Tony Campolo, an Eastern alum and founder of the Campolo fellows program, has influenced numerous people during his journey at Eastern and even after the fact.
On Wednesday, Jan. 30, Reverend Cean James was presented with the opportunity to speak about his life’s mission and how he was a visiting Campolo fellow. James has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and is pursuing his Doctorate at Lancaster Theological Seminary. Rev. James is also the founder and pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship.
At the beginning of the service, Rev. James preached about how life is full of firsts; first kiss, first love, first steps, first words etc. People will always remember the firsts.
Rev. James emphasized a time when he witnessed his first church fight. These two women were having a disagreement so he sat down and tried to find some common ground, but what happened was quite different.
The ladies were bickering when all of a sudden, one stands up and said, “None of this even matters because God is on my side.”
Rev. James was shocked by this statement. He explained to the audience that as humans, we like to choose things. Specifically, choose sides. We like to think that God is on our side when really, God doesn’t choose sides at all.
Joshua 5: 13-15 talks about when Joshua came to the walls of Jericho and asked the guard whose side he is on and the guard replies “neither.” The guard is a commander of the Lord and therefore does not have a side; this is how things should be.
Rev. James said, “As humans who have fallen from grace, we feel as though we must choose sides and this leaves a splintered church. We want God to choose a side. We believe that God is on our side and when that happens, we aren’t trying to change our morals for God, we are trying to change God.”
Rev. James ended his sermon with ideas of hope and renewal. He said that this generation will be the one that brings people together in the united blood of Christ.
Rev. James leaves the audience with one last, final thought. He said, “the real question is, are we on God’s side?”