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Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Book
Review: As someone who has heard Tony Campolo speak many times, and as someone who doesn't enjoy reading, this book opened my eyes. It only took me 2 days to read this book. I couldn't put it down. Tony Campolo obviously cares for the inner city missions of Camden and Philadelphia. This book is a great example of how Christians need to respond to the poor and the inner city people. This book will touch your heart with the stories by Bruce Main of his experiences in Camden adn so forth. This is a must have book for any person entering the mission field. Eastern College is very lucky to have a man like Tony Campolo to teach there. As a student at Eastern, I am blessed to have heard this man encourage the students and faculty to reach out to the people of Camden and Philadelphia. This book makes you look in depth at your life and walk with Jesus Christ.
Rating:
Summary: Hopeful and Helpful
Review: For those who really want to do something, or need to be encouraged to do something to help the Kingdom of God be manifest in the city, this book is for you. It is practical, and most importantly, hopeful. Campolo uses his own ministry and experiences, as well as other unrelated ministries (for example, Minneapolis; Ripon, New York; Costa Mesa, CA; and the Dominican Republic) as prototypes for what can be done in inner cities. He is honest in not promising that every ministry he mentions can be replicated; but since Campolo gives so many specific, practical suggestions on how to carry out the ideas and programs presented, people will hopefully catch a vision and be encouraged to give some of them a try. Campolo's love and care for those in the inner city is contagious. He believes that one of God's main concerns is for the poor and oppressed, as evidenced in Jesus' first public words in Luke 4:18-19. Campolo challenges all of us to champion the needs of those who lack the basic necessities of life. He challenges the churches who have much, to partner with those who have little. And he challenges all of us to love Jesus through loving others, especially the poor and oppressed. But his ideas are not only about others helping the poor. He also believes in empowering people to help themselves (for example, see Ch. 7 on neighborhood meetings). If you want to do something to help God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, read this helpful and hopeful book.
Rating:
Summary: Hopeful and Helpful
Review: Tony Campolo had a name that carried a lot of good will with me. I came to this book having long heard of Campolo. I had heard his sound bite wisdom flashed across my television over the years. I was excited to pick up this book and read it. It promised to be something interesting - and very likely useful to my ministry. Sadly, the book was more than a disappointment. Campolo used this book as a printed infomercial for his own ministry. Over and over again he crows about his successes and shamelessly promotes his ministry as exemplary - while doing nothing to take seriously HOW one translates a model of ministry from one place and situation to another. He says so many things that, on the surface, sound appealing. Like a politician, he is skilled at ladling out catch phrases that are like candy to the ear. But...which fall apart when you really look at them. Some of his most offensive suggestions include the inference that the poor should essentially be satisfied and thankful with what they get economically. Having a future that dead-ends at McDonalds is the hand God dealt, so stop bellyaching. He heaps blame on people who suffer, and readily gets their oppressors off the hook by saying it's a good thing to be rich and enjoy it (with no responsibility attached??). As a scholar of Wesleyanism and Methodism, i take particular offence at his intentional misquoting of John Wesley. He notes that Wesley said that one should 'earn all you can and save all you can' (note that Wesley meant be frugal with what you have when he said 'save' - not store up, as we think of its meaning) - while omitting that the purpose of this was to GIVE all you can! Here, Campolo is caught in a gross misrepresentation of Wesley, essentially editing his words to make him say what Campolo wishes he had said! Shame!! I also was shocked by the suggestion that entrepreneurial Christians should look into the possibility of getting on the privatization bandwagon and contract with the government to run Christian prisons! The whole book is a gross accommodation to much that is the WORST about our society. It may read sweetly for those who see ministry to the poor of the inner city as a ministry of condescension. But, i see nothing of Mr. Campolo's upper middle class values in the genuine ministry of compassion of Jesus Christ. Sadly, this book made me lose respect for Mr. Campolo. I wish i could say otherwise.
Rating: 
Summary: From Excitement to Shocking Disappointment
Review: Tony Campolo had a name that carried a lot of good will with me. I came to this book having long heard of Campolo. I had heard his sound bite wisdom flashed across my television over the years. I was excited to pick up this book and read it. It promised to be something interesting - and very likely useful to my ministry. Sadly, the book was more than a disappointment. Campolo used this book as a printed infomercial for his own ministry. Over and over again he crows about his successes and shamelessly promotes his ministry as exemplary - while doing nothing to take seriously HOW one translates a model of ministry from one place and situation to another. He says so many things that, on the surface, sound appealing. Like a politician, he is skilled at ladling out catch phrases that are like candy to the ear. But...which fall apart when you really look at them. Some of his most offensive suggestions include the inference that the poor should essentially be satisfied and thankful with what they get economically. Having a future that dead-ends at McDonalds is the hand God dealt, so stop bellyaching. He heaps blame on people who suffer, and readily gets their oppressors off the hook by saying it's a good thing to be rich and enjoy it (with no responsibility attached??). As a scholar of Wesleyanism and Methodism, i take particular offence at his intentional misquoting of John Wesley. He notes that Wesley said that one should 'earn all you can and save all you can' (note that Wesley meant be frugal with what you have when he said 'save' - not store up, as we think of its meaning) - while omitting that the purpose of this was to GIVE all you can! Here, Campolo is caught in a gross misrepresentation of Wesley, essentially editing his words to make him say what Campolo wishes he had said! Shame!! I also was shocked by the suggestion that entrepreneurial Christians should look into the possibility of getting on the privatization bandwagon and contract with the government to run Christian prisons! The whole book is a gross accommodation to much that is the WORST about our society. It may read sweetly for those who see ministry to the poor of the inner city as a ministry of condescension. But, i see nothing of Mr. Campolo's upper middle class values in the genuine ministry of compassion of Jesus Christ. Sadly, this book made me lose respect for Mr. Campolo. I wish i could say otherwise.
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