Month: January 2007

Re-thinking the Spiritual Disciplines (missionally)

I just got a free copy of Off-Road Disciplines in the mail today in exchange for reviewing it on my blog. The review will come, but I wanted to share Earl Creps insightful critique (upon which he constructs an alternative, missional approach to the disciplines) of spiritual disciplines. Does this turn you on or off?

He writes: “the average leader that I know thinks of the spiritual disciplines in terms of prayer and Bible reading. These two pillars of spiritual growth entail several dilemmas:

Scarcity: despite their benefits they are not practiced enough.

Practicality: these two disciplines tend to operate in isolation from real life, serving as the national anthem before the ball game starts whenever we go to work.

Performance: they cannot be correlated to ministry “success” in any consistent way

Character: …too many bad people who pray and read their Bibles rigorously are unchanged by their efforts.

Mission: churches are filled with people who are committed to prayer and Scripture but have no concern for mission.

How to Use Other People's Sermons?

Craig Brian Larson suggest three guidelines for borrowing with integrity:

1. Borrow for a good reason.

2. Meditate prayerfully over the Scripture text and sermon.

3. Give credit.

He suggests several ways to give credit and avoid plagarism.

A note in the bulletin can say:

Today Pastor Smith preaches a sermon by Richard Allen entitled “Five Reasons to Believe.”

Today’s sermon by Pastor Smith relies heavily on a sermon by Richard Allen entitled “Five Reasons to Believe.”

So, what do you think.  Should the sermon borrowing begin?