A few months ago I was the very happy winner of a book giveaway by Tony Campolo on his website, RedLetterChristians.org (which I highly recommend reading!). The book that I won was called “Stories That Feed Your Soul” and is a collection of nonfiction inspirational short stories revolving around the following eight themes:
- Freedom From Condemnation
- The New Life In Christ
- Intimacy With God
- The Call To Rescue Creation
- Living With Hope
- Praying In The Spirit
- God’s Plan For Us
- The Assurance We Need
At first I read one story per night while putting my son to bed, but soon I found myself eagerly eating up the stories as I saw the hand of God working in each situation. They truly did bring to light some of the nuances of living out our faith day-to-day while causing me to stop and reflect on my life.
The stories are also very useful in communicating complex ideas and theological points. Point in fact, I paraphrased one of Tony’s stories in my sermon last week on a whim as it just seemed to fit and, would you believe, it was the one thing folks remembered! Why this may not reflect good on my sermon, it does highlights the power of stories – perhaps that is why Jesus taught in parables? 😕
Below is the story that I paraphrased (and which will be read in its full this coming Sunday) as a teaser for the 117 stories included in Tony’s book. Enjoy and be blessed.
Church Critics
“Every once in a while, when I am talking to a university student, I get some kind of arrogant response where the student basically says, ‘I have no time for church; the church is full of hypocrites!’
To that, I always respond, ‘You are right! That’s why you’ll feel very much at home if you come and join us. The church is full of hypocrites and , if you’ll come, you’ll feel just like one of us. There’s no doubt that we church people are hypocrites. In one way or another, everyone in this world is a hypocrite. It’s just that church people, for the most part, are hypocrites who know they are hypocrites and they’ve come to church to find out how God can help them to overcome their hypocrisy.’
Christians love the church and want to be with its people in spite of their shortcomings. Church loyalty is always a part of Christian living.”