Dr. Tony Campolo: "Live a Life that Matters"

By Brenda Birman *

 
Thursday, April 11, 7:00pm, Memorial Church, Harvard Yard.

The evening began with a time of joyful worship, led by a team from Pentecostal Tabernacle of Cambridge, MA.  Rev. Peter Gomes, Chaplain of Harvard, welcomed the good-sized crowd, which filled Memorial Church and Pastor Brian Greene of Pentecostal Tabernacle opened the meeting in prayer.

Dr. Campolo began his talk entitled, "Living a Life That Matters: Following Jesus Christ, The Radical," by challenging the notion, claimed by some, that Democratic Capitalism is the last great idea mankind is likely to put forward.  He cited some of the serious ills of our current society that are at least partly attributable to our democratic, capitalist system.  In particular, he pointed to the dominance of consumerism in our society, which has led us to pursue education and careers primarily for the purpose of earning large salaries to enable us to "have lots of stuff nobody needs."  One fruit of this consumerism is the overall lack of emotion and passion in our society.  Another is the abandonment of many important pursuits (such as taking time to raise children well) in favor of less worthwhile but more lucrative uses of out time.  Dr. Campolo offered an alternative to consumerism:  a life motivated by vision and rooted in passionate love for others, as exemplified by the life of Jesus Christ.  Living such a life of love is challenging and costly in the following ways:

1. We are challenged to allow the life of Jesus in us to transform us into radical lovers of others.  Dr. Campolo proposed that the true church of Jesus Christ is the church that deliberately goes out to love those whom our society shuns.  The visible presence of this quality of love in us is a guage of the degree to which Jesus is truly alive in us as both Savior and Lord.

2. Living out this radical love of Jesus requires radical commitment and sacrifice.  Dr. Campolo cited the thoughts put forth by Bonhoffer in The Cost of Discipleship, that the grace of God is not cheap but comes with great responsibility.  He challenged us to recognize that this is a time for total commitment and self-giving, not just a time for making token contributions to a noble cause.

3. Following Jesus requires radical surrender.  While we have been given free choice to accept or reject Jesus, we are not given the right to transform Him or His Word into a watered-down rendition that makes Him more comfortable to us.  We must surrender to Him completely and allow Him to call us fully to Himself.  We are challenged to dream courageously the dreams He has for us, with faith that He promises that His yoke will be easy and His burden light (Matt. 11).

Many in attendance were challenged by this message and came forward to the Appleton Chapel for prayer for help in living out these challenges and applying the message to their lives.  The Holy Spirit was clearly present that evening, calling people to deeper and more radically surrendered lives of partnership with Jesus.

* Brenda Birman is a Student at Harvard Medical School