The Everyday Club

4/29/11          Hector, Marisa, Angel          30,30,10
As I rode bike down the sidewalk I noticed a man on his front porch smoking, so I used a MDB to help start a conversation. He (Hector) had a lot of good questions, a sign that he has been thinking a lot about Christianity, but I wasn't sure if his questions were an excuse for doubting or the sincere questions of a truth seeker. The questions were rapid-fire, with Hector not being patient enough to wait for the answers, and that's a pretty clear sign that his questions - and doubts - were more important than the answers. Then his wife Marisa and their son Angel came out on the porch and I could tell that Marisa is the one in the family with the real spiritual interest. She asked almost as many questions as Hector, but the difference was that she would wait to hear my answers, and her reaction to them was optimistic, whereas Hector was pessimistic. Unfortunately, neither of them have ever read the Bible for themselves. Marisa has been attending New Age type seminars, and Hector gets his religious "facts" and opinions from the History Channel. I was deluged with questions, and even their 10 year old son Angel had a lot of them. I wondered if this family didn't primarily need just to hear the Gospel - they need to experience Jesus in the context of a healthy local church and to see the truths of God lived out relationally before they will take them seriously. Yet if they come to church for the wrong reasons - seeking the happiness they think they want rather than the right relationship with God that they really need - I'm not so sure they'll find it. Nonetheless, I invited them to church, hoping that if they come they will both hear and experience the true Gospel.