Greetings from Columbia, Missouri! Tony and I are here for the Missouri United Methodist Church COMPASS conference, designed to help pastors grow spiritually and professionally.
Today, Tony will speak to clerical and lay leadership on the themes of Social Holiness and Missional Readiness. If you’re interested in receiving email updates about Tony’s speaking itinerary and Campolo Center special events, you can subscribe to our free e-newsletter here: https://campolocenter.org/joinus/
Ocean City Tabernacle, Sunday, August 20th at 7 PM ET
The dynamic duo of Tony Campolo and Mark Lowry are back again for an encore performance of their night of inspirational storytelling and worship at Ocean City Tabernacle. Laugh, cry, sing and be uplifted by this unique worship service.
If you can’t attend in person, tune in via live-stream here: http://octabernacle.org/stream/ Ocean City Tabernacle is one of Tony’s favorite places to visit and share the Good News. We hope you’ll join us there in person or online! (We’ll send out a few more reminders closer to the night of Sunday, August 20th, but don’t hesitate to contact us or the Tabernacle with questions.)
Recovering the Visibility of the Church
This year, the Campolo Scholars will be trained and mentored on the topic of discerning and recovering the visibility of the church. What does it mean to be the church in 21st Century? What distinguishes the church from the surrounding culture and from the world? How do we cultivate and sustain communities of faith that will bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ?
To help guide us in answering these urgent and important questions, we’ll consider the life, writings and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This well-known German pastor, theologian and professor was executed in a Nazi concentration camp shortly before Hitler’s fall, for his vocal and prophetic critique of the Third Reich.
In his essay, Why Bonhoeffer Matters: The Challenge for Christian Ministry at the End of Christendom, pastor-theologian, Stanley Hauerwas notes:
“Bonhoeffer’s attempt to bring the conflict [between German Nationalism and Christianity] into the open I believe to be extremely important for why and how he continues to be such an important resource for those in the ministry in our time. For, as he suggests, we may well be coming to the end of a form of Christianity that will demand changes in how the ministry is understood. In particular, it will mean the recovery of the visibility of the church as the necessary condition for bringing into the open the conflict between church and world.
One aspect of such a recovery will entail a confidence from ministry leaders in the most basic acts that unify the Church of Jesus Christ – preaching of the word and the celebration of the Eucharist. It is the preaching of Christ and the celebration of his crucifixion and resurrection that Bonhoeffer rightly reminds us will make possible lives that can identify the lies that threaten our lives.”
There’s plenty of hard work and deep thinking ahead for the Campolo Scholars. Please pray and support these brave young leaders as the Campolo Center works to train, educate and equip them for faithful Christian service during their years at Eastern and in the vocational ministry they pursue upon graduation.
Thank you for your partnership!
With gratitude and hope in Christ,
Robert Gauthier
Executive Director of Development
P.S. Please let us hear from you soon – now is the time to invest in the church’s declaration of truth through the work of the Campolo Center for Ministry. Join now and partner with us today!