Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders

by Earl Creps, Dan Kimball (Foreword by)

Overview

"As a well-traveled explorer of the Church over many years, Earl offers more than a description of the latest cool topics in leadership. . . . You hold something that is rich, cured, and aged to sink into your mind and heart in a way that couldn't happen without breadth of experience behind it. This isn't a book about a quick fix to break an attendance barrier, or bringing new music or a new design for a worship gathering. It isn't about how to give better sermons. Earl writes about the most important thing he has discovered in all his exploring of the Church: the life of the missional leader and its effect on a missional organization."
—from the Foreword by Dan Kimball

In Off-Road Disciplines, Earl Creps reveals that the on-road practices of prayer and Bible reading should be bolstered by the other kinds of encounters with God that occur unexpectedly—complete with the bumps and bruises that happen when you go "off-road." Becoming an off-road leader requires the cultivation of certain spiritual disciplines that allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to arrange your interior life. Earl Creps explores twelve central spiritual disciplines—six personal and six organizational—that Christian leaders of all ages and denominations need if they are to change themselves and their churches to reach out to the culture around them.

Earl Creps explores each of these off-road disciplines and shows how to make them part of normal daily life so that they can have a transformative effect. Creps provides a map of the cultural terrain leaders must navigate and offers insight on the ways in which the process of personal spiritual formation can lead to changes in organizations.

Visit the Leadership Network Website, leadnet.org, for more information.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118041048
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/03/2010
Series:	Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series , #20
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	385 KB

About the Author

Earl Creps (Springfield, MO) is a popular speaker and leader who regularly connects with a wide variety of audiences in venues across the U.S.—postmodern/emergent groups, laypeople and leaders in Protestant denominations, college students and youth groups, and missionary organizations. He is also Director and Associate Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Renewal at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, MO. He has been a pastor, ministries consultant, and seminary professor. In 2003 he received a grant from the Louisville Institute to study postmodern Pentacostals. He is the author of numerous articles, as well as a chapter in Mike Yaconelli's STORIES OF EMERGENCE.

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Table of Contents

About Leadership Network ix

Foreword xi

Introduction: Off-Road Disciplines xiii

Part One: Personal Disciplines

1. Death: The Discipline of Personal Transformation 3

2. Truth: The Discipline of Sacred Realism 15

3. Perspective: The Discipline of POV 27

4. Learning: The Discipline of Reverse Mentoring 41

5. Witness: The Discipline of Spiritual Friendship 55

6. Humility: The Discipline of Decreasing 71

Part Two: Organizational Disciplines

7. Assessment: The Discipline of Missional Efficiency 87

8. Harmony: The Discipline of Blending Differences 99

9. Reflection: The Discipline of Discernment 123

10. Opportunity: The Discipline of Making Room 139

11. Sacrifice: The Discipline of Surrendering 157

Preferences

12. Legacy: The Discipline of Passing the Baton 173

Epilogue: Three Coffee Houses 185

Notes 187

Acknowledgments 203

The Author 205

Index 207