Tony Campolo: Evangelist to the evangelicals

A sociologist, writer and preacher, he touched legions of people in his classrooms and millions in countless venues around the world.

Tony Campolo, who died Tuesday (Nov. 19), was known as a great preacher but was, above all, an evangelist who proclaimed “good news to the poor,” just as Jesus did when he launched his mission at Nazareth. 

That phrase, “good news,” is a translation of the Gospel of Luke’s original Greek word, evangel, from which we get the words “evangelist” and “evangelical.” Tony was an evangelical, through and through, who believed that genuine evangelicals needed to bring good news to the poor. Period. All Tony ever wanted to be was a disciple, and he loved Jesus’ sermon known as the Nazareth manifesto, in which he says he has come to spread the good news to the poor and “liberate the oppressed.”

Campolo was a popular professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania who made the study of social trends come to life for his students. But after moving to Eastern University, an evangelical Christian college, he discovered that his contemporary evangelical world needed the gospel message as much as the wider world did. Evangelicals’ privatized religion had led them to abandon the social gospel that Jesus taught.

Tony’s eloquent and charismatic nature, his great humor and amazing storytelling made him a powerfully impactful preacher, along with his gifts as a teacher, and it wasn’t long before he was on the road doing many hundreds of events every year in the United States and around the world. He became an evangelist to evangelicals.

The combination of sociologist and preacher was a powerful one. Listening to Tony, people would first learn about their society and their world and how the poor and vulnerable were being treated, and then how the message of Jesus applied very directly. With these complementary gifts, he touched legions of people in his classrooms and millions in countless venues around the world.

At a strange moment in his history, Tony was accused of “heresy” by some of his evangelical opponents and submitted to a heresy test that found him completely “orthodox.” 

Anyone who knew Tony would immediately feel how personal the gospel was to him in his relationship with Jesus. They would also quickly hear about the sufferings of the hungry and the vulnerable and how the gospel of Jesus applied to that urgent and unacceptable condition.

Perhaps Tony’s most well-known sermon was “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.” That is a message most needed right now for so many of us. Among the tributes to Tony we liked best in our house this morning was: “Sundays Come. RIP Tony Campolo.” 

I’ve written elsewhere about appearing on a radio show years ago with a country music disc jockey. Not a Christian himself, he said: “It sounds like all the stuff you’re talking about are in those red letters in the Bible that highlight the words of Jesus. You’re kind of a red letter Christian.” Tony heard it and called me right away to ask if he could use that phrase, which clearly resonated with everything he talked about too.

Tony Campolo and one of his disciples, now author and activist Shane Claiborne, ran with it to start a new organization called Red Letter Christians.

Tony and I were dear friends and deep companions, always talking about biblical passages, what was happening in America and the world, and what preaching the full and whole gospel of Jesus Christ needed to be for our times. We spent time in support and prayer for one another and remained close after his stroke left him in a wheelchair and in nursing care, instead of on the road where he always wanted to be, fulfilling his God-given vocation.

Tony and I had last spoken last week, post-election. As always, he had much to say, and we saw things the same way. At the end of our talk, he told me he was tired. My soul aches this morning because of the death of my dear friend. But there’s also a sense of release for him and his beloved family, for his wife, Peggy, who loved and supported Tony throughout their marriage, and inspired him in her own ministry. 

Rest in peace, Tony, and hear the words from the Lord you so love, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”