Archive for the 'Leadership' Category
A Month of Preaching That Will Call Your Church to be All God Wants You to Be
The most influential voice in the life of a church is the voice of the preacher when he preaches the Bible, God’s Word. This preacher is usually the pastor of the church.
Every pastor I know wants to call His church up to be all God wants the church to be. What we preach, how we preach, and when we preach all influence the outcome. Therefore, I am humbly requesting every pastor, every church, and every chapel of our Baptist entities, conventions, seminaries, and colleges to consider a month of preaching that may involve four or five messages that call the people of God to be all God wants them to be.
1 Month of Preaching on These Subjects
Between the months of January and May 2015, move into a one-month emphasis to preach and teach God’s Word on the following subjects:
- Personal Repentance
- Extraordinary Prayer
- Fasting
- Personal and Church Revival
- Spiritual Awakening
- Reaching the World for Christ
In our newly released 16-page e-book, Pleading With Southern Baptists, we presented an urgent call to five actions for every Southern Baptist Christian and church. Last week, I wrote about the first action, 3 Minutes at Sunset or Sunrise Can Turn Your Church Around. The second action is to give a month to preaching on these subjects.
At Cross Church, we are doing this series over five or six weeks, calling it, Pleading With Cross Church. We have used the word “pleading” in correlation with the e-book. Consider doing the same, really calling upon your church or ministry to read the 16-page e-book as well.
Pastors and preachers, you can go here to see various biblical messages on these subjects preached by some of America’s greatest preachers of the gospel. Use or quote from these inspiring sermons as God leads you. This collection is well worth the experience and we are adding to it continually.
Extend Passionate Calls to the People of God Individually and Collectively
As you ground your message in the Word of God, present it with a passionate call to the people of God. While we lift up these great biblical and spiritual principles, call God’s people to spiritual greatness individually and collectively.
This is an opportunity for thousands of churches and ministries to call their people to become what God wants them to be. As you proclaim the Word, present the wonderful message of the hope we have in the Lord. It is time to look to Him alone. He can turn any person, church, city, nation, and any convention of churches around.
When Will We Realize…
When will we realize that above all our perceived needs in life and church, there is no greater need personally and collectively in the church than a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have seen what man can do; it is time for us to see what God can do!
This is why we need to preach on these great subjects like personal repentance, extraordinary prayer, fasting, personal and church revival, spiritual awakening, and reaching the world for Christ. They are all interconnected and imperative in both life and the church.
A Historical Precedent
When Jonathan Edwards wrote his “Humble Attempt”, he called the pastors and churches to action, resulting in a mighty moving of the Spirit. They believed more than anything that they needed to agree together and visibly unite in extraordinary prayer.
When they did, God moved. He moved so powerfully, we call it awakening! Multiple thousands came to Christ, culture was affected, and churches were changed.
We must begin to believe there is a connection between a great move of God and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This is why we must repent, pray, and fast to experience revival that leads to awakening, which will become the catalyst to the acceleration of the gospel to the nations.
It is past time to see what God can do.
Enough of us, more of God.
This is why we must preach it!
Yours for the Great Commission,
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 46,000 churches nationwide.
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.
How Pastors Can Avoid the Sin of Pride
When pride walks on the platform, God walks off. Under major conviction from the Holy Spirit in 1995, in the early morning on a night when I could not sleep, God revealed this truth to me. It was not a truth about someone else, but a truth about me. During those early hours, God began a work within me that He is still doing in and through me daily.
Every pastor I know, but mostly this pastor, needs to continually learn the powerful truth from 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die every day!” May the Lord teach us this truth.
Where We Are
The spiritual vital signs in this nation, in our churches, and in our individual lives display our desperate need for a word from God that hits us between the eyes, takes the wind out of our self-importance, reminds us that we are not God, and brings us to our knees. Unless we humble ourselves with fasting and prayer, we will not know real joy, we will not know God’s best for our lives, and we will never experience the great awakening we need personally and nationally.
We need to stop long enough to evaluate where we are. Would anyone question that we live under ominous clouds of spiritual darkness? Unless we bow humbly before our God, that cloud will become even thicker, and the church will find itself increasingly immobilized, unable to support itself because of its own dead weight. The answer to our spiritual crisis will not be found in the ballot box, but in the prayer closet. It will come through a fresh touch from the Lord, who wants to speak to us, move us, and manifest His mighty presence. Moving the furniture in our churches, denominations, or our own lives will not be enough. The answer to our spiritual crisis will come when we put off our mindsets of self-worship, territorialism, and the spirit of arrogance and pride, and put on the sackcloth of prayer, fasting, humiliation, and repentance before God.
What We See When Pride is Displayed
Those of us who think for even a moment that we are righteous are not righteous at all. When this happens, we are afflicted with a terminal disease called spiritual pride, the most deadly manifestation of our sinful nature. We often see pride display itself in one of two forms.
Greed – Greed hoards the time, money, or possessions we have been entrusted within life. Greed exists because of pride. Why do people not honor God with the first tenth of all God has given them? Greed comes from pride. Humility is demonstrated through obedience to God’s Word to giving; and when done, it removes the wall of greed. We can pray and fast for revival all day long, but we must stop the robbing from God that goes on weekly by the people of God. Humility removes the wall of greed.
Unforgiveness – Unforgiveness is prevalent in the lives of most Christians and in most churches. It occurs because of pride. I believe unforgiveness is the major obstacle to revival in today’s church. Pride is so powerful that unforgiveness has become the norm in most Christ followers and churches. This pride has built such a calloused heart in us that we are no longer bothered by having an unforgiving spirit toward others. Pride is powerful. It has destroyed men and women, families, businesses, churches, and governments. Most of all, it has grieved the Holy Spirit in the lives of many of us. Has it done that in you? Humility will lead us to the forgiveness of others.
The Power of Humility
Humility crushes the wall of pride in our lives. There is nothing more deadly than pride and the only cure is humility and brokenness. As pastors, we must do whatever it takes to see pride rooted out of our life and leadership. Quite honestly, the only thing that will remove the spirit of pride in us is to humble ourselves through fasting and prayer. When we humble ourselves before God with prayer and fasting, God will provide major spiritual breakthroughs. We will see breakthroughs regarding our pride, our greed, and even our unforgiveness. God’s gateway to spiritual breakthrough is prayer and fasting.
The next great awakening will be determined by the people of God who will get down on their knees, pray, fast, and believe that God is bigger than their circumstances, bigger than any election, bigger than any political party, and much bigger than we are. While we are in a dark midnight crisis spiritually in our nation, through prayer and fasting spiritual breakthroughs await us.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.