Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant

Part of my excitement regarding next year’s Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta stems from the line-up of speakers who have agreed to participate in this gathering. I’m particularly excited that Tony Campolo will be addressing the meeting, as I have a deep respect for his ministry “to the least of these.” I was privileged to hear Dr. Campolo during the course of an entire week many years ago when he was invited as the guest lecturer at the annual conferences of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Buenos Aires where I served on the faculty. It was a tremendous week of hearing Dr. Campolo share stories in his own unique style, each one with a powerful message about our need as Christians to address the pressing issues that the church has far too often neglected. My wife and I were honored to host Dr. Campolo for breakfast in our home one morning, and found him to be a gracious Christian gentleman. I’ve often heard that good preaching ought to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Dr. Campolo has a gift of doing the latter, and his message deserves a broad hearing. I trust that many will make plans to be a part of the Celebration of the New Baptist Covenant next year and hear Tony Campolo and many other outstanding speakers.