Tony Campolo has been called home by His Heavenly Father. He was 89 years old. A Baptist minister and sociologist. He was an advisor to President Clinton apparently – a surprise to me but I remember that Bill Clinton grew up in the Baptist Church.

Campolo first came to our attention when we were young leaders. I ordered his film series – yes you showed the video on a film projector! The noise of the projector was always a challenge, and now I look at the advances in technology – well, I would have loved to have had those kind of resources.

I showed the film series on a series of Sunday evenings and people loved it. He had a great sense of humour and was profound in his teachings.

You can see my previous post about that here.

He was an avid defender of those suffering social injustice. He had a strong influence on my thinking in those early years of developing as a leader. He unsettled me, made me feel like simply being a pastor to my people was not enough – I needed to raise up other leaders, impact the community and think about our ministry context with a critical eye.

Another prophet of The Church gone – that’s how I see it.