Ron Edmondson » Grace Community Church

The Power of Caged Momentum

Ron Edmondson — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:00:37 +0000

I recently posted an important leadership and life principle I have learned the hard way. When you get a brilliant idea, before you quickly rush to complete it, sleep on it. You can read that post HERE. I want to continue that thought process with another principle that builds from that one. Let me illustrate it with a practical example:

Launching Grace Community Church was an 18-month process from the time I agreed to obey God’s encouragement to start a new church. (I had resisted His encouragement 10 years…but that’s another post.) After we recruited our core team, we asked them to wrestle in prayer months before we had our first meeting or they even officially committed to the vision; then we made them wait 9 months before we ever met as a church. Waiting to implement God’s vision for excited people inclined inclined towards progress was difficult, but the result proved an important principle about human dynamics and organizational development. (That’s a fancy way of saying…waiting sucked, but it worked…)

In a similar fashion, although we knew small groups would be a major part of our mission, we did “test” groups with a few people for months before we allowed the entire church to join a group. We used that time to train leaders, but it also served the purpose to generate enthusiasm among those that had to wait to get in a group.

The principle at work here is what I call The Power of Caged Momentum…

Telling a person or a group of people to wait for something they really want to do and are excited about builds positive momentum. Of course, there is always the balance between waiting too long that you lose opportunity and moving to fast that you don’t build enough momentum. I can’t solve that for you in a simple post. Your situation and experience will be unique to you, but the principle here is important.

Don’t be afraid to make your church, organization or team (or even your family) wait before they get to experience something great. The power of caged momentum may even make the experience and outcome better.

Have you seen this principle at work? I’d love to hear your story.

Dealing with Guilt

Ron Edmondson — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:09:33 +0000

This was my message last week at Grace Community Church dealing with guilt. I was overwhelmed how big an issue this is among our people.

If you are dealing with guilt from your past, I hope you’ll take time to watch this:

What’s your story of guilt?

(The motivation from this series came from a message several years ago by Andy Stanley where he addressed four issues we hide in our heart.)

New Series: 5ive at Grace Community Church

Ron Edmondson — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:00:36 +0000

School is back in session. Summer is drawing to a close. The excitement of fall, though not evident in the weather yet, is in the air at Grace Community Church. We launch a new series this week and it’s one I’m very excited about, because I sense the need so strongly.

5ive is a series about five hidden killers of our walk with Christ. These are things we may try to pretend don’t exist in our life, but if we are honest, we know they can destroy our joy, peace, and quality of life with God and others.

Do you struggle most with guilt, anger, jealousy, greed or pride?

Don’t worry…we won’t make you tell us, but take your pick and each week we will address another issue.

This is the series you will not want to miss…and one to which you’ll want to invite your friends.

Join us as we learn some principles to guide our hearts and lives to better places.

Three Questions to Write a Personal Development Plan

Ron Edmondson — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:48 +0000

We have an amazing team of leaders at Grace Community Church. Part of my role and how God has wired me is to constantly be in development mode, therefore, I continually encourage our staff to develop themselves personally. I realize that as they mature and grow individually; in their careers and personal lives, that the strength of our staff and church will only increase. I put out this encouragement again at a recent staff meeting. Apparently, I said the right words this time, because in the past week almost half our staff mentioned they want to improve their plans for personal development.

Recently one staff member asked me to help them get started writing their personal development plan. Here’s what I shared with him. Perhaps you need this as well.

Take a break from your daily routine, grab a cup of coffee, a pen and some paper, and ask yourself three questions as a guideline to if you want to improve personally. Keep in mind, I can’t write your plan for you, so these are just tools to fuel your thoughts.

Where am I now?

Be honest with yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Where do you most need to improve? Consider each aspect of your life. Where are you in your career, family, social, financial, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being? Which of these areas are most neglected? In which areas do you excel?

Where do I want to be?

Think in terms of each of the categories above. Think through six months, one year and five years. What areas do you most need to improve? In what areas are improvement most critical? What areas would improve your overall satisfaction with life?

How can I get there?

For every goal you say you want to achieve, write some concrete action steps/a plan to get you there. This is the hardest part, but simply write one or two action steps for each broad goal. You will need to update this plan periodically and you can continually add to and refine these action steps. The key is that you take action to move forward in the direction you want your life to develop. Ask yourself: Where do I need more training? Do I need a mentor? Could I use more practice?

Now work the plans; take action. A piece of paper with plans of them, or an idea in your head, is worth very little until you take steps to achieve them. Get started today!

This sounds simple, but if you will spend a few hours thinking through your individual plan for personal development, the time could make the difference in achieving or not the goals you have for your life. When you finish this plan, you won’t necessarily have a professional looking document you could turn into your college professor and there are certainly methods more complex for writing a personal development plan, but for me the end goal is progress towards my goals, and we are more likely to do something easy and less time consuming. This is a method I can and do use frequently.

Do you need to do this?

Jesus Loves the Little Children: Reflection from Sierra Leone

Ron Edmondson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:10:11 +0000

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)

I understand the heart of Jesus for children even more from my time in Sierra Leone.

The innocence of children was evident to us in every village we visited. The children would run to us, swarm around us, and follow our every move. They were sponges for the love of God. They were filled with joy and excitement…always seeming to anticipate more.

I was reminded that children are the future of this great country in Africa. The children of Sierra Leone may not remember the war, which devastated their country or the lasting effects it had on this nation. I hope they know the history and never forget the pain and destruction of war, but I hope they see a brighter future and set a new way for this nation.

God bless the children of Sierra Leone.

It also encouraged me as a pastor to continue to invest in our own children at Grace Community Church. I’m thankful for the incredible team God has assembled at Grace who lead our children’s ministry. Under the direction of Katrina Watts and Adam Bayne, our children get to experience worship and teaching with excellence every week. I want to continue to push for adequate funding and resources for these important ministries of our church. They are our future.

God bless the children of Grace Community Church.

Do you work in children’s ministry at your church? If so, please accept my thank you. Have your children been blessed by others who work with them at church? Consider thanking them today.

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters: Doing Good

Ron Edmondson — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:01:35 +0000

Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Ecclesiastes 11:1

I had an interesting situation occur last Sunday after one of our services. I was greeting people as they left the service as I do every week and a man waited to speak with me. He has been attending our church about six months, but wanted to share with me what brought him to Grace. Apparently years ago, probably close to 15 years now, I was in the insurance business and he was in real estate. He said that every time he achieved any recognition as a realtor he would get an encouraging note from me. He was so encouraged each time that he began keeping up with me in my community involvement and my online activity (I’ve been attempting ministry online since 1996). He said he decided if I ever pastored a church he would attend. He only recently learned I was at Grace.

I don’t share that story to make myself look special. Honestly it was mostly marketing driven activity at that time. I share it because it illustrates a bigger principle; the one the verse shared at the beginning of this post illustrates The principle is that when we do good things; the things that invest in people, encourage them, make their life better, we may not see the immediate results of those actions. Sometimes it may not even seem to make a difference, but after many days…well…after many days only God knows the good that you and I may see.

It reminds me of a couple other principles from God’s word:

Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Do the good you know and see to do today. “Cast your bread upon the waters.” You may get no recognition for it. No one may even seen to care that you did…oh but one day…you’ll find that bread again…and when you do...that’s some good bread. Trust me!

Have you had a similar story of doing good things and not hearing of it until later? I’d loved to read your story. It may encourage others…and me.

Your Doubts are NOT Your Problem: Unbelief Is

Ron Edmondson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:35:50 +0000

We are in a new series at Grace Community Church called Outsiders, looking at some characters in the Bible who aren’t as well known as other characters, yet who made huge impacts to the Kingdom. Yesterday I spoke about the disciple Thomas. Though some know him as Doubting Thomas, I prefer the title I have also heard by which I’ve also heard him referred, Thomas the Believer. In this message, I address the bottom line that doubts are not the major problem for a believer, unbelief is. Ultimately we must go from doubts to a solid foundation of faith; that God is who He says He is and will do what is best in our life.

If you wish to view this message, here it is in it’s entirety.

For an audio version of this message, click HERE.

I also shared that some people are more naturally wired to doubt (some may even say worry), because of their personality. Would that describe you? Be honest!

Outsiders Series: Join Me at Grace Community Church

Ron Edmondson — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:55:54 +0000

Do you ever struggle with doubts? Are there times you just can’t seem to trust that God will do what you need Him to do? Have you been praying continually, but nothing has changed? How long have you been waiting?

This week at Grace Community Church we begin a new series called Outsiders. Every generation, every culture, and every community has them: People who live on the outside. They may not fit in and fall in line with everyone else. They may be hard to figure out and even control, but God uses them to change lives. We call them Outsiders! I will kick-off the series with a discussion on the doubts that are natural in the Christian journey.

We have three identical services at 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30 AM. We have an amazing children’s environment from birth to 5th grade. Our worship is amazing! The preaching/teaching is okay sometimes…. The best part of Grace Community Church, however, has to be our people. We are told every week that we are a welcoming and friendly church. I love that! If you have never been before, be my guest this week as we consider how we can address the doubts we have in our life.

Will you join us? If you are a regular attendee of Grace, will you consider inviting a friend or relative? (You can simply share this post with others through Facebook…you’d be surprised how well that works.)

See you Sunday.

4 Principles for Effective Parenting

Ron Edmondson — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:45:42 +0000

I said at the beginning of this message on parenting, delivered at Grace Community Church, that I could not answer the entire “how to” questions about parenting. My desire was to offer a paradigm of principles for effective parenting. I really do believe if you follow these principles you will truly live out the Biblical principle of “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

The four principles are:

Be there

Be intentional

Be relational

Be consistent

I also shared this diagram. To understand the diagram and apply the principles, you’ll have to listen to the message.

For the audio version, go HERE

Questions about Spiritual Growth

Ron Edmondson — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:31:01 +0000

We love our community group that meets in our home (or someone’s home) each week. We had a great discussion recently in one of our meetings.

These are the questions our small group considered. We had a great time talking about them…a few tears were shed…we had some great laughs…and I think we thought through our relationship with God a little more. Perhaps the questions will make you think.

1. What person has most encouraged you in your spiritual growth?
2. What event/activity/season of life caused your spiritual life to grow the most?
3. At what period of your life would you describe as the time when you were closest to God?
4. What changes would you have to make in your life now in order to grow more spiritually?

How would you answer these questions?

Our discussion centered with the fact that we need to see our closeness to God as more of a relationship than a religion. In religion, we have a list to check and complete, but in a relationship, we wrestle through the highs and lows of various degrees of intimacy. When we treat the relationship as something of value, we are more likely to intentionally work to protect and develop the relationship.

Are you more likely to see your closeness with God in terms of a religion or a relationship?