I'm with Tom!
Now I know that many people are put off by either Tom Short's message or Tom's approach, but, as a guy that knows him personally, I can not speak highly enough about his integrity and his convictions.
I first met Tom personally in 1992 when I was at a Leadership Training program in San Diego, CA. Tom was pastoring a church there at that time. When he decided to re-enter the campus evangelism ministry (something he had done years back), I was eager to bring him onto campus... and he's been coming here ever since.
Today, I stopped by around 4pm and within 10 minutes I was into a great conversation and handed out 3 Rock invite cards. Here's how it happened: I stood on the fringe and listened to the banter as most people were doing. Said "hi" and gave Nick Bal a hug (Nick leads Alive at Drake in Des Moines... an awesome campus ministry). I noticed a guy just leaning against the pine tree so I thought I'd ask him if he had been there long and if he found the dialog between Tom and critics (as well as supporters) interesting. He said he had been there awhile and was into what was going on. He was a Presbyterian kid and was somewhat interested in connecting with a Christian group.
He asked me what I knew about Tom. So I told him about him and about the sponsoring group, The Rock. It was not long after I uttered those words that two girls interrupted us and asked me for more info about The Rock. I gave them a couple of invite cards and encouraged them to join us this Friday. They said they would.
Then the young man I was talking to asked for one. By the end of Tom's preaching, I had given away my last card to an agnostic guy who was very interested in hearing more of what Tom had to say.
I really encourage everyone to check Tom out during the next few days he's here:
Wed. - Friday: next to the Hub on central ISU campus from noonish to about 5pm.
Thursday night: At Alive in Des Moines (Drake Univ.). They meet at a place called Cool Beans starting at 8:30pm.
Friday night: At The Rock, MU Terrace, starts at 7:30pm.