Ronnie Floyd

Archive for the 'Leadership' Category

August 31st, 2016

11 Minutes to 1 Hour on Sunday, September 11: Focused Prayer for America During Church Worship Services

America, Leadership, Pastors, Prayer, Spiritual Awakening, Video

As a people of faith, many followers of Christ would love to see prayer become part of our schools in America again. But I would suggest we first bring prayer back into the churches of America. The vast majority of churches in America give more time in their worship services to promoting their next event than they give to practicing prayer.

This Needs to Change on Sunday, September 11

Sunday, September 11, needs to become the day thousands of churches move from prayerlessness to prayerfulness. The subject at hand is one thing: America!

You may have given up on America, but God hasn’t. As the foundation of our nation is cracking and our culture is crumbling before our eyes, never and I mean never in our generation, have we needed to call out to God in prayer more than on Sunday, September 11.

Why Sunday, September 11, is a Key Day

Fifteen years ago on September 11, terrorism struck our nation in a devastating manner. A total of 2,996 people were killed in America on that day and more than 6,000 others were injured by the deadliest terrorist attack in world history. It was the most devastating attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor seventy-five years ago, December 7, 1941.

On September 11, 2016, on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, with great conviction, I want to ask each pastor and church in America to allocate the day to praying for our nation. The churches of America need to pray for our country in our worship services. Not just mention it, not just pray, but pray extraordinarily.

What You Could Pray About

There are so many things we could pray for our nation on September 11. A few of these are our upcoming elections, our President, our Congress, our Supreme Court, our governors and state legislative bodies, our mayors, city councils, and school boards, our first responders, our schools and universities, our military, our law enforcement officers, and the racial crisis in America.

Additionally, we could pray for our own church and for all the churches in America to be revived by the power of the Holy Spirit and for God to bring the next Great Spiritual Awakening in America. Make no mistake about it: America’s greatest need is the next Great Spiritual Awakening. Only revival in the church, a gospel explosion through the church, and awakening in the nation will turn around the church and nation. We need a Jesus revolution in America!

If we truly believe the Bible, we must apply the Bible. We need to live and pray for a moment like in Acts 4:31,

“When they had prayed, the place where they had assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak God’s message with boldness.”

Surely, as the churches in America, we can agree on one major thing: America needs prayer now! Surely we can unite on this day to call out to God for our nation. In this desperate hour in America, we need to see Sunday, September 11, as a day to pray for America: From 11 minutes to 1 hour… you determine it… your church determines it… let’s just come together for this strong day that could change America and change us into being more of what God wants us to be!

Pastor and Church Leaders, Lead Your Church to Pray for America on September 11

So many pastors and church leaders have said a service devoted entirely to prayer was the greatest day their church has ever had! Pastor and church, you will not regret it!

We have no right to prognosticate doom about America, upon evangelicals, upon the church, or anyone else unless we are willing to humble ourselves before God and pray.

Prayer brings the walls down! Prayer crosses over the perceived barriers of ethnicity, race, and generations, bringing down the walls that divide us. Let the walls fall down! Our sinful choices have built these walls, but Jesus’ work on the cross has brought them all down.

God is Calling Us to Him on September 11

I believe the polarization and division in America, the multiple crises in America and across the entire world, and the extreme division occurring in the church of America is a strong call from God to us: Come back to Me!

We need to wake up! We must come back to God! On Sunday, September 11, we need to give our worship services or at least 11 minutes in each service to praying for America.

Now is the time for us to repent, return to the Lord, plead for mercy, and call our nation back to God. Let me be more than clear: The church cannot call America to repent until the church repents. We need to repent of our prayerlessness. We need to repent of our unbelief. We need to pray for ourselves to get right with God and right with one another.

The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher!

The stakes couldn’t be higher in America. Now is the time for the church to be the church, praying for our nation!

Our hope cannot be in politics, parties, positions, possessions, or people. Our eyes need to be fixed on Jesus alone. Our hope is not in Washington, DC or your state capitol, but in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Yes, make no mistake about it. While the stakes could not be higher in our nation today, my faith is becoming stronger each day. Why? How?

I believe that our God can do anything, anytime, anywhere, with anyone. God can do more in a moment than you could ever do in a lifetime.

Share this video and the image below on social media to encourage others to join us in prayer on September 11.

Imagine this for a moment: Thousands of churches praying on the same day for America on September 11, for 11 minutes to 1 hour in each Sunday worship service.

Just think what God may do!

Now is the Time to Lead and to Pray,

Ronnie W. Floyd

Senior Pastor, Cross Church
Immediate Past President, Southern Baptist Convention

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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, immediate past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, 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.

Visit our website at http://ronniefloyd.com
Follow Dr. Floyd on Twitter and Instagram @ronniefloyd

Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.

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August 22nd, 2016

Spiritual Leaders and Their Influence in This Election Season

America, Join the Movement, Leadership, Pastors, Southern Baptist Convention, Spiritual Awakening, This Week at Cross Church

*This article was first published on RonnieFloyd.com on June 27, 2016.*

I give my full and complete endorsement to Jesus Christ. My 100% trust is in God alone, our Sovereign King.

I agree with the late Adrian Rogers, who said, “We dare not identify the Christian faith with the Democrat or Republican party. We need to be free to tell both parties to repent and get right with God.”[i] In fact, I would add what I shared on June 14 with the Southern Baptist Convention, “The church cannot call America to repent until the church repents.”

The Tension Is Real

Christians have dual citizenship. Our citizenship is not only in the Kingdom of God that is eternal and superior to all, but we are blessed, active citizens in the United States of America. Our Sovereign God not only determined the period of time He ordained us to live, He also determined where we would live.

I love the United States of America and still believe it is the greatest country in the world. Yet, I feel an enormous tension in my spirit about how to operate in our nation effectively, even though my ultimate allegiance is to the Kingdom of God that has no end. We live for one Kingdom while we live in another kingdom. Often, the decisions within our own country increase this tension and we have never lived in a time in our generation when this tension has been any greater.

Spiritual Leaders Are Wrestling Through This Tension

Spiritual leaders are wrestling through this tension. While this is real and challenging for each of us, in Jesus’ name for the sake of gospel testimony, we need to cease wrestling with each other through this tension. This does not honor God in any way.

Questioning the motives of other Christian leaders is not in your purview, but God’s alone. He is more than capable to take care of His God-called leaders. For those who are acting like they are spiritual policemen in the evangelical world, it is time to put the whistles away and cease the demeaning of other Christian leaders. God has called us to love, trust, and honor one another.

In this presidential election season, some are acting like we have had pure choices before and now we do not. Let’s get real: we have never had pure choices to select from. We live in a fallen world and all of our systems are less than perfect. It was failed when some of our greatest presidents have been elected or when some of our greatest presidents have emerged through the fire of leadership. Perfection will not occur until we die and our residency changes from here into heaven, and ultimately when Jesus comes again in His coming eternal, sovereign Kingdom.

Besides this, our trust needs to be in our Sovereign God, not in people or our processes. Think on and stand with confidence upon these words:

Daniel 2:21, “He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes kings.”
Daniel 4:26, “…Heaven rules.”
Proverbs 21:1, “A king’s heart is like streams of water in the Lord’s hand; He directs it wherever He chooses.”

Our trust is in the Lord and His word.

A Precedent That Is Undeniable

As the volatility increased in this year’s United States presidential election, I prayed, searched, and became convicted in March that there was one biblical character God wanted to use in my life who would become my mentor and model while navigating through these tumultuous waters.

Daniel was a statesman and a prophet. This is what I want to be in my life and leadership. Daniel lived in Jerusalem. In 605 B.C., some say at age 15, Daniel was taken captive along with others and exported to Babylon. He lived there for at least seventy years, where three times each day, he would open his window, kneel facing Jerusalem, and pray. John MacArthur noted this about Daniel: “He quickly rose to the role of statesman by official royal appointment and served as a confidante of kings, as well as a prophet in two world empires.”[ii]

Daniel was a godly, praying and fasting man whom God used powerfully. He was entrusted with favor from God and had favor with man. Daniel was entrusted with influencing the King and the future of the country, as well as given the authority to lead. Daniel 1-4 speaks of his relationship and influence with one of the most wicked leaders of all time, King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 5-10 speaks of his relationship with King Belshazzar, King Darius, and King Cyrus.

America is like a modern-day Babylon: sinful, wicked, and godless. God raised up King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon to exercise God’s judgment upon the people of God. Daniel and the people of God being exported into this godless, wicked nation gives us a living example of where we are as Christ-followers. We need to go to school on how God used Daniel and others in this season of judgment.

Daniel determined he would honor God whatever the costs. Daniel received God’s favor and was given leadership and influence. Each spiritual leader should aspire to be like Daniel.

Throughout Scripture, we see men and women of God who had a voice with leaders of nations. Some examples of these God-called spiritual leaders speaking to a nation’s leader:

Moses to Pharaoh
Eliezer to Jehoshaphat
Elijah to Ahab
Elisha to King Ben-hadad of Aram and also to the King of Israel
Nathan to David
Esther to Ahasuerus
Jeremiah to Zedekiah
Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus
John the Baptist to Herod
Peter and John to Annas and Caiaphas
Paul to King Agrippa

There are others I could list. This is a biblical precedent that is undeniable.

What If

What if Daniel had refused to acknowledge King Nebuchadnezzar and acted like he was too righteous to relate to him? What if Daniel had not answered the request to come interpret his dream? When you read the book of Daniel, you find him relating to these leaders continually, oftentimes entrusted with great influence upon the nation and even property; but at other times, being put in prison or ending up in a lion’s den. Daniel was not for sale. He even told King Belshazzar, “keep your gifts.”[iii] God always prevailed. Daniel was always faithful.

Why would we not want godly spiritual leaders to be influencers upon national and global leaders today?

Spiritual Leaders Need Tact and Discretion

Daniel 2:14, “Then Daniel responded with tact and discretion to Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, who had gone to execute the wise men of Babylon.” This is a pivotal verse that we need to go to school on in 2016 as spiritual leaders. In this day of social networking and endless opinions, Christian testimony is being destroyed and people are being hurt continually.

Daniel’s tone and words were flavored right, proper, and wise. Daniel’s counsel was sound, careful, and sensible. As Christians and Christian leaders, we need to make sure our tone and words must never eliminate our ability to win someone on this earth to faith in Jesus Christ. We need more tact and discretion with our words or we automatically forfeit our statesmanship and prophetic voice in America.

Billy Graham, Daniel, and Spiritual Leaders Today

In Billy Graham’s book, Just As I Am, he writes about the tension he walked in during the 1996 election season. Two of his friends, Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, were running against each other for the office of President of the United States. While pressure was on him to endorse one of them, he did not do so. Yet, when Elizabeth Dole attended Graham’s crusade, some viewed this as an implied endorsement, just as others would do so when he was seen with President Clinton.

Yet, Billy Graham writes these words which so resonate with me today: “My own prayer was that God’s will would be done, and that He would grant wisdom, compassion, and integrity to whoever was elected to our highest office.”[iv]

Just think what social media would have done to the great Billy Graham, who had an ongoing, personal spiritual relationship with multiple politicians and presidents who served our nation. Just think what social media and modern-day Christianity would have done to Daniel, the statesman and prophet.

Let me set the record straight today: I want Daniel, the statesman and prophet, and the life, leadership, and legacy of Billy Graham and their relationships with national and global political leaders to be my model rather than sitting on the sideline, critiquing every political candidate and anyone whom God would raise up to influence them.

Now is the Time to Lead,

Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church