By Andy Hale

Many of us were a part of a college ministry of some sort. Being my typical cynical self, I was none-too-satisfied with the big organization campus ministry and helped start a new one with a group of friends. We gathered weekly for dialogue about the Bible that gave rise to several vocational calls to ministry and, at least my, theological transformation.

When I graduated four years later, this ragtag group of people dissolved into the myriad of other campus ministries.

As I sat down with Sojourners founder and president Jim Wallis, I was baffled by the fact that this 50-year strong organization started as a campus ministry. Maybe we didn’t set our college ministry goals high enough…

For the last five decades, the Sojourners community has been concerned with the socio-political-religious landscape of America.

“In those early years, we were the young evangelicals, changing evangelicalism. However, when the religious right was created, we quickly became known as the alternative to the religious right,” said Wallis.

Sojourners seeks to discover the intersection of faith, politics and culture. “My concern now is of the contradictions between what it means to follow Jesus and the behavior, and the life, and the values of American Evangelicals. They are so antithetical,” added Wallis.

Jim Wallis is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, commentator on religious, ethical, and public life matters, and a spiritual advisor to President Barack Obama.

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Sponsorship

This podcast episode is brought to you by Fuller Seminary, The Center for Congregational Health, and Smyth & Helwys Publishing.

Andy Hale created and hosts the podcast of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Hale is the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, following eight years as the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton and five years as CBF’s church start specialist. Follow on Twitter @haleandy