Archive for the 'Pastors' Category
The Role of the Pastor in Year-End Giving in Your Church
What is the role of the pastor in year-end giving in your church? Do you have any responsibility in regards to biblical stewardship in the life of your people? I believe we do have a responsibility for biblical stewardship in our church.
Year-End Giving and the #1 Question we Need to Ask Our People Repeatedly in December
In the month of December, we are in the final month of giving for the year. Every non-profit ministry in the country will make appeals to the members of your church to support their ministry financially. While these may be good and some are worthy of consideration, the church should receive the #1 priority in the lives of our people.
The key question we need to ask repeatedly: As you review and understand clearly ALL of your sources of income in 2014, have you honored God by giving at least the first one-tenth to your local church? If you have not, then insure you do so before December 31 so that you can know you have walked in complete obedience to God in 2014 in relationship to biblical stewardship.
Your Two Major Roles as Pastor in Year-End Giving
I want to suggest that you have two major roles in relationship to biblical stewardship in year-end giving:
1. Lead Your People
Lead your people by example in biblical stewardship and lead with the authority of God’s Word. The only people that want you to be bashful about biblical stewardship in the church are the people that do not practice biblical stewardship personally. Lead the initiative weekly in worship by asking people the key question above.
2. Challenge Your People
Challenge your people to obedience to God in their stewardship. I don’t believe you would back away from challenging them to personal holiness, evangelism, discipleship, or the Great Commission. Therefore, you should not shy away from boldly challenging them to walk in complete obedience to God in their stewardship of all their resources.
How You Can Lead and Challenge Your People
Consider these suggestions as you lead and challenge your people to biblical stewardship:
1. Write each member a letter and extend the challenge to answer this key question: As you review and understand clearly ALL of your sources of income in 2014, have you honored God by giving at least the first one-tenth to your local church? Thank them for what they have given, and challenge them to finish with complete faithfulness to God. Share a testimony or two of what God is doing through the life of the church because God’s people have been faithful to give.
2. Weekly, as you extend the offering, ask them to answer the key question above. Again, thank them for what they have given already. Share testimonies of what God is doing in the church because of their giving.
3. Challenge your people to give above the first tenth in a special offering to the church or join you in giving to support international missions. In our Southern Baptist churches, we have a special annual offering we call the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Lottie Moon was a missionary in China over 100 years ago.
Last year, our 46,000 plus Southern Baptist churches gave $154 million to international missions through this offering. This past week, I began challenging our people. I will do so boldly and gladly, as Jeana and I have already given to it sacrificially. Any church can give to this offering, so I want to encourage your church to join us or join your own global missions offering in your denomination.
Finally, Pastor, step up in December by leading and challenging your church to complete 2014 in obedience to God in regard to personal, biblical stewardship.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
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.