i really like earl creps, even though i haven’t spoken with him in years. when we were first launching the emergentYS line of books, i wanted to develop this book of personal stories that became “stories of emergence.” i loved that book — sweated over it and prayed over it. somewhere in the development process, brian mclaren and i were chatting about how it would be great to have someone in the book who’s story would qualify as ‘post-pentecostal.’ and brian suggested earl.

earl and i chatted and emailed and chatted some more. he wrote a version of the story, i pushed back, and he re-wrote. earl has one foot in assemblies of god pentecostal world (even as an academic!), and one foot in the emerging church. it’s a wonderfully odd and delicate balance earl keeps.

but the thing earl does better than just about anyone in the whole emerging church thing is listen. really. he doesn’t actually prognostocate all that much. but he listens twenty times more than he speaks: so when he does a bit of synthesis of what he’s hearing, it’s usually worth listening to.

mindi just forwarded a blog post of earl’s that isn’t about the emerging church: it’s about the relationships between senior pastors and youth pastors. and, once again, it reflects earl’s willingness and ability to listen. i’d love every youth worker to read it. but i’d really love every senior pastor to read it. actually, what would be so freakin’ cool is if a youth pastor and senior pastor would both read it, and then schedule a coffee appointment to walk through it and have a discussion.