IRVINE, Calif. — Tom Christian is the kind of religious voter that John McCain and Barack Obama were courting when they went to church this weekend. Conservative. Republican. But open to either of them.

If his reaction after watching them this weekend is any indication, Obama impressed people with his ease talking the language of faith, no small feat for a Democrat. But McCain may have shored up support from this critical group.

“When I hear Obama, I think, yeah. McCain comes across as a grouchy old man. But the contrast on the issues eventually becomes clear,” Christian said after watching the two candidates speak at his evangelical church, the Saddleback church in his hometown of Lake Forest, Calif.

“Obama always makes a better impression,” Christian said. “But McCain was clear, on issues like life. He said life begins at conception. That’s my position. He believes what I believe. ... I like Obama. But I’ll be voting for McCain.”

That kind of reaction could make a big difference for McCain, who has been struggling to win the kind of record support from this key voting bloc that helped fellow Republican George W. Bush eke out a close reelection battle in 2004.

Mr. Bush took nearly 80 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2004, a key reason he won such make-or-break states as Ohio, where evangelicals make up a quarter of the vote.

McCain until now has struggled to reach 70 percent among white evangelicals. Yet religious conservatives are hardly monolithic. Abortion and marriage remain top concerns. But as Saddleback’s pastor, Rick Warren, has emphasized, so is helping the poor.

Adam Hutchinson, a Saddleback church member, is open to Obama.

He welcomed Obama’s talk about helping people, and what Hutchinson called his “visionary appeal to the heart.” He particularly liked it when Obama said he’d changed his mind about welfare reform since his initial opposition.

His wife, Megan, also said she was open to both, but that she emerged more impressed by McCain.

In 2004, she knew she was for Mr. Bush “from the get-go.” Partly because she really liked Mr. Bush, and partly because she really disliked Democrat John Kerry.

This time, however, she was not as enthusiastic about McCain or the Republican Party. “We’ve had a Republican and I have moments when I approve and moments when I don’t approve.” And she’s not at all turned off by Obama as she was with Kerry.

After watching both men closely Saturday evening, she said, she still liked both. But she might have liked McCain a little more. “McCain won the hearts of more people,” she said. “Tonight, he won my heart.”