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Tim Edris

edris_tim.jpg“All I needed to know about life I learned on LDW,” claims Tim Edris. Tim was a participant in the CCO’s inaugural Leadership and Discipleship in the Wilderness (LDW) trip in 1995 and subsequently a leader. Those experiences, Tim says, shaped the way he lives and works and relates to people in a very profound way.

As the owner of Emerging Leaders Institute (ELI) in Beaver Falls, PA, Tim serves a wide variety of organizations as a team and leadership development specialist.  Tim says that LDW taught him how to understand groups and group processes better, a perspective which is vital to his work right now.  Without an understanding of group dynamics, it is impossible to help a team develop.  Additionally, Tim says that the way he practices his consulting is inextricably linked to how his sense of calling was shaped by the CCO.  He views his life, his work, his recreating—all of the things that he does all of the time—as his spiritual act of worship.

As an undergraduate at Messiah College, Tim participated in fellowship and discipleship groups as well as several mission trips with CCO staff member Doug Bradbury.  In addition, Tim worked for the CCO at Geneva College after graduation.  His involvement with the CCO’s ministry helped him to understand the gospel and, in particular, the worldview of creation, fall, and redemption.  Understanding the biblical narrative, he says, informs how he does leadership and team development because those things are about how we love our neighbors.  “Integration of faith and work is not a stretch when we are doing work faithfully, treating people with love and respect and teaching them to do that with other people,” says Tim.

Tim lives in Beaver Falls, PA with his wife Anna.  They are expecting their first child in November, 2008.  Tim and Anna are members of the First Presbyterian Church in Beaver Falls where Tim serves as a deacon and assists the parish personnel committee.  Tim is active in the Beaver Falls community through his work as an assistant coach for the Geneva College men’s soccer team.  He appreciates the opportunity to be involved in the lives of the young men on the team, encouraging them to think about what it means to be a Christian young man.

In addition to informing his work, Tim says that his LDW experience caused him to think about stewardship in all areas of life.  While in the wilderness of Wyoming, he and his team members were taught to leave no trace behind.  In thinking about protecting and caring for the environment, Tim says he has learned to become a steward of creation in a larger sense, in all areas of life.  This perspective on stewardship causes Tim to “think an awful lot about my marriage, fellow coaches, the folks I work with.”

Tim says that the time he has spent in ministry with the CCO has influenced him in a number of ways, including shaping his views on racial reconciliation.  The purpose of the CCO is “Transforming college students to transform the world.”  As a student, and especially as a staff person, Tim knows that he personally has been transformed by the ministry of the CCO.