"The Big-Hearted Christian"
People often ask "What is a Christian? What is a true Christian?" When I was growing up I thought it was somebody who believed in God, who believed in the doctrines of the Apostles Creed, who believed in the Bible. And, indeed, being a Christian involves that sort of thing but it’s more than just believing. It’s much more. You can believe in God but never have a relationship with God. You can believe in God and never have invited God to invade you, to possess you, to invade your personhood.

I’ve got to tell you that the transition in my life came when I went beyond just believing as an intellectual thing and took time to surrender to God and invited Jesus to invade me. That’s what I do in prayer. I became a Christian in prayer, asking Jesus to come into my life in stillness and quietude. I surrendered to a Presence that just came in and took possession of me and it can happen to you if you’ll ask for that to happen.

When the Spirit of God invades you there’s a consequence that you don’t anticipate. It’s this: that you find yourself very sensitive to Jesus’ suffering in other people. People become sacramental. That’s what St. Francis of Assisi tried to tell us. People are viewed as kind of vehicles through whom Jesus comes to us, so that when we look into their eyes we have this eerie awareness that Jesus is staring back at us. That’s what it means to be a Christian, to be filled with God and to be sensitive to Jesus, waiting to be loved in needy people.

In my own experience I remember so well being in Haiti. I was taking my students on a tour of the place. If you were a student of mine at Eastern College where I teach, you would know that every January you had to go to Haiti and be among the poor, because I believe that they can learn things there that they can’t learn in the classroom. My students were with me when I was up in a place in the north. We were in this village and there were children who were sleeping on the streets at night, belonging to no one. Their hair had turned rust color from lack of protein and their arms and legs were like sticks. My tour guide told me that these children would soon be dead unless something happened. When I asked our worker in this particular village what could be done, he said, "If I had $40,000, I could build a place for them and we could bring in a doctor and some nurses and we could feed them and take care of them and save them." I said, "I’ll do it."

I came back to the United States and I raised the money. We went back and we built the facility. We put in the 40 beds that we thought would take care of all the children in the village. The day we were to dedicate the facility the word was sent out that all the children should assemble in the central plaza. When we got there, instead of 40, which we expected, there were almost 300. The word had gotten out and children had come from all over the place. Children who were in desperate need. We could only take 40. You know what I had to do? You know what I had to do! I had to pick out of that 300, 40 children who would go to our new pavilion and be cared for and fed.

You can’t choose 40 children to live out of 300, without simultaneously choosing 260 to die. I tried not to look back at the others but I will always remember them. The 40 chosen ones got on the bus and we went to the pavilion where they would have beds and food and doctors and care. As they came off the bus, there was a church choir singing an old Sunday School song: "God is so good. God is so good. God is so good to me. He loves me so. He loves me so. God is so good to me." And as they sang that there was an anger inside of me. I felt myself crying out to God saying, "You’re not good! You don’t care because if you were good and if you cared, I would not have left 260 kids back there to die." And I sensed the spirit of God within me saying, "I am good and I do care. Those children back there will die not because I’m not good and I don’t care, but because the people who call themselves my followers don’t care."

They don’t care. So many people, so many people who say they’re Christians don’t have that caring in the depths of their being. And you’re not really a true follower of Jesus until Jesus invades you and creates within you that intensive caring, that intensive concern, that intensive love until your heart is broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus. Then you’re not a Christian.

I’ve got to tell you that this is at the core of the Christian faith. There are 2,000 verses of Scripture that call upon us to respond to the needs of the poor. Of all the passages this one really hits me hard, I John 3:17, 18: "If you have this world’s goods and you know of brothers and sisters who are in need and you do not respond to those people who are in need, how can you say ‘I have the love of God in my heart.’?" I don’t think you do.

It’s not only in Haiti but I could take you to Zimbabwe. The missionary organization that I head up has just opened up an AIDS hospice in Africa, in Zimbabwe just outside of Harare. There are 10 million children in Africa who have lost both mother and father because of AIDS. They themselves have got the disease. No one will touch them. No one will care for them in many instances. And so outside of Harare we put up a building that will hold about 100 children because we don’t think that children should die out on the streets. We don’t think that children should die hungry and diseased with no one caring for them. Someone should be holding a child’s hand.

You can make it happen. I don’t know what organization you want to connect with but Catholic Charities, Compassion International, World Vision—you know these organizations—United Jewish Appeal. Through them you can reach out and touch a child’s life. I know that for $30 a month, that’s $1 a day—that’s what you buy for a cup of coffee—you can rescue a kid in a Third World country and I think you need to do that.

I got to tell you this. When I go to Third World countries I realize that the need is there but I also know that the need is here in the United States, as well. You don’t have to go to the Third World anymore. You can go to some of the derelict districts of Chicago. You can go to North Philadelphia; Camden, New Jersey. That’s one of the cities where some of my missionaries work. You don’t have to go to the Third World. Camden, New Jersey is the Third World. I’ve got to tell you, 92% of the children born there last year were born out of wedlock. The need is horrendous.

One time when I was in Haiti I was in this restaurant. They served up this food. It was just an incredible meal. I’m ready to eat and I looked to my right. There next to me on the other side of the glass were three little Haitian children. Their noses were pressed against the glass. They were staring at me. I didn’t know what to do. I was just beside myself, I was so upset. The waiter seeing my discomfort, moved in. He pulled down the shade and he said to me, "Don’t let them bother you. Enjoy your meal." As if I could. As if I could! And yet in a sense that’s what we all do. We all pull down the shade. We pretend they’re not out there. We pretend that the need doesn’t exist. But the need does exist, people. And you’re called upon to do what you can. Are you willing to call Big Brothers or Big Sisters and reach out to a kid who needs a friend, who needs a brother, who needs a sister, who will take care and watch over and care for that person?

My son heads up an organization called Mission Year. They’ve recruited young people from across the country who were willing to take a year off and just go door to door in poor neighborhoods, praying with people. They knock on the door, and when the people answer they say "We’re from the church down the street. Don’t get nervous. We haven’t come to drag you out to church or to lay a conversion trip on you. We just want to pray with you. And we want to pray that God will meet the needs of the people in this household. Will you let us do that? You don’t have to invite us in. We can do it right here." Even the agnostics say, "Well, if it’ll make you feel any better, go ahead!" And we do. And then we always ask this question, "Are there any special needs that you have?" Our young people who are on this missionary year are amazed at what they hear. "Yes, I have a son on drugs and we don’t know what to do. He gets worse and worse all the time." "I’ve got a daughter that’s pregnant for the second time." "I’ve got a boy who’s failing in school. We don’t know what to do. We don’t know where to go. We don’t know where to turn for help."

We pray for the family. At the end of the day when everybody gets together, we sit down, we go over the cards and we call people. We say to the YMCA, "You run that job placement service. There’s a man on Felton Street that needs a job. We met him today. Go over and visit him." "There’s a girl who’s pregnant who needs somebody to talk to her would you send somebody from your organization to talk to that girl so that she gets some help." We call that Presbyterian church that has that drug rehab program or Teen Challenge and say, "There’s a boy we know of."

We find that in visiting door to door we meet people in need. We find that you don’t have to create new programs in the inner-city. The programs already exist, but we connect the people who have the need with those programs. It’s a program called Mission Year and maybe you know young people who need to volunteer and do something like this. Take a year off from school and give it to the poor and the needy in the inner-city. You’ve got to make a difference, people. You’ve got to reach out. I mean being a Christian is not just a head thing. It’s a heart thing. Do you have a heart that’s big enough to respond to the needs of those who are in desperate agony out there? And there are many of them.

You know, we’re making progress. Ten years ago it was one out of every eight children that was on the verge of death because of starvation. We’ve cut that down to one in three. One out of five children died because of poor water systems just ten years ago. We now have it down to one in twenty die of poor water systems. Literacy has been cut by 30% in the last ten years. People like you, people like me reaching out, loving people, caring for people, make a difference. And so I say to you let the shade go up. They’re on the other side of the glass. Look out there, see those people who are in need. And in the name of Jesus, understand that Christ wants you to have your heart broken by the things that break the heart of Jesus. Look out and let yourself be able to see what’s going on.

Interview with Tony Campolo
Interviewed by Floyd Bronw

Floyd Brown: Tony, you’re one of the most inspirational persons I’ve ever met in my entire life and there’s something I’d like you to relate to. My daughter came to me in the last couple of weeks and said she’d met a friend that she had known for some time. And the friend said, "Oh, Diane, it’s good to see you again." And in the conversation she says, "You know, I’m a Christian." Diane says, "Oh, yeah, I’m a Christian, too." She says, "No, I’m a Christian Christian." Obviously there’s a joy in being a Christian. Tell us a little bit about that joy.

Tony Campolo: You know when I talk about responding to the needs of the poor, people often get the ideas that this is a painful, agonizing sacrifice. And I always ask them this question, "How do you think Mother Teresa got up in the morning? Do you think she kind of dragged herself out of bed and said, ‘Well, here it goes, another lousy day on the streets of Calcutta.’?" No. I’m quite convinced that she jumped out of bed with excitement and enthusiasm. Those who knew her talked about the bubbling joy that radiated from her being because, interestingly enough, Jesus communicates himself to us through people who are in need. And as we minister, the joy of Jesus comes into us and electrifies us. The happiest people I know, the most joyful people I know, are those who are living and serving among the poor.

Brown: I think the first time I talked to you on this program and met you—it must have been ten or fifteen years ago, it’s a long ways back—I think I said at the time, "Where were you when I was a kid?" You talk about the joy of Christianity and of the marvelous effect that it has upon one. And obviously this is transformed into your students and you call them your missionaries that go out into the community. Tell us a little bit about the transformation. What happens here when these kids come in? Are they already committed or is there a change?

Campolo: Most of the students who come to Eastern College think they’re Christians. They’ve grown up in a Christian home. But you can get inoculated with Christianity and become immune to the real disease, and that’s what happens to many of these kids. They grew up and they kind of absorbed the Christian religion and they are religious. But when I get them among the poor, the excitement, the realization that God can take all of them and use them to transform the lives of others causes them to be transformed.

I am amazed at how many young people came to work with me in cities across the country who, when their time of service was over and they were supposed to go home said, "I’m sorry, I’m staying here. This is the best place I’ve ever been. This is the place where I’ve been most joyful." There are people working in Haiti right now in our ministries down there. We have a network of some 85 schools among slave children. These are called rèstavèks. They’re children who come from families that are so poor they’re given away and those who take them in reduce them to slavery. We have to run our classes from 4:30 in the afternoon until 9:00 at night because the kids have got to do their slave labor all day long. But if you take a kid from the United States and send them down there to be among these children who are so grateful, oh, so grateful, the kids come home and say, "I was never so appreciated in my life. I think I want to go back there and spend my life." I am amazed that about half of them usually change their majors and go into some form of service to others because they found it such a joy.

Brown: That’s got to be gratifying for you to see this transformation but we’ve got about a minute here and I need you to tell me this. You see so many things that are wrong in the world. You talked about choosing the 40 kids out of 300. Your choices, they must weigh heavy on you.

Campolo: Jesus only expects us to do what we can. You know, sometimes we get overwhelmed with the immensity of the job. Let me suggest this to anybody who is listening: why not think of some elderly person who’s shut in. As soon as this program is over turn off the television, sit down and write a little note to that person. Some poor family that you know about, send a $10 bill anonymously or a $20 bill anonymously. Call someone on the telephone who you know even as you’re sitting watching this show is probably lonely and would love to have a call. Here’s what Jesus says, "Even the cup of water given in my name has its reward." And Jesus said, "If you’re faithful in these little things, sooner or later you’ll be doing great things."

Brown: Thank you, Tony. A wonderful message!