Tony Campolo Visits Nashville

Today, I was enjoying some nice weather sitting outside the Belmont cafeteria when I looked up and to my wonderful delight saw Tony Campolo walking across campus. I exchanged a few words with him, and told him how excited I was for his sermon that night.

And...WOW...what a sermon it was.

In case you missed it, Tony Campolo spoke at Belmont United Methodist Church in Hillsboro Village in Nashville tonight. He had some interesting and provocative things to say, as always. He was just as relentless, just as energetic, just as passionate, and just as enthralling as I had hoped for. I'll bullet some of his main points for you here. The sermon was on the Kingdom of God in the Lord's Prayer.

"Our Father"

-Revolutionary idea at the time
-Our prayer should lead to an experience and not a theology.
-We need to obtain stillness in our lives when we pray, we need to "center down to Jesus"

"Hallowed Be Your Name"

-Name connotates what you do in that time.
-You are essentially saying, "God what can you do through me?"
-We have too much talk without spiritual dynamism, and too much religion without spiritual reality.

"Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will be Done On Earth"

-It's about here and now, not then and there someday in heaven
-"Wouldn't we all want to be a part of a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning?" (referring to a personal story)
-The Kindgom of Heaven is wherever God's will is done on earth.
-Capital Punishment: "How can you support capital punishment when Jesus said blessed are the merciful? How can you support capital punishment when there are two types of justice in America: justice for the rich and justice for the poor."
-Don't sell out to the system. The world is absent of kingdom builders because we have sold out to the American system.

"Give Us Today Our Daily Bread"

-Our Christianity is only concerned about people who don't say four letter words.
-Jesus came to build a Christianity that cares about the things that break the heart of God
-In heaven we might say "But I believed all the right things!" Oh don't you wish it was that easy... The benchmarks we are given are all about the poor and those in need.
-There are over 2,000 verses in the bible about the poor and those in need. How many about the issues we evangelicals always like to talk about?
-Quoting a homosexual friend: "That's the problem with you evangelicals. You think life begins at conception and ends at birth. You don't give a damn about the 35,000 who die every day from extreme poverty."


-Are you a true disciple? Not a believer, Satan is a believer. But are you a true disciple?
-We often ask "Is it safe?" when questions arise about serving in the inner-city. The answer is "Of course not, but how safe is it to grow up in Suburbia in shopping malls and in corporate commercial America your whole life? Don't fear those that can take your life, fear the powers that can take your soul."


I was just most taken back by his joyful spirit and nature. Both times I have seen him thus far he has been smiling and overflowing with joy. He even offered to pray over my friend and I. I am just glad that I get to hear him one more time at Belmont before he leaves.