Campolo's Psychic Evangelism

Dedicated to The Virginia Baptist Mission Board, who is bringing Tony Campolo to speak to the 185th BGAV Meeting in November...

TONY CAMPOLO SUGGESTS PRAYING TO PEOPLE
(Friday Church News Notes, December 7, 2007 )

- In the book The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice, which is co-written by Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling, we find the following heretical statement: “While pointing out how important it is for Christians to pray for others, [Frank] Laubach makes a bold and intriguing proposal for another way of praying. He suggests that in addition to praying for someone in need of God, that we should consider praying to that person as well. He tells us that God may want to work through the praying Christian as a channel to reach into the heart and soul of the person who is in need of saving grace.

Laubach proposes that a person who is resisting God might be open to the spiritual impact of a Christian concentrating God’s power on him or her. It is as though, according to Laubach, a praying Christian might be a lens through whom God focuses saving power into another person’s life. Call it a kind of mental telepathy, but what Laubach is suggesting is that the Holy Spirit flowing into a Christian, as a result of prayer, can stir up spiritual energy in that Christian that can then be directed toward a person who needs Christ’s salvation” (Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling, The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice, 2007, pp 34-35).

Editor's note:
In this pro-contemplative review, Jeff Goins has this to say about Campolo's new book....

Campolo and Darling team up in The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice to bring readers the “holistic gospel,” a union of mystical encounters with Christ and essential action. They point to both Catholics and Protestants whose impact on society was fueled by their intimate relationship with their Creator. They highlight mystics such as St. Francis of Assisi and political reformers such as Martin Luther King, Jr., as examples of intimate lovers of God who followed their dedication with proactive attitudes.

Campolo begins the book with an outline of mystical Christianity. He then describes certain encounters that evangelicals have experienced but do not recognize as mystical, such as “new insights” from a familiar passage of scripture. In the following chapters, he shares his heart for evangelism and social justice...

Pastor Dale Morgan shares this warning:

" ...Campolo says that if the Holy Spirit can’t manage to turn someone’s heart, God may use your own psychic powers to do it. And by the way, he suggests, those psychic powers can be honed by the mystical practices that he describes later in the book.