastor’s mission statement: “To be a high impact community that leads people who feel distant from God into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ." To accomplish this, the Impact Ministry wants to do their part to assimilate each person and family into the local church. With Don and Connie Bienemann at the lead, this team is working hard to do just that.

The Impact Team has a five-step plan to fulfill their part of the goal:

1. To acknowledge Heartland Christian Center’s guests from the pulpit, the Impact Team brings them a gift.

2. Pastor Phil sends the guests a letter thanking them for visiting Heartland. The letter also tells them about the ministries of Heartland.

3. The Impact Team makes a phone call, thanks them again for visiting, and asks if they would like a visit.

4. The Impact Team now does their best in following their contact for the next four weeks. If they don’t see them in church, they will make a phone call. If they do see them in church, they will introduce them to others, and invite them to a life group.

5. Pastor Phil invites the new guests to a Pastor’s Hour dinner. This dinner is prepared at the church and held each month as a way to get to know our new friends attending Heartland Christian Center.

There have been many exciting stories that have come from the home visits, and each Impact Team member can tell many. One that Don and Connie Bienemann will never forget is when they visited a lady named Dianne. They sat at her table and shared with her the Gospel story. Before they left, Dianne gave her life to Jesus and is now part of our church family.

Of the visitors that come to Heartland and are looking for a home church, Brother Don says, “My guess is that we retain 60-75% of those the Impact Team visits. While this sounds great (and is higher than most churches), it is not good enough until we retain 100%.”

The Impact Ministry is also the evangelistic arm of the church. They have been involved in Sharefest, an outreach to Chicago, and were heavily involved in the Power Team outreach in spring 2006. More people serving in this ministry of Heartland are always welcome!