3 Important Questions Southern Baptists Need to Ask in All Decision Making in Dallas and Beyond

Decision making for Southern Baptists in Dallas next week may be challenging. Southern Baptists, we would do well to consider these three important questions any time we make decisions together.

Question #1: What is best for the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention?

We are a convention of local churches. Last week, we learned through the release of our 2017 Annual Church Profile report that we have 47,544 local churches and 4,376 church-type missions. Our decision making must be driven by the question: What is best for the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention?

Structures and systems are important, but they should never drive our decision making. When the decisions made are best for the churches, they will be best for the Southern Baptist Convention.

Question #2: What will assist the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and make disciples of all the nations?

This mission statement was adopted in the 2010 Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Florida. Whatever decision will equip, inspire, and mobilize our churches in the greatest way to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations is a good decision for our churches.

Southern Baptist national entities, state conventions, and local associations exist to assist the churches to accomplish their God-assigned tasks.

Question #3: What will best advance the unified funding of our Southern Baptist worldwide mission enterprise, the Cooperative Program?

Each cooperating Southern Baptist church determines the amount of money they give each year through our worldwide mission enterprise, the Cooperative Program. This money received from the churches is allocated toward the work our churches do together statewide, across America, and the entire world.

Since gifts from the churches through the Cooperative Program determine what our convention can do to advance the gospel together, the decisions we make together are very important. Our churches give through our worldwide mission enterprise because we believe we can do more together than each of our churches can do individually.

The Decisions Are Now Up To Us

Each messenger from our churches will make numerous decisions in Dallas, Texas, next week. What will motivate and determine our decisions?  I humbly suggest these three questions become our grid for decision making in Dallas and beyond in our future together.

May our decisions seem good to the Holy Spirit and to us.

Now is the Time to Lead,

Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, National Day of Prayer

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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, President of the National Day of Prayer, and founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry.

To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.

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