Archive for the 'Great Commission/Evangelism' Category
If I Had More Time
A reporter recently asked me a very thought provoking question: If you had two more years as President of the Southern Baptist Convention, what would you do? I was not intimidated by the question; in fact, I have thought about it since the beginning of the year.
Every president in the past and every president in the future must lead the convention in the direction he believes God has put on his heart. Yet, he must also ensure it coincides with what the Lord is doing among the people and is done in the Lord’s timing. Additionally, the president must be more than prepared because the Lord may open unique doors for him during his term.
A Personal Moment
I have no idea how past presidents felt as they concluded their journey in this leadership responsibility. I am sure the emotions are plentiful. I am often asked, “Won’t you be glad to see this conclude?” I can honestly say that while I am humbled deeply and grateful to God for it, I have loved it all and will miss it.
I entered this year with these emotions and the vision of the needs that are so great before us. Therefore, I want to speak to two of our major needs today.
Because these are such major needs in Southern Baptist life, I have already been addressing them both. Yet, as we draw closer to this journey’s end, I feel the need to continually speak to their importance.
Prioritizing Evangelism Again
I will speak to some of this in my Presidential Address in our upcoming Southern Baptist Convention. I have already been speaking about this subject in writing and in leadership. A couple of months after being elected in 2014, I began conducting conference calls with large groups of leaders, challenging ministers to lead the way in seeing a change in our present negative trajectory.
Prioritizing evangelism again in our lives and churches is imperative. We need to emphasize personal evangelism as well as church evangelism.
We must hold high the dynamic need of reaching our own town, community, or city for Jesus Christ. We need to recapture the vision that God has taken us into our specific towns or regions to invest our lives until every person hears the gospel and comes to Christ.
Our pastors and churches must not just be equipped with evangelistic tools, but must adjust their thinking about their region and strategy.
Pastors and church leaders must begin to see their community as lost and in dire need of Jesus Christ. We must know our area demographically. If we are called to reach the people of our communities, we must first know who is there so we can develop a strategy to reach them.
Therefore, we must see each church as being on mission with God to reach their community with the gospel, and the pastor must see himself as a missional strategist, thinking and mobilizing people on this grand mission. This will take a major transition in our thinking as leaders.
Until personal evangelism and evangelism through the Church is our priority, we will continue to see what we have seen — mediocrity. Pastor and Church, re-prioritize your life and church for evangelism: sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit with the sole intentionality of leading each person to Christ.
Bring Laypeople Back into Southern Baptist Life
The conservative resurgence would have never happened without laypeople leading and participating. Judge Paul Pressler, a layman, and a tribe like him were side-by-side with our pastors in leading this needed return to the Bible. They were vigilant in the battle, which was so needed. They were only beholden to the Lord they served, the Word of God they loved, the Church God used to bring them to Jesus Christ, and the convention they believed God had raised up to reach the world.
While pastors were always in leadership, these strong laypeople were holding up the arms of our leaders, praying and serving admirably and unselfishly. When the resurgence was completed, many of these laypeople eventually ceased coming to our convention.
While this was understandable, today I really believe it is important to our future to re-engage our laypeople. It would take us from where we are to where God wants to see us go. We cannot get there without them.
Being in Northwest Arkansas at Cross Church, our region is flooded with the promise and hope of laypeople. As the Global Headquarters of Walmart, J.B. Hunt, Tyson Foods, and the home of the University of Arkansas, business giants and leaders fill this region. With at least 1,200 to 1,400 national and global companies that have some level of presence here, laypeople are robust in our area. I Thank God for the involvement of many laypeople in our fellowship and what they teach me continually.
Southern Baptist laypeople have so much to offer our convention. We need them more than they need us. Thank God for those who are still engaged with our meetings and for those who serve as trustees of our eleven national entities and Executive Committee.
Next year’s convention is in Phoenix, Arizona. Two summers from now, our convention will be in Dallas, Texas. Since thousands of churches are within driving distance of Dallas from surrounding states, if I had two more years to serve as president I would begin promoting this immediately. Unquestionably, I am convicted about it.
I Will Be Handing the Gavel to the Next Leader
When the gavel rings through St. Louis’ America Center at the close of our convention on Wednesday afternoon, I will no longer be serving as president. It is important for each of us now to pray diligently about the next leader God is raising up to serve.
I am praying with you for the Lord to raise up His next leader for us. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to God and to you for this generous privilege and responsibility extended to me.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, Southern Baptist Convention
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is currently serving as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.7 million members in over 51,094 churches nationwide.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Is Your Vision Big Enough?
My first pastorate was in a town of 300 people. It was a very special church. Each Sunday I would go to lunch at a different member’s home. We will never forget those days. It was a great place for me to learn.
One of the greatest lessons about vision I learned in the simplest manner while I was at that church. Some of the church’s leadership determined we needed to air condition the building. This led to a business meeting. We were discussing the situation as the ping-pong match began. One of the men felt strongly we did not need to do it because “times were hard.” A godly woman in the church had heard about all she wanted to hear. She stood up and said to them, “God will take care of this. Let’s help the church move forward to the future for our younger families.” In her passionate speech and plea, she nailed the hard times issue by telling them she would give the first $1,000. Needless to say, within minutes the whole issue was solved. The church was getting its own central heat and air unit.
In the middle of the match, I had resolved the deal was over. However, I learned that night I was not thinking big enough! I had forgotten the power of vision and how people love to rally to a better future. The lady had called people to a better future, even demonstrating sacrifice toward it.
What God etched in my heart that night, I will never forget. A godly lady had a vision and was not going to let anyone torpedo it. She painted a vision, and people ran toward it. The Lord has used the lessons I learned that night and built upon them church by church and situation by situation. God wanted to build me into a man of vision and faith.
Casting Vision
When I came to my present church in 1986 and preached for the church to vote on me becoming their pastor, I was grilled with questions for a long time. That night, I began to cast a vision in many areas.
I remember saying, “Surely He wants to use our church to place Jesus and His gospel all over the world from Northwest Arkansas.” That was a strong statement of vision and faith. On that night, I rallied people to a better future.
Through the years, I have felt at times there was no way it would happen, but I continued on in the vision. With the limited population in our region, I lost my vision and faith periodically. Sometimes I would believe we had peaked and there was no way for growth to continue. Yet it continued to happen. Every time I felt the lid was on, God would blow the lid off the church. I was not thinking big enough! Each time, I would look back and say to myself, “I should have known God better than that.” Each time, vision and faith were contributing factors. Each time, people were rallying to a better future for their lives and our church.
Vision is rallying people to a better future. Vision is helping people see what you see already. Vision is calling the invisible into visibility. Vision is usually determined by your burden and by your faith.
Jesus Thinks Big
When Jesus was about to ascend to be with His Father in heaven, He demonstrated the big idea. It all fit into His extraordinary plan. He had died for our sins. He had been raised from the dead supernaturally. Moments before His ascension, He laid some major visionary plans upon His faithful followers. He stated, as recorded by Luke in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This was a big idea. Jesus was thinking big! He was calling His followers to expand their belief in Him and His good news. He wanted His followers to begin sharing where they lived, then stretch to their own country, and eventually go into the entire world. This plan for reaching the world with news about His gift of eternal life became the marching orders to the church from our commander-in-chief, Jesus Christ. Any vision we have needs to be a vision that is tied to the vision of Jesus. He pulls for your vision to be fulfilled when you join Him in fulfilling His vision for the entire world, beginning with your own world.
When we do this, we experience a better future. We see things happen that do not logically make sense. We begin to realize that when God factors into our lives and churches, He creates something that is powerful! The supernatural power of God is unleashed upon you and your church when you have the heart for and begin to step toward reaching your region with the good news of Jesus with great intentionality. The power escalates along with the vision.
Whether you are trusting God for central heat and air to be placed in your building, or something else, ensure the vision somehow connects with reaching others for Jesus. When you connect what you desire to do with His vision, you send your vision to an entirely different level. The commitment from the divine towards you and your church begins to escalate.
Are you thinking big enough? Is your church thinking big enough? It all begins with our vision. Do you have one?
Every Person in the World
Pastors and church leaders, Great Commission strategizing ignites my spirit like nothing else. I long to exhaust all approaches, and all resources, in telling every person in the world about Jesus Christ and making disciples of all the nations. This has been my heart’s vision for many years.
There is no way I could share a word about vision without mentioning an experience that changed me forever. Johnny Hunt, then president of our convention, appointed me to serve as chairman of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2009-10. I led a Task Force team of 22 diverse leaders in bringing a report and recommendations to our convention of more than 40,000 churches and congregations, on the question of how we might better work together to fulfill the Great Commission.
I led this gifted team for one year through, long, exhausting, and exhilarating hours. I knew this was the most wonderful, significant opportunity I would ever undertake in my earthly life. At times I felt overwhelmed with our task.
The Lord taught me many things during my time with the Task Force. Through my interactions with these 22 leaders, He ultimately matured my vision for the Great Commission. I concluded that time in my life still holding a deep passion and vision to see every person in the world hear the great name of Jesus Christ, but with a matured vision to encourage the next generation of pastors and church leaders to join me in this passion.
As part of my Great Commission vision, today I diligently make time to engage the next generation and encourage them in every way possible. I see tremendous value and importance in pouring into the lives of the next generation of church leaders. I encourage you to come alongside and invest in your developing leaders and share your vision with them – may the Lord ignite your vision in them as well.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.