One of my heroes, Tony Campolo passed away recently and I’m so grateful that I got to be alive during the same time he was. I’ll never forget the first time we (Youth Specialties) booked him to speak at one of our National Youth Worker’s Conventions. It was in Atlanta, 1974. He told a gripping story somehow involving Tasty Kakes (a Philadelphia bakery) and then applied it to how young people could change the world. When he was finished, a room full of youth workers came to their feet, wildly cheering this college professor who they had never heard before. People were coming up to me after his session asking, “Where did you get this guy?”
That was a little over 50 years ago. Tony had the same effect on people ever since then. I called him a few months ago and told him that I loved him, and that hardly a day went by when I didn’t recall something that he said—some nugget of truth which made me think differently about my faith, my theology, my walk with Christ, my calling. He was a singular prophetic voice who had the ear of junior high pastors and Presidents alike. He even survived a heresy trial which we proudly covered in the Wittenburg Door magazine.
I had a chance to travel with Tony to Haiti about 35 years ago as he was establishing orphanages, schools and feeding programs through his ministry called EAPE (Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education). Observing Tony up close and personal, I gained a genuine appreciation for how much he truly cared about the poor and the suffering. The least of these was not just a sermon point to him. He really believed that we could, in the name of Jesus, turn the tables on the principalities and powers, as he liked to call them. And he led the way for us all.
One of the hard things about getting old is that all your mentors and heroes start disappearing, one by one, as they go to meet the Jesus they served so faithfully. I think of people like Henri Nouwen, Frederick Buechner, Dallas Willard, Earl Palmer, Will Campbell, Tim Keller and so many others. But although they are gone, their influence remains. I won’t be taking those Campolo books off my shelf anytime soon. Thank you Tony. My condolences to Peggy and all his family and friends.
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