Archive for the 'Pastors' Category
Guest Post | How’s Your VISION? by Jeff Crawford
Today, RonnieFloyd.com welcomes guest writer, Dr. Jeff Crawford. Dr. Crawford is the President of Cross Church School of Ministry and a Teaching Pastor at Cross Church.
Each summer for the last 12 years, I have either led or been involved in a staff advance experience for our ministry team and their spouses. We just got back from this year’s time away and a major theme that was brought to the table for our team was VISION.
VISION is the stuff of life in a church. The Bible says that where there is no VISION the people cast off restraint (Proverbs 29:18). That means where there is no VISION, people lose focus, they get restless, and things fall apart. I believe that the local church must have a compelling vision. Pastor, God has put it on you to be the primary vision caster for your congregation. It is on you to seek the face of God and to absorb from the Holy Spirit the unique vision the Lord has for your church. I believe that kind of VISION will energize, focus, and breathe life into all you do as a pastor and your church does as a Kingdom force in this lost world.
One thing I re-discovered on our recent staff advance is that if you are not spending a lot of time talking about and doing VISION, it is easy to forget what VISION looks like.
What does VISION look like?
- VISION is bigger than you.
- VISION must be biblically based.
- VISION is external, not internal.
- VISION thinks BIG, as in God-sized, as in only God can do this.
- VISION thinks FUTURE.
- VISION is about MORE.
- VISION is about REACHING.
- VISION is RISKY.
- VISION evolves as VISION is realized.
Let me challenge you to apply the above statements about VISION to your family, work, life, and yes, your church. The default position for all of us is to be internally focused on what we have now, “making it the best it can be.” This, of course, is necessary and you SHOULD be doing these things, BUT these things are not VISION, they are maintenance.
I encourage you to PRAY and ask God to give you a VISION for your life. God says that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). If that is true and if we really believe that, then we need to think GREAT thoughts and dream BIG VISION, because no matter how big we dream or how big our VISION, we will never be able to out-do God!
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.
11 Minutes to 1 Hour on Sunday, September 11: Focused Prayer for America During Church Worship Services
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.
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.
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.