missionSHIFT: Introducing Earl Creps

Tuesday March 16, 2010 ~ 7 Comments

Now that things have calmed down a bit in my travel, we are going to accelerate the release of some our speakers list for missionSHIFT. Expect more in the coming days. Today, I am glad to announce my friend, Earl Creps.

Earl Creps has spent several years on the road studying congregations attempting to engage contemporary culture. He brings to this research a background as a pastor, having led three churches (one Boomer, one Builder, and one in an emerging context), a consultant, having served as his denomination's national Adult Ministries Consultant, and an educator, having taught on emerging culture, leadership, and preaching/communication.

Earl has earned a Ph.D. in Communication Studies (Northwestern University) and a Doctor of Ministry (AGTS). Currently, he and his wife Janet are in the process of planting a university church in Berkeley, California. Earl is the author of Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders, published by Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network in September 2006. His newest book, Reverse Mentoring: How Young Leaders Can Transform Us and Why We Should Let Them became available from the same publisher in 2008.

And, funny enough, Earl blames (among other things) me and some pancakes for his journey toward church planting in Berkeley.

You can connect with Earl on Facebook, or at his website.

Earl was kind enough to answer a few questions for the blog as we are leading up to the missionSHIFT conference.

Ed: Tell us briefly what fills your days?

Currently I am church planter in Berkeley, California. So my days are mainly filled with panic.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God's mission?

I see more recognition of the reality that we are in so much trouble, and I see more experimentation with non-traditional ministry forms.

Ed: You recently published "Reverse Mentoring." Tell us about the book.

The book comes out of the influence that younger friends have had on me. It recommends that older leaders turn to the young as students rather than teachers.

Ed: Obviously, the word "missional" is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

We left the Midwest to move to a Berkeley neighborhood and to plant a church oriented toward the creative people in our community. The first thing we had to learn was the central role of "going there" on every level, physically, spiritually, psychologically, in every way.

I'm excited that Earl will be speaking at missionShift this summer around the themes of his book, Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders.

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? You don't want to miss it. Register here.

Posted on March 16, 2010 at 6:37 PM ~ 7 Comments

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7 Comments

By peterson toscano on March 17, 2010 7:23 AM

Ed, one of these days you will really surprise me. :-P Earl sounds like a great guy, and I will be interested in checking out his site to see what sort of non-traditional ministry forms he is practicing, but I'm wondering about the other speakers yet to come.

I have a hankering for some new wine in new wine skins. Wouldn't a nice hospital or prison chaplain be a delicious addition to the line-up? How about a non-domestic variety--Chilean? South Africa? Gosh, even Australian works in a pinch. Surprise me :-)

By Philip on March 17, 2010 8:00 AM

Earl
I would be interested to hear some more details about the church planting work in Berkeley. How are you going about gathering a core and doing ministry on the university?

By Earl Creps on March 17, 2010 10:01 AM

The key, of course, is to wear wrap around sunglasses as much as possible.

Actually, our fund-raising phase has just concluded and we have been working full-time here for only about a month, though we have lived here for just over a year.

At this point the focus is on team building, which has proven challenging. Our hope is to discern people here in the setting, the way Paul found Timothy on the road. Natives get it.

The long-term objective is to reach out to creatives, not to reinvent the wheel. No one is going to be cooler than Berkeley. So the goal is not be cool, but to be faithful and smart at the same time.

Everything for us works by relationships that we work on + accidents that God works on.

By Ed Stetzer

on March 18, 2010 11:41 PM

Peterson,

Not sure I can deliver that wine. ;-)

We think it is important and helpful to hear from pastors and most of our speaker will be types of pastors. However, there will be others who are not-- but they will come in the days to come.

But, since we believe the church is the sign and instrument of the Kingdom in the world, we honored to hear from those who serve the Lord and his church.

And, thankfully, this is just one conference seeking to encourage folks to missional living. I am guessing we need lots of conversations to help provoke ourselves to love and good deeds-- so this conference won't be everything to everyone.

God bless,

By kevin on March 19, 2010 2:30 PM

It is great to see a Pentecostal guy featured on your list. ya! We have to few guys like him in our denomination(s) (AOG...PAOC).
Earl is one of my personal heros and I have asking our leadership to bring him in to speak to us. So one day I look forward to the time I get to meet him at one of our PAOC (Canada) gatherings.

By Rich on March 23, 2010 12:33 AM

With apologies to the rest of the readers/posters, this is directed towards 'Kevin', who posted his comments on March 19th @ 2:30 pm.

Kevin, I'm a PAOC pastor living in the Toronto region. Where do you live? If you're in Ontario, and would like to see/hear Earl Creps in person, he will be speaking at the EOD One Day Conference on Tuesday May 4th in Belleville. It should be a great day...I'm really looking forward to it.

Just thought you'd like to know!

By kevin on March 23, 2010 5:04 PM

Also with apologies to the rest of the readers/posters...

THANKS Rich... It would be a GREAT to attend and I am thankful you made the invite. I live in SASKATCHEWAN, so it would be a bit of a drive... ha.

It is really great that there are other PAOC guys sitting at Ed's table. I look forward to hearing him again at General conference in May in Edmonton. Are you going? I would like to meet you. Please email me at lifePoint@sasktel.net. We can visit a little more personally. Thanks again..

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