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Ron Edmondson Leadership Blog

Packed with practical thoughts on leadership, church, and culture

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    Preparing to Recover in the Moment

    By Business, Church, Church Planting, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

    Yesterday morning I was scheduled to do the welcome at Grace Community Church. After the first song, I was scheduled to come on stage, welcome people to the service, and we would continue worship. It was that simple. Before the second service, I was in a meeting in another part of the building. All of a sudden I thought to look at the time. The service had started and I was late. I jumped up and started running for the auditorium. I arrived just in time to hear one of our worship leaders covering for my absence. I was mortified. Thankfully, Dustin covered for me.

    The incident, however, served a purpose, because I was reminded of an important principle

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    November 1, 2010
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    Public Recognition Makes a Difference

    By Church, Church Planting, Encouragement

    We have an all staff retreat yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday). A couple times a year we get away to dream, plan, evaluate, critique, and stretch ourselves. A great part of that is the relationship-building that takes place as we are in the same place for hours at a time. Friday night our spouses joined us for a meal and fellowship and Saturday morning we have a session with staff and spouses. It helps us get buy-in from the families of Grace staff.

    One of the take-away challenges for us today was to encourage another staff member. We drew names of everyone in the room and were asked to email that name with an encouragement, including everyone else to see the email. I picked the name Katrina Watts. Katrina leads our preschool ministry. Here is the email I sent Katrina:

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    October 30, 2010
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    Friday Discussion: The Christian’s Role in Politics

    By Change, Christians, Culture

    Thanks for being a part of Friday discussion. You can now check out the past Friday discussions in a newly created category HERE. Continue to add your thoughts on those subjects.

    For today, let’s discuss politics. You aren’t afraid of that, are you?

    So let me jump in quick: I grew up in a church environment where to be a “good Christian” you had to belong to the “right” party. It was an easy decision who to vote for, because most everyone around me, or at least the vocal crowd, were Republicans. And, you weren’t just any Republican, you were a very conservative, James Dobson Republican. I’m not trying to be offensive, but that was the environment in which I lived.

    In my church today, and among many of the younger generation with whom I minister, that seems to have changed. They seem far less concerned about parties (much as they are far less concerned about denominations), than they are about causes and issues.

    Do you see a change? Let’s discuss politics today. Consider these specific questions.

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    October 29, 2010
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    7 Emotions from the Male’s Side of Infertility

    By Children, Culture, Encouragement, Family, Parenting

    Cheryl and I have often said that one of the greatest trials we have walked through in ministry with people is the hidden pain of infertility. Every time we celebrate the birth of someone’s child we also know of a couple who can’t seem to get pregnant or have recently had a miscarriage. (I wrote about the pain of the childless in a previous post HERE.) Many reading this post will have walked through this pain personally.

    One aspect of this which I may have overlooked is the man’s side of this issue. I knew men struggled with infertility also, but I am not sure I realized the extent of it. Recently I was talking to a man who shared his hidden pain during he and his wife’s time of infertility. It opened my eyes to the man’s perspective.

    When a couple is battling infertility here are 7 emotions the man often feels:

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    October 28, 2010
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    7 Phrases We Should Never Use to Start a Sentence

    By Culture, Encouragement, Family

    In years of doing ministry, through personal experience, and by living life with others, I’ve learned a few things not to say. I’ve seen well-meaning people make proclamations they can’t keep. What I’ve come to realize is that life has a way of throwing us surprises, so we should be proactive in guarding our heart and life.

    With that in mind, I would be careful starting a sentence with the following phrases:

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    October 26, 2010
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    Addressing a Porn Generation

    By Christians, Culture, Encouragement, Youth

    When I was a teenager, if I wanted to view porn, I would have had to find a magazine. Honestly, even though I may have wanted to, I never had or found a stash. I knew everyone where I might have bought some and if my friends had their own stash of pictures, they never shared them with me.

    I did a little babysitting as a teenager in addition to my grocery store work and I did manage to find some magazines at one of the houses where I worked late one night. Those images are still with me today. As much as pornography was probably a part of my generation, it wasn’t that accessible to me.

    My boys have grown up in a different generation….

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    October 26, 2010
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    What if We Did Church Like This?

    By Change, Church Planting, Culture

    I love the partnership I have been able to have with Catalyst Conferences. I enjoyed blogging from there earlier this month. (You can read my posts HERE.) One of the things I love most about Catalyst is that I’ve met many of the people behind the scenes. They are authentic, transparent, and passionate about Christ and helping the church better reach a lost world. Jesse Phillips is one of those guys. I’ve had several opportunities to hang out with him and I absolutely love his heart. He has some passionate ideas about the church today. I think one of the thing my generation needs to do a better job with is listening to his generation. So, recently I asked him to guest post some of his current thoughts on the church here on my blog.

    HERE is a guest post from Jesse Phillips of Catalyst:

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    October 24, 2010
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    Friday Discussion: Racial Diversity in the Church

    By Church Planting, Culture

    I’m curious about something. I’ve been curious a long time. This is not new subject for me. Over the years my wife and I have visited dozens of churches. We’ve visited in most mainline denominations. We’ve visited predominantly white churches and predominantly black churches. I’m white (in case you didn’t know…and the more the seasons change the whiter I become), but some of my very best friends are black. I’ve even been privileged to speak in predominately black churches. I’ve never really understood the whole racial division thing. I love people. I think our culture is, at least in some ways, getting more accepting of other cultures and colors of skins. I won’t pretend racial prejudice has ended, because I know it hasn’t, especially in other parts of the world, but, things are better today than they once were in my lifetime.

    But, that’s where my curiosity begins. I see improvement everywhere except in the church. Why is that?

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    October 22, 2010
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    7 Essentials for Personal Success in Today’s World

    By Business, Church, Church Planting, Encouragement, Leadership, Life Plan, Vision

    In case you haven’t been keeping up, the world has changed. To be successful today in any profession takes new tools and skills. I am asked frequently by young leaders what advice I have for those just starting their career. Obviously, if you are a believer desiring to do ministry (which describes many of my readers) then you first need to work through your relationship with Christ to be obedient to God’s call on your life, but even Christian leaders need to think how best to succeed in a changing world.

    Here are some “must haves” I would advise young leaders to seek to possess in order to achieve personal success:

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    October 21, 2010
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    Iron Sharpens Iron – Learn From Your Team

    By Business, Church Planting, Encouragement, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

    Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

    This verse has inspired me over the years, but recently I saw it in a different context for my life. One of the biggest mistakes I see leaders make is failing to learn from the people on their team. We tend to think the best ideas are outside our organization, so we learn from many sources, but many times the best ideas for the organization are already with us. I love to attend conferences, I read tons of books, I follow numerous blogs of great leaders, but the fact is God has surrounded me with great leaders with whom I work. I need to make sure I’m learning from them.

    Here’s a gentle reminder…

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    October 18, 2010
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    YouVersion Changes Lives

    By Christians, Church, Encouragement, God, Innovation, Missions

    If you have a smart phone, you never have to leave home again without your Bible!

    I love what the team at LifeChurch.tv has done to encourage Bible reading through their work with YouVersion. Our church uses the live version each Sunday (sign up HERE) and it has started to catch on with people. YouVersion continues to improve their offerings for churches. Consider these additions:

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    October 17, 2010
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    Take Time for Excellence

    By Business, Change, Innovation, Leadership

    Often it’s one revision…a second look…one additional opinion…that takes an idea or a project from “Okay” to noteworthy.

    It happens for me when writing a sermon. If I take the time to finish, then sit on it 24 hours, then go back for one more critical look the message is always better than it was before.

    Don’t rush excellence. There’s a balance between stalling too long and rushing through a decision.

    Which do you lean towards…rushing through a project or stalling too long?

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    October 16, 2010
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    Church Growth: When Size Matters

    By Business, Change, Church, Church Planting, Leadership

    Prior to entering ministry, my wife and I owned a small business. It was small in the sense of how economists measure businesses, but it was a big business to us. Whenever you have to make payroll for almost 40 people (including yourself)…that seems big. This was my second venture as an entrepreneur. The first was extremely successful, but this one was not. An opportunity came to sell and we quickly accepted. We learned tons of principles from that negative experience that still help us today, but it was a very challenging time for us personally.

    Looking back on that experience, I realize one of the major problems we had being successful. There were hundreds of issues, including some of our own mistakes, but one aspect of our company and where we were in the market worked against us most. I discovered that….

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    October 14, 2010
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