Exciting Speakers, pt. 2

I first heard of Tony Campolo when chaperoning a youth group to Youth '99, the national UMC youth convention held every four years in Knoxville, TN. He gave the final speech there and was one of two speakers (the other being Grace Imathiu) who struck me as being particularly good.

The next time I bumped into him was in 2003 in South Africa. I was a PR volunteer for the South African Christian Leadership Assembly II, an historic gathering of Christian leaders committed to beating the giants that seem to be destroying South Africa: AIDS, poverty, domestic violence, and others. I got to interview him and sorta be his "body man." South Africans, Zimbabweans, Lesotho-ians, and Namibians were raving about his workshop conducted in the Youth Tent and an incredibly candid Q and A that covered everything from personal sexual behavior to US foreign policy and the War in Iraq.

I told him that I'd first heard him in Knoxville in 1999 and he responded: "Now you're here. I must have said something right."

He has a speaking style that often convicts you, then gives you hope that you ARE ABLE to serve God more radically and authentically then you've allowed yourself to.

I would recommend listening to some of the sermons on his website, but he recycles a lot of stories so maybe you should wait until after his appearance here at Wesley on December 6th. He will deliver the sermon at Tuesday chapel and participate in a Q and A over lunch.