The Everyday Club

10/15/11 Jose, about 30
Today at the park I saw a man (Jose) sitting at the edge of the large pond there, not fishing but just looking thoughtfully out over the water, so I went over and asked if he would answer some questions. "What for?" Jose asked, so I just explained that I go to a church nearby and part of the reason is because a lot of church people are out of touch with what non-believers think and believe. This satified him for a while and he went on to tell me about his theories about God, reincarnation, and the end of the world.. Later he asked, "So why are you asking all these questions?" so I went into more detail - "Well, I believe what the Bible teaches about all this, which is..." - and I went on to share what the Bible teaches about these same topics. Toward the end he asked again "So you're out here to preach the Gospel, right?" I responded by asking what he believes the Gospel message is, which turned out to be very different from the biblical Gospel, and then was able to share the Gospel more fully.  I share these three questions to say that as we witness we don't have to be afraid or defensive when questioned about our intentions, but can simply use these questions as opportunities to share further truth. As it turned out, Jose and I talked for almost two hours, and though he seemed to abandon all his own shallow religious theories and had a lot of questions about Christianity, I couldn't convince him of the reality that his own "minor" sins deserved condemnation.