Archive for the 'Leadership' Category
You’re Not Thinking Big Enough
Below is an adapted excerpt from my book, 10 Things Every Minister Needs to Know
“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 that the deal was over and the man had won again. 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.
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 to them, “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 felt there was no way that would happen, but I continued on in the vision. With the limited population in this 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?”
A Personal Account
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 the 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.
What Walmart Can Teach The Southern Baptist Convention About Our Annual Meeting
On Friday, June 7, I attended the annual Walmart Stockholders’ Meeting and on Tuesday-Wednesday, June 11-12, I attended the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Let’s compare the two briefly:
Walmart Southern Baptist Convention
Estimated 15,000 attendees Estimated 5,000 attendees in Houston
Estimated Mtg Time: 3.50 hours Estimated Mtg Time: 19 hours
Largest company in world Largest evangelical denomination in N.A.
The comparisons could be endless, but the above observations are sufficient.
Now a personal word to all of my Southern Baptist friends, I am fully aware Walmart is a corporate community, while the Southern Baptist Convention is a convention of churches intended to be a spiritual force globally.
My goal in this post is NOT to make the Southern Baptist Convention like Walmart; my goal is to give you a few personal observations that we may consider in any conversation about the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
One other point of clarification: I am a Pastor highly involved and engaged in Southern Baptist life. I am not sitting on the sideline, being critical of who we are, what we do, and where we are going. My church is highly committed to who we are and what we do as Southern Baptists supporting it with time, money, prayer, and focus.
Five Lessons Walmart Could Teach The Southern Baptist Convention About Our Annual Meeting
1. Culture Counts
The culture of Walmart is built around its associates — its employees. The company and culture is not built upon the key leaders, but its 2.2 million employees. Their commitments to serving their customers, respecting all individuals, and striving for excellence exudes in their stockholders’ meeting.
Amazingly, this has built a highly contagious culture, overflowing with enthusiasm, authenticity, and honesty. Walmart believes the biggest difference they can make is how they treat each customer. In fact, a statement was made, “Making the customer #1 is living the culture out loud.” Stated another way, “The biggest difference is how you treat every customer.”
Culture matters at Walmart, and their stockholders’ meeting is all about building upon their culture. Excitement and enthusiasm began before the meeting and continued afterwards. In the words of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, “Happy, Happy, Happy!” That is what I felt and saw everywhere at the Walmart stockholders’ meeting.
2. Mission Matters
The Walmart mission matters and is illustrated continually: “We save people money so they can live better.” They value a one-cent saving to their customers, never minimizing it. This statement is like a trotline through their culture. Everything leads to it and everything flows from it.
3. Simple Story
Walmart has many sub-tribes that comprise the one large tribe. While each has a sub-culture of their own, they all connect with the big Walmart story. While Sam’s Club, Walmart International, Walmart USA, and Walmart Global e-Commerce, all have distinctives, each operate with one story, the Walmart story. Their own stories connect with the overall Walmart Story.
4. Innovation Ignites
Walmart celebrates innovation, doing new things or doing them in a new way. Again, anything that helps promote the mission, “To save people money so they can live better,” is not condemned, but celebrated! When this kind of innovation is celebrated, it ignites more innovation!
5. Effectiveness Excels
The Walmart meeting was effective and when it was over, it bred an effectiveness that excelled! The associates who attended from all over the world along with the stockholders in attendance departed fired up and excited about Walmart and what the company is doing. Whether the story was told via video or in person, it was effective.
Their use of technology was incredible. The unexpected absolutely engaged the crowd, no body in attendance wanted to miss a single thing! The unexpected included Les Miserables’ star Hugh Jackman serving as Master of Ceremonies, Tom Cruise sounding off the Walmart values, and Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson entertaining. Intermingled were reports from their key leaders, each done within eight minutes. The President over all of Walmart gave approximately a 15-minute presentation. The introductions of the key leaders of Walmart were done by who else but their associates, most of whom were hourly employees. Their believability to those in attendance literally made you leave believing their story and mission are imperative to the American free enterprise.
I Wanted to Join
If they had given a public invitation at the conclusion of that meeting, I would have wanted to walk down the aisle and joined Walmart! Yes, their meeting was that believable and effective. The atmosphere was electric. No one left early — everyone was on time and stayed until the end of the meeting. If you had been late, you would have missed something and if you had left early, oh, no one would ever want to do that at a Walmart meeting.
Yes, We Could Go To School
Our Southern Baptist Convention could go to school and learn some things from Walmart to improve our annual meeting. Honestly, I am concerned with our numbers from this year. I would never have thought we would have had just over 5,000 messengers in Houston. In fact, I would have guessed somewhere around 8,000 messengers. There may be several things we can blame the low attendance on, and some may be valid reasons.
Yet, I believe the bigger questions are: Why are several thousands not attending? What are their reasons for not attending? Why do they not see a value in attending? What can we do to improve the convention to engage a greater attendance? Why are we losing all generations and their commitment to this important meeting?
I fully understand we have reporting and business to do, but how can we do it more effectively, in a way that engages thousands. In today’s world, I do believe we could reduce our annual meeting to one day, with all other meetings leading up to that day, never competing with it.
Again, I know we are not Walmart and I do not desire us to be so. Yet, we should continually be evaluating how we conduct our time together annually, in order to more effectively communicate our story as the Southern Baptist Convention. We have a great story to tell and my desire is for all generations to know that story.
These are just a few thoughts from one Pastor, who loves to learn and grow personally and do whatever is necessary to engage more people in our mission. And yes, I do have a few thoughts about what it could be in the future. Perhaps more later.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.