A conversation with Bart Campolo.
Philip Jenkinson talks with respected Christian visionary, Bart Campolo, about his inner urban mission in Cincinnati USA, what works in youth ministry, and how he stays motivated in the face of adversity.
PJ: Bart, you’ve been in living and working in a very tough inner-urban precinct for a few years now. What made you transplant your wife and kids into one of your country’s most dangerous and desperate communities?
BC: Well, first of all, it’s not all that dangerous around here if you aren’t buying or selling drugs. Besides that, we live together with a bunch of our friends, and we’re all pretty well known as good neighbours, which makes us safer still.
But even so, where does Jesus tell his followers to always play it safe? We’re here because the needs here are the kind we’re well suited to meet.
PJ: Do you sometimes wonder if the personal sacrifices you are making are worth it?
BC: Sometimes, in moments of great frustration, but not when I weigh them against the personal rewards of living more simply with my closest friends, all working together to do stuff that really matters for people we really love.
PJ: What do you see as the greatest challenge facing inner urban communities like the one you live in, in Cincinnati?
BC: The deadness of soul that is born of generation after generation of living in a welfare society that is largely cut off from the values of work, education, and beauty. Poverty of wealth never feels insurmountable, but poverty of spirit...really does. When people don’t care about anything but their immediate needs, it just feels like there is no starting point for building a genuine community.
PJ: You work in an established ghetto built on generational poverty. Is there anything practical that can be done by the Government or by other organisations to stop this situation from continuing?
BC: Legalise drugs, for starters. The so-called war on drugs has only succeeded in producing hundreds of thousands of now-unemployable felons while wasting billions of dollars that could have been used on education and job creation, not to mention the chaos it has created in the Third World.
Seriously, after all these years of interdiction, if I can still get you anything you want in less time than it will take me to answer this question, maybe it’s time to work on the demand side of the equation.
PJ: In your recent Melbourne talk you said that sometimes it’s the small victories that make the biggest impact. Do you have a favourite real life story you have witnessed that sustains you?
BC: My favourite story is always the one that just happened. Last month, for instance, my friend Robbie fell off the wagon after fighting like crazy to get sober for two years. The next day, instead of going down the tubes like he has a hundred times before, he confessed to his pal Nick, went right back to AA, and got himself to work on time.
He told me that for the first time in his life, he knew he’d be forgiven and he had too much to lose. I love it that our fellowship worked for him even when he blew up. Especially when he blew it.
PJ: When was the last time you or your family was threatened? Does it happen regularly?
BC: The last time was when a new guy at the corner cursed out my wife for patiently waiting for him to move his car instead of trying to squeeze by. The next day he saw us walking and came over to apologise in a big way. Evidently, the rest of the dealers up there let him know we were not to be messed with. Stuff like that happens, but not very often.
PJ: Bart, you also mentioned in Melbourne that there are some people you come across in your world, who you just can’t save... but there is nobody that you can’t love. Is this the reason why you are there, in inner-city Cincinnati?
BC: You’re a good listener.
PJ: Many of the people you come into contact with in your Walnut Hills Fellowship have lost hope, or never had hope. So what do you try and do, or provide for them?
BC: We try to create a context for people where they can experience genuinely loving relationships, in the hope that they will develop an appetite for more of that goodness. When you are looking forward to more goodness, well...you’re hoping again.
PJ: Bart, you’re familiar with the Young Life team-driven philosophy to youth outreach. What do you see are the major strengths of this approach?
BC: With Young Life, you have an incredible window of opportunity to reach out to those who can be saved. If positive change is going to happen, it is most likely to occur from adolescence to the age of 20. But no one person is equipped to do it. Do it alone, and you’ll get burned.
Loving and saving broken teens is a team activity and that’s why a group is always more successful, and for that you need at least two or three of us. That’s how Jesus said they would know we were Christians.
PJ: Young Life strives to make a difference, fundamentally, because we can... as we work with young people and they still have the capacity to grow and thrive spiritually. It must be very different working as you do with broken or drug-ravaged people of varying age groups.
BC: In a place like this, you have to readjust your definition of making a difference. We don’t keep score in utterly transformed lives anymore. We count good days.
PJ: Finally Bart, how long do you think you can keep going, doing what you’re doing and living where you live?
BC: Honestly, I feel really good about living this way, so long as my community and I are careful not to try to do too much for too many people all at once. We love being together, and we are reminded daily here of how blessed we are to be alive and aware of God’s grace.
Article Date: 11.03.2010
Author: Philip Jenkinson
Source: Bart Campolo, 11 March 2010
Philip Jenkinson is the marketing manager for Young Life Australia, a not-for-profit Christian charity that mentors and role-models to teenagers. The organisation operates in Sydney, rural N.S.W., the A.C.T., Melbourne, and the Brisbane area. For more information visit the website www.younglife.org.au or call 1300 557 647 toll-free.
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