Ekpen and I have been going out every Wednesday night to the summer concert series. We have learned that it is best to engage concert goers after the concert, so we set up around 830 and catch them near the fire station as they are walking back to their cars. Ekpen likes to say that there is always at least one person who God makes plain to us that he/she is the reason we came today.

The person this night seemed to be Jaselyn. Jaselyn came to concert alone. Though she was wearing a cross, she was not a practicing Christian and did not claim any church affiliation, but she had some familiarity with Catholicism having taught preschool at a Catholic school. Her main obstacle seemed to be her belief that she could have a healthy relationship with God without going to church. She did not trust church because of her perception that there are 'bad people' in it (perhaps she had experienced some kind of abuse of mistreatment herself; we didn't ask).

This is a common attitude in our culture, especially among younger people. I responded with my go to reponse: Jesus established his Church and calls his followers to be in it. As I was declaring this truth, the Spirit prompted me to use a different response centered on the Eucharist. The main reason church attendance is required for a relationship with Jesus is the Eucharist! I told her what we believe happens to the bread and the wine, and asked: What could be more intimate than taking the whole of Christ into your body?

This seemed to resonate with Jaselyn. She said that she had been wanting to grow closer to God lately and was sure that God sent us to her. We left her with our new Mass invite card. Pray with us that she would follow through on her pledge to come!

God blessed us with other meaningful encounters. A young couple with a small child both received a rosary - Maurice and Caroline. They too were unchurched, though Caroline had some connection with a local baptist church, but recognized their need to go to church regularly. When we handed them an invite card, Maurice recognized the Jesus statue and shared that he remembered it going up when he was in middle school (he went to Chestnut Log, which is right around the corner). He had a deep, pleasant childhood memory of our church because of this statue!

When I told him that a new church building would be built around this statue, I felt the potential that our new church building has for drawing people like Maurice to Christ: an oasis of tranquility and transcendence in the midst of a society of strife, disorder, and anxiety.

We will continue our concert outreach throughout the summer. The biggest outreach will be at the July 4th parade: please plan to support us!