Desert Highway Ministries

Book Review:  Off Road Disciplines by Earl Creps
 
     The full title of the book is “OFF ROAD DISCIPLINES – SPIRITUAL Adventures of Missional LEADERS.  Since I am someone who likes to keep the rubber on the pavement and the shiny side up, I found the title of this book quite intriguing. “Off Road Disciplines” is written much in the same style as Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” or Peter Greig and Dave Roberts’ “Red Moon Rising.”  His message is something that many of us in the same age bracket as the author can relate to, but way to many are afraid to step out and follow.

     The book is broken down into two self declared sections, one about personal disciplines and the other about organizational disciplines.  Both written from the perspective of the author based on his own self discovery of the need for these disciplines.  I would lean toward application of all of these principles to both personal and organizational disciplines. The principles of death, truth, perspective, learning, witness, and humility should be equally applied to our organizations as well as to each of us personally.  The principles of assessment, harmony, reflection, opportunity, sacrifice, and legacy should also be practiced on an individual level if they are to ever be real on the organizational level

     In going “off road”, the author has much bigger goals than just returning the church to being missional, but also being unified in mission across cultural and generational barriers.  I particularly, found his emphasis on assessment in chapter seven to be a critical portion of this text.  His question of “If we worked for a missions agency, would we still have jobs?” is one that many ministry leaders need to be asking.  “Missional” is the key to Earl’s writing like “purpose” is to the PDL folks.  In seizing opportunity he sees the need to not only love, but to like others to be effective in the mission when he says, “Like catalyzes love, and love grows the capacity for mission in every form.”  He speaks again of the importance of focusing on the mission when he speaks of sacrificing personal preferences for the sake of the mission. “Grace is free, mission is not.”

     I would recommend this book to any and all.  Both young and old should read this book, especially since it offers good solutions to reconciling the differences between the two.  I would however note that some of the more traditional practitioners among us may need an interpreter for some of the sections of this book.  The legacy of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ must be passed on, along with the traditions of the Word of God, but it may not include all of the traditions of men.  It never has before and it will most likely not happen this time.  As Earl, himself, responded about passing the baton to the next generation, “…no one else is coming.”  So I am not asking any to abandon their spiritual disciplines for a new set, but rather to add these off road disciplines to those that they already practice.

About the author: Earl Creps is the director of the Doctor of Ministry program and associate professor at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (AGTS) in Springfield, Missouri.  He has been a pastor, ministries consultant, and university professor.  He earned a PhD from Northwestern University and a doctor of ministry degree in leadership at AGTS.

R. Duane Gryder
Motorcycle Chaplain
AG US Missions
www.deserthighway.org 

I had a friend that suffered loss a while back that left him in a bit of a bind.  I prayed for him, but when I did the Lord had me give him a gift instead of just praying.  I was thinking about this today and this scripture came to mind.  I wonder how many times we are made aware of needs and pray a prayer of “faith” which we intend to meet that need but do not pray a prayer of “faith” that asks the Lord if we are to do something.  I particularly like the wording from the Message paraphrase.

James 2:14-26 The Message
¹⁴ Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? ¹⁵ For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved ¹⁶ and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you? ¹⁷ Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? ¹⁸ I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. ¹⁹ Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? ²⁰ Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? ²¹ Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? ²² Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? ²³ The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” ²⁴ Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? ²⁵ The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape – that seamless unity of believing and doing – what counted with God? ²⁶ The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.  

I especially like this last phrase:

“Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.” 

In His Service,
R. Duane Gryder
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R. Duane & Janet Gryder           Motorcycle Chaplain
Assembly of God U.S. Missions           Acct. # 2605988
PO Box 13383          Odessa, Texas          79768-3383
telephone: 432-366-0909          mobile: 432-557-8417
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A voice is calling,
          ”Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
      make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.” 
      ……………………………………………………..Isaiah 40:3
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There are not a lot of churches that have biker preachers do services this time of year so I have been going back to prison the last three weeks now. I had not been back in this unit for a year and I realized how much I really do love these guys. The neat thing is that although my memory is horrible for names I have been able to call many of them by name. When I do call them by name or mention something I remember about them personally they light up and say “I cant believe you remembered.” I don’t tell them that I cant believe it either. I figure that is just a way the Lord blesses them. I had been invited to a Christmas party tonight, but like I told my wife, I cant give them presents but I can be there for them. We gave them free hallmark cards again this year to send their families and on the 23rd we will take a tree into the unit and each of the guys will get to hang an ornament on in. It will remain in the gym for services until after Christmas.

One of the guys that went in with us for the first time was heard saying, “These guys are just like you and me.” Folks, this is the truth. Sure there are the bad seeds, but for the most part just guys like you and I that made bad choices and got caught. Even some of the bad seeds have been transformed by the Word of God. One of the prison people was telling me about one of the guys I visited with the other day. He was constantly in trouble until 2000. The chaplain reached out to him and got him to come to our ministry. Since then he has only gotten in trouble twice. Both of which were minor.

The first four words of Romans 12:9 in the NIV are so true:

SINCERE!  It has to be real.  Real love is nothing something you can just have.  It is not something you can work up.  It is God given!  The love that we can have for a prisoner, or a homeless person, or some tattooed up old biker is not something we can take credit for ourselves.  It comes from God Himself.  Isn’t it odd how all the things that He commands us to do and be, He provides for us in the first place?  He is not trying to make us “do” something.  He is just trying to get us to “be” what He made us and use what He gave us.

In His service,
Duane