Becoming Actualized Christians

Letters to a Young Evangelical (Art of Mentoring)
by Tony Campolo, Ph.D.

A best-selling minister and social activist offers an uplifting vision of what it means to be an evangelical and offers loving guidance to all of those who wish to lead a genuinely Christian life in a confusing world.

Named by Christianity Today as one of the twentyfive most influential preachers of the last fifty years, best-selling author Tony Campolo has spent decades calling on readers and audiences around the world to live their faith through committed activism. A tireless crusader for human rights and the eradication of world poverty, Campolo is a "Red Letter" Christian - he reminds us that when Jesus spoke, he spoke of social justice. But the Religious Right and social conservatives have hijacked His message in the name of Republican politics. They have corrupted the faith by ignoring the true message of Christ and focusing instead on narrow "wedge" issues to win political campaigns.

In Letters to a Young Evangelical, Campolo calls on evangelicals of all ages to reject the false pieties of the Religious Right. With his trademark candor and wit, he offers sage advice to seekers who are trying to live their faith in a modern world that is politically polarized and predominantly secular. He is unafraid to touch on the hot-button topics that divide believers in America and around the world: abortion, gay rights, war, capital punishment, feminism, and the environment.

An activist, a visionary, and a man of deep faith, Tony Campolo offers guidance not only for young evangelicals, but for seekers of all ages and faiths.

Chapter 3

Dear Timothy and Junia,

Having an intimate relationship with Christ is at the core of being an Evangelical. To this end, I want to urge you to consider three things. They are:

Centering prayer

Contemplative Bible study

An accountability group that helps you maintain spiritual disciplines for consistent Christian living

Allow me to explain what is involved in each of these and how you might go about making them part of your life.

As I made clear in my last letter, all spiritual development begins with prayer. Most Christians think that there's not much involved in the art of praying - you just tell God what you need and want. Regrettably, most us never get beyond that kind of praying. Too many of us continue to think of prayer as my son did at age seven, when he came into the living room one evening and said, "I'm going to bed! I'm going to be praying! Does anybody want anything?"

It's all right to make your requests known to God. The Bible tells us to do that. Furthermore, the Bible tells us, "You have not because you ask not" (James 4:2). But praying should be more than simply presenting a list of nonnegotiable demands to the Almighty. Two thousand years ago, the Disciples asked Jesus what this something more might be and how they should pray. Jesus told them that when they pray, they should go into a closet, shut the door, and pray to God in secret (Matthew 6:6). I won't tell you that you should literally go into a closet - but if you are going to pray in depth, you ought to do something like that. You should go somewhere where there are no distractions.

When I was a child at church camp, my cabin counselor told me to go out on a hillside, surrounded by nature's beauty, and meditate upon Jesus. That never worked for me. There were too many distractions in nature. I would notice the birds and the sky and the grass. The sounds of living creatures would seduce me into listening to them, and soon the conscious awareness of God was gone.

I need solitude and darkness to concentrate upon God, so going into a closet isn't such a bad idea for me. However, closing my eyes while sitting in a quiet place will usually do just as well. I try to do my praying in the morning. I get up about a half hour before I have to, and I "center down" on Jesus. As I lie alone in bed in the early-morning quiet, I wait for God to invade me, to fill my soul, and to take possession of me.

I wish I could say it always happens. To be frank, on most mornings nothing happens. Nothing of God is felt, but I keep at it because I never know when the Spirit will take hold of me. Jesus once said that the Spirit is like the wind, which "blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going" (John 3:8). He was telling us that no one can control the Holy Spirit nor conjure up its power, but if one waits patiently, there will be an answer.

I learned about this way of having a born-again experience from reading the Catholic mystics, especially The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius, a founder of the Jesuit order, was once a soldier, and it was only when he spent a long time in a hospital bed recovering from a battle wound that his heart and mind focused on God. Like most Catholic mystics, he developed an intense desire to experience a "oneness" with God. Gradually, he came to feel an intense yearning for the kind of spiritual purity that he believed would enable him to experience the fullness of God's presence within. This drove Ignatius to explore ways of praying and studying the Bible that would provide this blessing. The Spiritual Exercises has become a rich resource for Christians of all denominational persuasions who seek a deep intimacy with God.

After the Reformation, we Protestants left behind much that was troubling about the Roman Catholicism of the fifteenth century. I am convinced that we left too much behind. The methods of praying employed by the likes of Ignatius have become precious to me. With the help of some Catholic saints, my prayer life has deepened. Ignatius and other Catholic mystics such as Teresa of Avila have been of incredible help to me in developing a kind of praying in which God becomes a real and felt presence.

It's hard to describe just what happens in this centering prayer. No words are spoken, and none are heard. Mother Teresa once explained to an interviewer that when she prayed, she often said nothing to God. She just listened. When asked what God said to her as she prayed, she answered, "Nothing! God Listens!" Then she added, "If you don't understand what I am talking about, I can't explain it to you." I do know what she was talking about. The Psalmist described it poetically by saying, "it is the deep speaking to the deep." In another place, the Bible says that such prayers are "groanings that cannot be uttered."

When I rise after engaging in this centering kind of prayer, I sense a fullness in my soul. With that fullness comes awareness that God is a living and guiding presence within me. I feel like I will be led into encounters with others in which I will have opportunities to share something of what God has given me. One rather dramatic example of this took place one day as I stood on a street corner on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, where I once taught. As I was waiting for the traffic light to change, I heard the Duck Lady come up behind me. We called this homeless woman the Duck Lady because she made an incessant quacking sound wherever she went. She seemed to be omnipresent on campus, so it was no surprise when I heard her. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" There she was, standing beside me.

© 2006 by Tony Campolo. Reprinted with permission from Basic Books.

About the Author

The Rev. Dr. Anthony ("Tony") Campolo is Professor Emeritus of Socialogy at Eastern university, St. Davids, Pennsylvania, having previously served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of Eastern Collage and of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he earned a Ph.D. at Temple University. Dr. Campolo is a frequent media commentator, is President and Founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), has authored over 30 books, and is ordained in the American Baptist Church. He lives with his wife, Peggy, in a suburb of Philadelphia.