[Church and Discipleship] Real Community [8/13]

Tom and Cindy have been attending services at EPIC for several years now. They live in an old neighborhood that has an elementary school, a privately owned supermarket and small park. Tom grew up in a Christian home but “was rather bored with the whole Christian thing”. Cindy came from a Catholic family that didn’t attend Mass frequently but she knew that there had to be “something out there” that would fulfill the longing that she had experienced for many years. They started coming to EPIC after someone left a plastic bag on their front door containing a brochure describing the church, a notepad and a pencil.

Tony and Melissa are in their fifties and have known Jesus for about ten years. Tony is a salesman for a company that sells construction equipment and came to faith through the influence of one of his co-workers. Melissa became curious about the radical changes that were taking place in Tony and they both began to meet with his co-worker and his wife. Eventually Melissa also began to embrace a relationship with Jesus and she and Tony began an amazing faith journey together that has encouraged many younger couples, including Tom and Cindy. Tom actually met Tony “accidentally” through a mutual friend who needed to rent a small landscaping machine to do some work in his yard and Tom agreed to help out. While they were at the rental store Tony was there to speak with the owner about purchasing some new equipment from the company Tony worked for. Tom and Tony never spoke to each other that day, but recognized each other the next day in the lobby of EPIC. Tom joked that he didn’t totally recognize Tony at first without the “Bobcat” hat that he had been wearing the previous day and Tony confessed that he had remembered Tom only because he had such an amazing head of bright red curly hair. This was one of those “immediate” connections and after the service Tony and Melissa invited Tom and Cindy to join them for lunch at Applebee’s. That was the beginning of a relationship that has continued on now for over two years. Tony and Tom have been meeting together every week to talk about life and faith issues and Melissa and Cindy have done likewise and all of them have become best of friends even though there is a twenty year difference in age. It was very evident that Tony and Melissa loved each other deeply and they were quick to admit that it hadn’t been that way all along. They knew that it was the result of a sincere quest to know God at a deeper level and they told Tom and Cindy that they get up each morning and spend an hour by themselves in God’s presence and that this has been the catalyst of a life-changing transformation in each of their lives. Through the experience and influence of Tony and Melissa, Tom and Cindy are now also engaged in similar early morning routines that are bringing radical transformation in each of their lives as well.