Archive for the 'Pastors' Category
Our Cross Church School of Ministry is Ready for You to Come Spend One Year With Us
The Cross Church School of Ministry is a one-year residential ministry experience that prepares leaders for life, ministry, and Gospel advancement globally. In August of this year, we will begin our fifth cohort of ministry residents. Whether you are looking to be equipped for ministry leadership or assisted in navigating your call to vocational ministry, the Cross Church School of Ministry is the place for you!
Not an Internship, but Ministry Residency
This is not an internship, but is a combination of hands-on ministry training and mentorship. Each cohort experiences two national mission trips and one international mission experience. Additionally, we have taken each cohort to learn from and experience the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
We have sixteen partnerships with academic institutions that grant either undergraduate or graduate hours if the student so desires to earn them. For example, you could earn as much as twenty-one hours toward your Master of Divinity degree by attending the Cross Church School of Ministry for one year. This program is like no other. You can work with us in creating your ministry track of study and concentration.
We do not compete with academic institutions, but complement what they do. We do what they cannot do and they do what we choose not to do. We are a local church; they are an academic institution. Yet, any innovative academic institution that is based upon Christian principles and equips God-called persons for ministry wants and desires a close partnership with local churches. We cherish these partnerships.
You can be just out of high school, in the midst of your collegiate degree or post-bachelor’s degree, in the middle of your Master of Divinity degree or you may have completed your Master’s degree. Come here, spend one year with us, earn as much as twenty-one hours of academic credit, and if you graduate from our program, you will also have one year of experience on a large multi-campus church.
Look What God Has Done in Almost Four Years
When August 2017 comes, we will have completed our fourth year in the Cross Church School of Ministry. In this experience the past four years, we will have equipped and sent out 64 graduates into gospel ministry. Of these 64 graduates, 14 are now serving on our own Cross Church team. Additionally, these 64 graduates will have experienced international mission trips to places like Venezuela, Tanzania, Malawi, and Haiti, and domestic mission trips to places like Portland, Maine, New York City, Washington, DC, Seattle, Washington, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Columbus, Ohio, Spearfish, South Dakota, St. Louis, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan. Additionally, these graduates will have attended the annual Southern Baptist Conventions either in Baltimore, Maryland, Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, or Phoenix, Arizona. We have also licensed 26 men to gospel ministry over these past four years.
Our graduates are now serving on church staff teams, as lead pastors, church planters, on the mission fields around the world, or continuing to pursue their post-graduate degrees. Yes, read carefully: We are serious about your one-year ministry residency that prepares you for life, leadership, and gospel advancement globally.
Now is the Time to Consider Coming Here
We are currently accepting applications for our upcoming 2017 class. Our next cohort will be joining us in August. Apply online today at CrossChurchSchool.com. If you are interested in learning more about the Cross Church School Of Ministry, please email Dave Kinney at Davek@crosschurch.com
Recently, our President for the past four years, Dr. Jeff Crawford, was called to serve as Senior Pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. We have asked Dave Kinney to step in during our interim search to coordinate logistics for our school. He was in the first cohort of our Cross Church School of Ministry after changing his future plans from medical school to the ministry. After graduation from our school, he joined our team full-time, completed his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is leading one of our campuses. He is doing an outstanding job and we are thankful for him stepping up to lead the School of Ministry during this interim period.
Pray for Us and We are Praying for You to Join Us or Send Someone
We are in an active search for the next President of our Cross Church School of Ministry. Please pray for us to know who that next leader needs to be. This does not need to deter you in enrolling this fall, because our entire team invests in our cohort, including myself. You will be assigned to work with one of our Ministry Team members specifically to prepare you for your future ministry in the ministry track you choose. Again, reach out immediately to Dave Kinney at Davek@crosschurch.com to find out more about this outstanding ministry resident school that has now proven: We prepare leaders for life, ministry, and gospel advancement globally.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry, and host of the Ronnie Floyd on Life and Leadership Today podcast.
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.
A Good Goodbye: How to Leave a Church Well
Today, RonnieFloyd.com welcomes guest writer, Dr. Jeff Crawford. Dr. Crawford has been the President of Cross Church School of Ministry and a Teaching Pastor at Cross Church for the past four years. Dr. Crawford is the new Senior Pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
This past Sunday I had to opportunity to preach one more time to my beloved family of believers at Cross Church. In two weeks I will begin serving as the Senior Pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN.
Thirteen years of my ministry career, over the course of two separate tenures, have been through Cross Church and under the leadership of my friend, mentor, and brother in Christ, Dr. Ronnie Floyd. This second tenure spanned four years, with me serving as co-founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry and Teaching Pastor. I have raised my four children in connection with Cross Church and all four were baptized there. As I reflected over the last 20 years of connection and 13 years of ministry with this dear church, I found my thoughts and emotions running deep. So many connections. So many people we love. So many ups and downs, joys and tears, and celebrations. So much life lived with the best staff, lay people, and Pastor for which a man could hope.
Things I Learned in My Time at Cross Church
As it developed in my mind and then all the way to delivery on Sunday, my final message became a love letter to this beloved church. Playing off of Paul’s example in Acts 20 when he met the leaders of his beloved church at Ephesus on the shores of the Mediterranean and gave them one final word of encouragement, I wanted to leave Cross Church with one final word based on “things I have learned in my time at Cross Church.” In reality the list is LONG. But on Sunday I gave them the short list:
- God can use anybody.
- If you deepen your walk, God will broaden your ministry.
- The church is God’s number one instrument to change the world.
- Relationships are the secret to life.
- We have to fight for the Bible.
- The Gospel story must constantly be retold.
- Jesus changes the conversation.
Those are just the highlights and the whole message can be heard here.
How to Leave Well
But the larger context to all of this is HOW TO LEAVE A CHURCH WELL. I’ve seen staff pastors come and go across many years of ministry. I’ve seen staff leave well and I’ve seen staff leave poorly. And let me say that there is definitely a “right” way to leave a church. In my most recent case, I was determined from the beginning, before I even knew for certain that I would be leaving, that I was going to leave well.
At the risk of simplifying matters to yet another list, here is a list of what I did and why:
- I told my pastor when Grace had reached out to me. Let me caveat that churches have periodically reached out to me and I did not take every one of those to my pastor. That’s an unfair burden he does not need, especially when I know that there’s a 99.9% chance it will come to nothing. But Grace coming toward me was different on multiple levels and my pastor deserved to know. I told Pastor Floyd that I would only come back to him should Grace decide that I was their one and only candidate. He did not need the added burden of “updates.” What he DID need was to know I was focused on Cross Church.
- I prayed and then shelved it. I did not live with eyes for another ministry. I was happy where I was planted with MUCH to do in ministry. I knew Grace might go another direction and that God was ultimately in control, so there was really nothing more for me to do.
- The moment Grace confirmed that God had singled me out as their one and only candidate, I went back to Pastor Floyd and shared honestly my heart that this was something we felt we needed to search out and see if God was in it for us. This involved a site visit to the church and to the city of Knoxville.
- After the visit, the invitation was on the table for me to say yes, or no, to go in view of a call to be the next senior pastor of Grace. My wife and I determined to take one week to pray matters through and to then say yes or no. I met with Pastor Floyd immediately after the visit and shared my heart and plan. I was NOT going to leave him or Cross Church hanging.
- Once we said yes, I worked with my pastor and with Grace to work a common timeline so as to protect and benefit both churches. On the Cross Church side, I let my pastor steer the ship on when and how he wanted to communicate matters to the church.
- And finally, in ALL of this, I lifted high publically and privately my church and my pastor.
I believe that in doing all of this, it allowed the church, my church, to send me off well and to bless me and my family as we move on to our new place of ministry. I will never forget the moving moment when Pastor Floyd prayed over and blessed us and commissioned us for our sending to Grace this past Sunday after I preached.
My friends, ministry is a small world. My best word: Don’t ever burn a bridge. You never know when you might want to cross it again.
Dr. Jeff Crawford
President, Cross Church School of Ministry
Teaching Pastor, Cross Church
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.