Winners of today’s Free Fridays:

John Payne – Love and Respect

Renee Garcia – That’s My Son: How Moms Can Influence Boys

Cris Pone – Love and Respect

Wilfredo Mora – Raising a Modern-Day Knight

Jennifer Janes  – Love and Respect

I will attempt to email you, but if I don’t reach you, please email me with your address.

Congratulations! I’ve got another great book to give away next week.

My father passed away this week.  He was so proud of my online involvement. You can read my tribute to him HERE.)  He loved reading this blog.  In honor of him, I decided I’d give away some of my favorite books for building the character of your children, your marriage, and your home.  I have used them to better understand myself and my role as a husband and father.  If I’ve learned one thing this week (and over the course of my life), building a healthy and happy home takes intentionality.  If you are like me, you need all the help you can get.

This week, if you are selected, you will win one (1) book and you can pick any one of these five books:

Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires; The Respect He Desperately Needs by Emerson Eggerichs (The concepts in this book will radically change your marriage.)

For Men Only: A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women by Shaunti Feldhahn and Jeff Feldhahn  (If you are a man, you need to read this book sometime.)

For Women Only: What You Need to Know about the Inner Lives of Men by Shaunti Feldhahn  (If you are a woman, you need to read this book sometime.)

Raising a Modern-Day Knight: A Father’s Role in Guiding His Son to Authentic Manhood by Robert Lewis  (This book helped me shape the parenting of my two boys more than any other book.)

That’s My Son: How Moms Can Influence Boys to Become Men of Character by Rick Johnson  (I haven’t read this, but Cheryl said it was phenomenal and contained many of the principles we used in raising our sons.)

To be clear (please read this sentence), I am giving away a total of 5 books, but each of the 5 entries chosen will receive the one (1) book they have chosen.  I’m sorry there are no books specifically for raising girls, but I raised only boys.  If you have girls, you may want to pick one of the first three books.

To enter simply:

1. Comment on this post with your name and/or Twitter name.

2. Tell which book you would like to receive if you are selected.

Twitter RT’s are appreciated.

You will have until 10 PM CST tonight to win.  I will choose the winners using Random.org based on the total number of comments received.

Have fun and best wishes!

Several months ago, I wrote a blog post about my father.  Today I’m re-posting part of that post.  This week my father peacefully passed from this earth into the presence of His Savior.  His battle with cancer got the best of him and He gave up his fight and entered his eternal rest.  I’m thankful he no longer has unbearable pain.

My dad would readily admit that he has made many mistakes in his life. We could pretend those days never happened, but the fact is that his alcoholism caused many scars in his life and in the lives of those he loved.  He spent many years trying to overcome those days.

Because of his faith in the person of Jesus Christ, my dad finished his earthly life as a new man. He had been sober for many years and he and my mother were very happily married.  He loved his children and wanted nothing more than to be with them.  His grandchildren just think of him as Pa Pa, with no personal knowledge of years gone by.  My father was active in church, loved to share Scripture with others, and would help anyone who needed a hand.  Yesterday I was overwhelmed hearing what a “good man” my father was from so many people. Sometimes we don’t know a person’s impact until they are gone. (That seems sad, but it’s true.)

Perhaps that is what the writer of Ecclesiastes meant in Chapter 7, verse 1, which says, “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.” I have learned from watching my dad’s life that finishing is better than starting and that finishing well by loving God and others is the end goal of life.  My father was truly prepared to die.

When I meet with people who have made mistakes in life in my role as a pastor, I am always less concerned with where they have been or what they have done wrong.  I am always more concerned with where they want to go in life and how dedicated they are to get there.  My dad is an example of someone that wanted to end well.  I believe his legacy will continue to prove he achieved his goal.

Love you dad!  Thanks for paving a good path for others to follow.  Give Jesus a hug for me!

(You can read his obituary HERE.)

Are you prepared to die? Do you have a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ?

My youngest son Nate is in Chicago and we are bringing him home once again this weekend for a funeral.  This time for the funeral of my father. I thought his thoughts were worth sharing today:

I have a paper due tomorrow morning at 8, so I should probably be working on that… but there’s not too many things I dislike more than writing those.

It’s amazing how unstructured this post is…

Can you identify with Nate? 

Is trusting God completely a process for you as well?

What is the number one distraction in your life from fully trusting the God who loves you more than you could ever imagine?

Every Tuesday since late 2009, I have featured another leader in my 10 question interview series.  You can read all of them HERE.  I’ve enjoyed this series and while there are a few leaders I am still hoping to interview, I decided I wanted to hear from another great leader:

Y O U

You are a leader.  If you are reading this post, you most likely are the type that others follow.  You may not even know that you are a leader, but I can almost assure you that you are to someone.  It could be employees, volunteers, friends or family, but someone is watching what you do and your influence in their life is changing the way they live.  I call that leadership.

So today I’m interviewing YOU!

Here’s how it works.  Copy and past these questions into a comment on this post and then answer the questions. It shouldn’t take long to answer each one.   I’m anxious to hear your answers.

Answer well.  I hope to choose some of them as feature posts on this blog.  I can’t pick all of them and may not pick any, but if you are adding value in your answers for others, I may pick yours.  (Please don’t be offended if I don’t use yours.  It’s not an indication that you are not a good leader or had good answers, just that it didn’t necessarily register with me at the time.)

So, here are the questions….copy, paste, and answer:

If your comment is chosen for a guest post, I will share some general information about you before getting to the questions, such as position, church, and blog.

Questions:

1. When you were growing up, are you doing what you thought you would be doing vocationally?  If not, what did you want to do?
2. What’s the most different job you’ve had from what you are doing now and how did that job help you with what you are doing now?
3. Who is one person, besides Christ, who most helped to shape your leadership and how did they help you?
4. Besides the Bible, what is one book that has most helped to shape your thought process in life and ministry?
5. What are three words other people would use to describe your work style/ethic?
6. What is your greatest strength in leadership?
7. What is your greatest weakness in leadership?
8. What is the hardest thing you have to do in leadership?
9. What is one misconception about your leadership position you think people may have?
10. If you could give one piece of advice to young leaders from what you’ve learned by experience, what would it be?

Have you enjoyed the interview series?

Cheryl and I believe in date nights. We actually believe in date days and date weekends and date vacations. Obviously, with our children mostly grown, stretching dates over several days has become easier for us to do, but the point is we have made a practice of spending quality and quantity time together on a regular basis all of our marriage. It’s perhaps been a key to protecting and growing our relationship.

I often hear objections from couples that they can’t afford to go out much. I understand. Babysitting alone is expensive. One idea I know several couples do is to partner with other couples to share the responsibility of keeping kids while the other couple has a date night. Your children enjoy playing with other children and you get to have a date night without the expense of a babysitter.

As for the date itself, it doesn’t have to be expensive. The goal isn’t to spend a lot of money…the goal is to spend uninterrupted time together as a couple. I hope this post will encourage you to get creative in spending quality time together.

Here’s where you, the reader, can help other marriages.

What’s your cheapest and best date night idea?  What are some ideas we may not have thought about yet? Share your suggestions as a comment so others can learn from you.

Could your marriage benefit from some couple time?

I have been asked numerous times about a seeming contradiction in the Bible. Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, wrote that we are to “pray about everything” (Philippians 4:6), “pray continually”, (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and “be in constant prayer” (Romans 12:12).  Paul seems to have believed that something in us could live in a state of continual prayer and that we should keep talking repeatedly to God.

Here’s where the seeming contradiction comes in the Bible to some people.  In Matthew 6:7-8 Jesus says, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Jesus almost appears to be telling the reader NOT to pray continually.

The verses do not contradict each other.  We must consider these verses in the context of the entirety of Scripture. Throughout the Bible we realize that God is always more concerned about the heart of a matter than He is actions we take (1 Samuel 16:7), so it helps if we examine this subject with that understanding.

When Jesus said not to babble in prayer, because God already knows our needs, He was speaking to people who tried to impress others with their flowery words.  That is not what Paul is suggesting to us in his writings.

Paul’s encouragement for continual prayer, in action at least, is obviously not even possible. Some people have a hard time walking and chewing gum at the same time.  Expecting people to pray while they do anything else is a challenge. Paul is not referring to an action as much as he is an attitude. He’s encouraging our heart to be in a continual spirit of prayer; a constant journey of seeking our Father’s will and communing with our Heavenly Daddy.

This is made possible with the help of God’s Spirit, who “intercedes for us”. If our heart is firmly set on Christ, we can be “continually praying”.   If we go to the marketplace, Christ goes with us in prayer. If we are driving a car, Christ is with us in prayer. If we read a book to our children, if Christ is in our heart, we can be in an attitude of prayer, because God’s Spirit intercedes for our spirit.

Put your heart and mind firmly on Christ today and you will continue to live in a spirit of prayer.

Do you have any specific prayer requests? Leave them here.  I’m finding my readers really do pray for others.

There is a sobering story in Numbers 32:1-5…

The tribe of Reuben wanted to bail on the rest of the Israelites.  Read the story for yourself.

• They wanted to take the easy way out…
• They wanted to rest on their current success…
• The journey ahead seemed too much for them…

Perhaps that’s your story today.  The journey has gotten much harder than you expected and the days ahead seem unbearable.  Some days you would just rather quit trying.

• Are you tired of pushing forward?
• Are you burned out…satisfied…comfortable…afraid…confused?
• Are you ready to quit?

If you know the job you’ve been called to do isn’t finished yet…

Don’t quit…

Find the courage, recharge your batteries, raise up some other leaders…

…But whatever it takes…move forward…

Is that your story?  Are you tempted to give up? Leave a comment and others and I will pray for you…

Today’s winners:

Jeremy Wilder

Beu Banks (getting this name from the email address)

If you don’t get my email, send me your address to ron.edmondson@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone and see you next week for another giveaway!

Today I’m giving away two copies of a great book just released this week at the Exponential Conference. The book is appropriately titled…

Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement…

…written by Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson. Dave and Jon are amazing leaders and pioneers in the current multi-site church growth movement.  You can read an interview I did with Dave HERE.  Using their experience at NewThing Network and Community Christian Church, the book lays out a brief but solid theology for a reproducing church strategy, giving practical “how-to’s” for reproducing Christ-followers, leaders, artists, groups, teams, venues, sites, churches and networks of churches.  Dave and Jon communicate a simple strategy that will engage millions of Christ-followers and challenge us all to become a reproducing follower and leader.

Even better, Dave and Jon have set up a website called Daily Digital to share stories of missional church movements.  You don’t want to miss reading this book!

To enter, simply:

1. Comment on this blog post
2. Make sure I have your Twitter name and/or email address so I can contact you if you win.
3. Twitter RT’s are appreciated, but not required.

I will select 2 winners at today 9 PM CST using Random.org.

Best wishes!  Thanks for playing along.

Quick reminder to those who receive my post by RSS email feed:  I am giving away free stuff on Fridays.  If you don’t get your email until later in the day, be sure and go to the website to enter.  http://www.RonEdmondson.com

One of the biggest challenges for any organization is to attract and retain leaders. Yesterday I posted 7 reasons leaders tend to leave an organization.  (Read that post HERE.)  The goal then is to find ways to keep a leader energized to stay with the team, so I thought a companion post was appropriate.  I never want to stop someone from pursuing a better opportunity, but I don’t want to send them away because I didn’t help them stay.

The reality is that leaders get restless if they are forced to sit still for long.  Good managers are comfortable maintaining progress, but a leader needs to be leading change.  I posted before that leaders even thrive in chaos at times.  (Read that post HERE.)

If you sense you have a restless leader on your team, here are a few suggestions to encourage them to stay:

• Give him or her a new challenge…
• Allow him or her to explore a new area of interest to them…
• Let him or her lead a new area….
• Give him or her more creative time to dream…
• Don’t exhibit fear in him or her creating a mess while exploring…
• Take the lid off his or her authority…(give him or her more)…
• Allow him or her to help you lead/dream/plan for the organization…

What other ways can you think of to keep a restless leader longer at an organization?