EAPE

Tony’s Final EAPE Newsletter & the Beginning of a New Era

Affiliated Ministries , EAPE , Eastern University , Featured Posts , Newsletters

This is my final newsletter for EAPE and I want to thank you specifically for the special part you’ve played in helping us to accomplish our mission. Because of God’s guidance and blessings and your generous and prayerful support we’re confident that the ministries EAPE has established are prepared to flourish as they serve God’s kingdom. Every prayer you’ve prayed, every gift you’ve given has helped us to strengthen and nurture 22 ministries to independence and sustainability. We couldn’t have done it without you and I’m eternally grateful for your help.

As I explained in earlier newsletters, when EAPE ceases to exist as a legal entity on June 30^th my own ministry will, by no means, end. I will continue my preaching ministry, speaking about 200 times a year. This is a cut back from speaking 300 times a year, which has been my schedule over the past several years, but it is certainly evidence that I’m not retiring.

In the foreseeable future I will spend a lot of time recruiting sponsors for needy children in Third World countries through the auspices of two Christian agencies, Compassion International and World Vision. I will also be taking every opportunity to speak and do fundraising on behalf of the various EAPE related mission organizations. (Perhaps your church or some up-coming conference would like to have me as a speaker.)

The primary focus of what I will do, however, will be to develop the Campolo Center for Ministry. This center is being established to do two things:

1^st – To recruit young men and women for ministry as pastors, missionaries, youth workers, evangelists and Christian education directors.

2^nd – To raise financial support for scholarships for those who are willing to commit to such ministries.

More than 70% of those who graduate from seminaries and Bible colleges never end up doing the kind of ministries that they believe God has called them to do because of the huge financial debts incurred due to tuition expenses. What a waste!

The Campolo Center for Ministry will do all that’s possible to enable dedicated young people to graduate debt free and, therefore, to live out their calling without hesitation.

But, hopefully, our partnership is not over! You can help me in this endeavor by becoming contributors to The Campolo Center for Ministry. Eastern University is providing me with free office space and secretarial help along with setting up a special fund to receive your gifts towards this program. If you believe in this endeavor you can send tax-deductible checks made payable to the Campolo Center for Ministry at Eastern University, P.O. Box 7238, St. Davids, PA 19087. You then will be investing in the lives of dedicated servants of God’s kingdomwork. Robert Gauthier, who has worked with me for the last 9 years, will help me in this endeavor and serve as the Director of Development for this new initiative.

Finally, I want to stay connected to you and that can be done in the following ways:

1^st – By keeping up with my speaking schedule. If you use a computer you can do that by logging on to www.TonyCampolo.org. Or you can write to me at Eastern University and ask for a monthly print out of where I’ll be speaking.

2^nd – You can listen to my weekly radio show at http://www.redletterchristians.org/podcast/

3^rd – You can write to me. I always personally answer letters.

I hope you do these things because I really meant it when I said that I need your prayerful support.

There are some tears running down my cheeks as I sign off on this last EAPE newsletter, but that time has come. “May God be with you, ‘til we meet again.”

Sincerely,

Tony Campolo

P.S. Over the years several of you have listed EAPE in your wills. Would you be willing to change the beneficiary from EAPE to The Campolo Center for Ministry? To say I would be grateful is a gigantic understatement.

A New and Biblical Way to Extend a Call to Ministry

EAPE , Featured Posts , Newsletters

A NEW AND BIBLICAL WAY TO EXTEND A CALL TO MINISTRY

by Dr. Tony Campolo

THE CHALLENGE

We’re not doing it right! Some of the brightest and best young men and women fail to be called into church vocations. It’s no secret that churches grow or decline, depending on the preaching and leadership skills of their pastors. Yet we’re letting many of the best possible candidates slip away from us. That is largely because we are not following the Biblically prescribed way of calling young people into the ministries of our churches.

We’re reactive rather than being proactive. Typically, a church waits for some young person to present himself or herself to the pastor or a deacon or announce that he or she “feels a call.” There is little or no confirmation of such a subjective sense of calling, and hardly ever is there a questioning of such a call. It is no wonder that so many of those who go into the pastorate, or other forms of church ministry, are likely to question their calling in the years that lie ahead. They often ask, “How do I know that the feeling I had was really a call from the Lord?”

There’s a better way. We find it in the Book of Acts. When choosing its leaders the early church watched potential candidates over a period of time, and when the people “were together and of one accord” (Acts 1.14; 2.1) they hand-selected them for special roles as preachers and ministers. After Paul became a spirit-filled Christian those in the Christian community watched and prayed for him for a couple of years before they designated him for preaching and missionary service. They prayerfully considered whether he had the gifts for preaching and teaching before they decided to ordain him. The same was true for Barnabas and Silas. It was the church that decided Matthias should take the place vacated by Judas. It was always the Church that did the calling into the vocations of leadership.

What if we followed the way that the early Church did it? Instead of leaving it up to the subjective feelings of individuals, what if the Church designated who is called to be preachers, teachers, and evangelists?

What we are proposing is that the deacons, or elders, or whoever makes up the spiritual leaders of a local congregation commit to carefully observe the young people that are part of their community of faith. They should then meet regularly for prayer and discussion over several months and seek out the young people who have “the gifts” for preaching and leading and then plan to extend the call to such person or persons.

Imagine that perhaps on some Saturday morning a couple of the deacons or elders took a “chosen” young person to breakfast, and after the meal, explained that they, along with the other spiritual leaders of the church had been seeking God’s will and had decided that particular young person should accept a call to the ministry. A given candidate would then have a frame of reference for his or her calling that transcended subjective feelings.

THE CHURCH’S RESPONSIBILITY

After extending the call the promise should be made that if the answer is “yes,” the church will stand behind the candidate with prayer and financial support. Many of those who go through college and seminary to prepare for the ministries of the Church do not get to live out their calling. After paying for years of training, upon graduation they are so deeply in debt that they cannot afford to serve in church vocations that usually provide very low salaries.
When a church calls someone to pastoral ministry or to do missionary work the church should do its best to provide the financial aid so that the candidate can graduate debt free.

If a church is struggling financially The Campolo Center for Ministry will join up with that church and seek to raise the needed funds to provide for that “called” young person. That’s why we need your help! Would you become a contributor to the Campolo Center for Ministry so that we can make all of this happen?

While the student is studying here at Eastern we will provide the spiritual support that will nurture zeal for spreading the Gospel and building up the Church. We will seek to get the home church regularly involved with prayer.
The statistical studies of religion in America show that many churches are dying. We believe we can provide new life for our churches with the right kind of ministerial leaders, and the Campolo Center for Ministry will help make this happen.

Click here to give online:

or send your tax-deductible gifts to:

Campolo Center for Ministry
at Eastern University
P. O. Box 7238
St. Davids, PA 19087-7238

For more information or to donate
by phone, please call Robert Gauthier:
Local: 610-341-1715
Toll free: 855-612-3273

“It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.”

EAPE , Featured Posts , Newsletters

Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.” And that’s the way it is for me these days.

These are the worst of times for me because, as you know, the date of June 30th, when EAPE legally shuts down, is quickly approaching. I will miss the joy that goes with our mission of launching new ministries, and the gratification of watching young people that we (EAPE) have recruited, trained and spiritually nurtured emerge as Christian leaders. Some have become pastors and youth ministers in local churches and others, who had entrepreneurial skills, have become founders of their own ministries in Third World countries and in “at risk” neighborhoods in cities across North America. I’m enclosing a brochure which will remind you of a few of the twenty-two ministries that have been part of EAPE’s gospel spreading efforts over the past forty years, and in which so many young people gained their vision for Christian service.

These are also the best of times, because I am realizing that you are continuing to financially support EAPE during these difficult days, enabling us to fulfill obligations to our fledgling spin off ministries, each of which has moved progressively toward being self-supporting.

Please keep giving to EAPE because we continue to use your gifts to do the good work God has called us to do. Your giving made it possible for us to support one of our affiliated programs, The Simple Way. This ministry, located in a derelict neighborhood in Philadelphia, is restoring dilapidated houses and selling them to low-income families at cost with no down payment and long term mortgages with no interest. This is part of the mission not only to bring the good news of God’s salvation to individuals, but also to bring people together to change this neighborhood into the kind of community that God wants it to be. In response one single mother of three children said, “I’m so grateful that my God cares about what kind of house we live in!”

Another reason these are the best of times is that I feel myself being freed up to develop The Campolo Center for Ministry here at Eastern University, where I’ll still have my office. This center will undergird the preaching and teaching ministries through which I will continue to challenge young men and women to commit themselves to full-time Christian vocations.

As I move into this new stage of my life, I hope you will keep up with what I will be doing. You can do that by visiting www.TonyCampolo.org where you’ll find a calendar of my speaking engagements. There you can also log on to the weekly pod-casts of my radio program “Across the Pond.” If you want a hard copy of when and where I will be speaking, write to:

Robert Gauthier
c/o The Campolo Center for Ministry
Eastern University
1300 Eagle Road
St. Davids, PA 19010

I’m counting on your prayers and your continued financial support for EAPE, right up through June 30th.

Sincerely,

Tony Campolo
Founder and President, EAPE

P.S. Over the years several of you have listed EAPE in your wills. Would you be willing to change the beneficiary from EAPE to The Campolo Center for Ministry? I would be forever grateful to have your support in this special way. If this is a change you’re willing to make or if you have any questions, please call Robert Gauthier at 610-341-1715.

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’

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As you and your loved ones prepare to commemorate the death and burial of Jesus of Nazarth and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we wanted to share with you some of the words from one of Tony’s most inspirational and well known sermons. You can listen to the full sermon here.

Remember, “It’s only Friday… but Sunday is coming!”

“It’s Friday… Jesus was nailed dead on a cross.