Pastor Greg Howard founded Impact Fellowship in 2001 out of a great desire to lead a church that was effective at leading people into a growing relationship with Christ. Taking a leap of faith and trusting in God's calling, Pastor Greg resigned his position as Senior Pastor at his church and moved to Maryville.

The church began as a few couples meeting in a home for several months. In October of 2001, Impact began meeting on Sunday mornings in the Chilhowee Baptist Association office. We held worship services there until June of 2002, when we moved into the old Food Lion building in Fairpark Plaza. We made significant improvements to the building in preparation for our official launch.

On April 27, 2003, we held our official public launch service. There were approximately 280 in attendance. We remained in Fairpark until the end of our 3 year lease and then decided to go portable.

In June 2005, Impact began meeting in Foothills Cinema. This was a move designed to get us closer to our target area and also relieve some operational expenses. We used 4 theatres each Sunday morning and learned a lot about how to be a portable church.

In January 2007, we moved to Carpenters Middle School. By this time we had tentative plans to aquire property on US 411 south of Maryville. The move to Carpenters was again a strategic decision in both location and operating expenses.  

On October 5, 2007, Impact purchased 6+ acres of road-front property on US 411, 3 miles south of the Maryville city limits. God worked through many people to present us with this opportunity. On October 7, 2007, we launched an 8-week spiritual growth and giving campaign, Building for a Change, with the simultaneous goals of growing spritually as individuals and as a church family, as well as raising the necessary funds to begin building our new worship facility.