crossing over to evangelism

i spent the weekend at a conference on evangelism. the shining light in the whole was the opening session. dr. tony campolo spoke at the opening session and gave a good address. i did not realize that he is over 70 years old and still keeping such an active speaking schedule. he arrived that afternoon and has to be ready to go to the airport at 4am the next day for another conference.

campolo’s message was full of passion as he spoke on the importance of evangelism and for the world to hear the good news. he shared the vision and philosophy of ‘red letter christians’ and the desire to distance and separate from terms that have negative connotations associated with them.

i was hoping that the rest of the conference might have been as stirring. i guess my expectations were too high. it seems that much of the mainline church remains in an 80’s-early 90’s mindset for evangelism – maximizing ‘alpha’; engaging gay and lesbians in conversations about faith. there was one or two sessions that were relevant – music and social justice.

i’m not sure when the church will realize that it needs to start focusing on issues that are relevant to reaching the coming generation and changing culture.