Archive for the 'Pastors' Category
Spiritual Leaders and Their Influence in This Election Season
*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
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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
[i] Dr. Adrian Rogers, “Christian Citizenship”, Love Worth Finding Ministries
[ii] https://www.gty.org/resources/bible-introductions/MSB27/daniel, accessed June 26, 2016
[iii] Daniel 5:17
[iv] Graham, Billy. Just As I Am. Zondervan, 1999. p. 657
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Guest Post | 6 Ways to Build a Loyal Team by Todd Adkins
Today, RonnieFloyd.com welcomes guest writer, Todd Adkins. Todd is the Director of Leadership at LifeWay Christian Resources and host of the 5 Leadership Questions Podcast.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Developing leaders and working together in a team is the model that Jesus laid out for us with his very first followers. When you build the trust of your team, you are investing in the long-term future.
Here are 6 ways to build a loyal team:
1. If you want a loyal team, help them see their future
One of the quickest ways to endear yourself to your team is to ask them questions about their goals and aspirations. This can’t be just lip service; you actually have to want to see them develop and be willing to invest yourself in the process as well, even if it means you will have to replace them. In fact, if you’re good, they may even replace you.
2. Celebrate effort even if the results are less than expected
I am not talking about creating an environment where everyone gets a trophy and has their turn as employee of the month. There are extenuating circumstances that can thwart the best-laid plans even when they were executed flawlessly. Nothing reveals character like how a leader loses. If they went down swinging, don’t treat them like a loser. They have just shown you what they are made of and learned a valuable lesson or three along the way. Coach them up and process it with them, but celebrate the effort privately and publicly.
3. Hand over more decisions to your team
Congratulations, you are the leader. While you have every right to make all of the decisions for the team, if you do so, you greatly limit your impact and the impact of your team. Don’t be that guy who makes all the decisions and then complains that your people can’t make decisions for themselves. The truth is the higher the level of leadership, the fewer decisions you should be making. The best way to help your staff person make a decision when they come to you is by asking them questions, starting with: What do you think? Don’t offer ideas; guide them to their own conclusion by asking them questions.
4. Brag on your team
If you don’t have good things to say about your team on a regular basis, you probably have the wrong team. No leader ever suffers because everyone underneath them is a rock star. Seriously, think about it. When is the last time that someone developed the people around them so well that they got fired.
- Brag on them privately one on one.
- Brag on them publicly in front of them.
- Brag on them privately behind their back; they will hear about it.
When the time comes to have a difficult conversation or when you have to ask them to make a sacrifice, they won’t bat an eye.
5. Offer real time feedback
Don’t wait for a performance review to address any performance issues that may arise. If you have done a good job with #4, this should be no problem at all. In fact, by keeping close accounts like this, you will further endear yourself to the people you lead.
6. Ask them to teach you something
This can be personal or professional, but they will likely enjoy and appreciate adding value to their boss. I asked one of our finance guys to teach me how to build a budget that accounted for cannibalization from our main campus when we started doing multi-site. I didn’t just ask for it to be done, I took a genuine interest in his craft, became much more informed, and in the process showed I truly valued his work.
Everybody wants to be liked and to have a loyal staff, but if you apply these principles, you’ll not only have a better staff, you will also become a better leader in the process.
Finally, I’d love for you and your team to join me for PIPELINE this October in Nashville, TN. Thom Rainer, Trip Lee, Paul Tripp, Brad Lomenick, Carey Nieuwhof, Jenni Catron & others will be speaking. Ephesians 4 says that the calling of church leaders is not simply to do the work of ministry but to “train the people in the work of the ministry” in order to have the healthiest, most effective churches. PIPELINE aims to help you do just that. PIPELINE is unlike other church leadership events because it offers real training, something staffs can take home and begin implementing immediately.
Todd Adkins
Director of Leadership, LifeWay Christian Resources
@ToddAdkins
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.