When questioned about the benefits of being 102 years old, Eugene replies, “No peer pressure.” Just bringing Eugene out of his suitcase gets instant laughs from any audience he appears in front of, and some of his hilarious facial expressions speak almost as loud as his words. Eugene has his audience laughing out loud and eating out of his wrinkled old hand in no time.
Although he grew up going to church “every time the doors opened,” Eugene has been badly burned and turned off by the hypocrisy that he’s experienced in church for over a century and by the dichotomy between what he says many Christians profess to believe and how they actually live their daily lives. Eugene, too old to care anymore what people think about him, challenges pat answers, shallow Christian clichés, self-righteous & unbiblical dogmatism, carnal complacency, and anything less than uncompromising commitment to biblical discipleship and radical obedience to Christ—and he’s harder on his sidekick, Chip, than on anybody else. Eugene’s often repeated catchphrase is, “What you say you believe is not what you believe. What you believe is what you do.”
Eugene will have some of the audience whispering under their breath, “Thank God somebody is finally saying these things,” and others squirming in their seats looking for the closest exit. Above all, however, will be a challenge to honestly search our own hearts concerning our commitment to walk out our talk and live what we say we believe as followers of Jesus Christ.