Remembering Tony Campolo (1935-2024)

Gratitude and Sadness

In the early 1980’s while attending Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee my good friend Todd Littleton and I headed to Del City to attend an evangelism conference. We took our preferred seats on the front row of the balcony to the left of the preachers who would be standing behind the pulpit.

On this one evening we heard a preacher that we were unfamiliar with at the time. His name was Tony Campolo. To say his words that night made an impression would be a huge understatement. Four decades later Todd and I still recall the words we heard that night.

This week Campolo’s earthly life came to an end in Philadelphia. He was 89 years old. As I have been reflecting back on this man’s life and ministry, I see much for which I am grateful to the Lord. I also see areas which bring sadness.

I am saddened that near the end of his ministry he embraced the acceptance of homosexual unions. Campolo also seemed to rank the words of Jesus in the Scriptures as of being more important than the words of the Holy Spirit in the same Scriptures. He helped found an organization called Red Letter Christians with this distinction serving as the basis for the group.

Today we must remember that the words written in black in your Bibles are just as much the Word of God as are the words written in red.

As to the homosexuality question, I am confident that Campolo got this tragically wrong. At the same time I must search my own mind and heart to consider areas in which I get things tragically wrong.

But what am a I thankful for in this man? I am grateful that he continually called the church to consider how we can and must labor for those who have been marginalized in today’s culture. And, yes, this culture oftentimes looks a lot like the culture inside of the church. I have been marking passages in my daily Bible readings in which the LORD calls us to consider the poor and needy. The yellow marks on the pages are plenteous.

But what I am most thankful for was the thrust of his message that night in the 80’s in central Oklahoma. With a style that could make you laugh and then immediately cut you to your innermost being, Campolo warned about the tendency of Christians to create and worship a God that looks and acts a lot like we look and act. It’s almost as if we have created a god of ourselves to worship.

It doesn’t take a scholar like Campolo to look around and see that even today many Christians and churches do not worship the holy God of heaven as revealed in Scripture. As Archie Bunker once explained how he knew that God was white, “The Bible says I was created in the image of God, and you’ll note that I’m not black.”

Lord, when I truly understand that your ways are not my ways, may I seek to be shaped more into your image that try to squeeze you into the mold of my image.

May you do the same. If today’s church sought after this, we would find ourselves being transformed into the beautiful image of Christ.