What I Liked About Tony - Pt 1

Today, I wanted to start a few posts on Tony Campolo. I can not say that I am a huge fan of Tony because his books are not lined up on my book shelves. But, I have always kind of listened to him and followed him a little with his concern on Social Justice.

The last few weeks, Tony has been at the YS conventions. I went and heard him in Cincy. He just concluded speaking in Charlotte. A few of the Charlotte bloggers are having a hard time "digesting" him. I have also then done some researching and have seen numerous "slams" on Tony. Thus, I wanted to do a mini-series on Tony and what I liked about him ( no, I do not agree with him 100% ).

This portion ( part 1 ) will deal with his seminar: Developing Spiritual Depth in Young People.

1. I really like the emphasis that when we are spiritually filled, we will/should be socially engaged. Too often, I think we live in a vaccum and are completely shut off with the world and what is happening.

2. I ( coming from a UMC ) really enjoyed his "disertation" on John Wesley and how the practices from Wesley came into play. Cathloic Mystisim was a very crucial part in his life. We think of ourselfs as the "reformation" that we need to be "removed" from the Cathloic thought and that is not the case.

3. BE STILL. This theme seemed to be all over the convention. His seminar was the first place for me to hear it at ( not ever - at the convention ). Too many times, we are on the go - constantly running. We need to take a break and BE STILL.

4. Prayer. He spent a great deal of time focusing on prayer. He looked at centering prayers, the celtic thin place, prayer of examine and the contemplative prayer. This is going to be a focus in my blog in the coming weeks. A section on prayers and what they can do for us.

5. Holy Spirit. He talked in-depth on the importance of the Holy Spirit. His one statement that really caught me ( early in the morning ) was the following: When you are filled with the Spirit, you will look at people differently. We need to see people differently, so we can love them as a person.

6. Connect Spiritually. We need to engage our students. We can not just give them a bag of tricks and games. We need to engage them with the living Christ. Unfortunately, I still think there are a lot of churches out there who do not engage people with Christ.

One of my favorite 'radical' statements from him was the following: When Jesus said, " we are to love our enemies, he probaly did not mean to kill them ".

Thank Tony for the message. The next aspect from this mini-series that I will look at will be: Red Letter Christians.