Dr. Earl and Janet Creps are the first entries in our "Look who came by" feature. Earl and Janet are close friends, and were even my pastors for a while. Earl has written for TPE and Jan is a writer as well. They came by after being approved as national AGUSM missionaries. They are planting a church in the university city Berkeley, CA. Look for my interview with Earl in our Sept. 16 TPE. There will also be an audio interview on our Web site for that issue, tpe.ag.org.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Look who came by: Earl and Janet Creps
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4 comments:
Looks like we attended the same church as they were also my pastors for a little while. I still remember a message Janet shared whenever I'm ironing. She used the chore to illustrate how God sometimes has to turn up the heat and press a little harder to get the wrinkles out of our lives. Funny how certain things stick with ya. In short, they're both very special people in my book.
Hi Ken,
I reviewed Earl’s book a couple months ago for our Pages and Tunes e-newsletter. Thought you might enjoy it.
Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders
©2006 by Earl Creps
In Off-Road Disciplines, Earl Creps posits that the normal “on-road” disciplines of prayer and Bible reading should be accompanied by encounters with God that occur unexpectedly—the kinds of encounters in which God beckons us to die to self and allow Jesus to assume central position in our lives. Such meetings are replete with potholes, bumps and bruises, not unlike going off-road in an ATV.
Pastor, consultant, and educator Earl Creps insists that if you want to reach the culture around you, you’re going to have follow Jesus “off-road.” Like many other church leaders today, he has discovered that the calling of the Church is not defined by how it’s organized or even by its doctrinal distinctions, but by the mission of God—“the work of the Holy Spirit to rearrange one’s interior life.” Personal transformation is crucial if we hope to be men and women whose passion for Christ is contagious, and whose vision for the world makes them people others want to emulate.
We have all heard of paradigm shifts; Creps discusses paradigm crashes— “disconnects between the American church and the culture it is commanded to reach.” Creps invites us on his own personal journey of realizing that, when it comes to the Church, one size does not fit all. His humility and vulnerability are evident as he walks the reader through his path to discovering twelve off-road disciplines. Among them are personal transformation, sacred realism, point of view, reverse mentoring, spiritual friendship, and decreasing.
Learn how disciplines like these can open you up to the unconventional, powerful ways God wants to shape you—to renew you by making it harder to confuse your culture with His mission. “Jesus did not construct an auditorium and demand that people come to Him. He went to them. A missional life means Jesus sending us outward, as the Father sent Him.”
(by Patty Kennedy)
Patty Kennedy
Assistant Web Content Editor
National Women's Ministries Department
General Council of the Assemblies of God
http://womensministriesunlimited.ag.org/pages_and_tunes/books/off_road_disciplines.cfm
Earl and I discuss his book, Off-Road Disciplines, in our Sept. 16 Conversation, as well as the TPExtra audio content on our Web site.
It was a GREAT book – I was so impressed, so challenged – saying “amen!” the whole way through!
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