Archive for the 'Southern Baptist Convention' Category
4 Reasons Why You Can Be Hopeful About the Southern Baptist Convention
The size and complexity of the Southern Baptist Convention often makes it the recipient of unfair criticism. I believe there are reasons why you can be hopeful about our convention today and for the future.
This does not mean there are not issues to be addressed. As President, I am privileged to be involved in matters across our convention. Yes, some things need attention and change.
But today, I want to focus on four reasons why you can be hopeful about the Southern Baptist Convention.
1. Our conversation today is about fulfilling the Great Commission more effectively.
For the past five to six years, our conversation as a convention has become focused on the right thing: Presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and to make disciples of all the nations. Our convention is focused on this grand effort and is working at both the state and national levels on how we can best assist our churches in their God-assigned task of reaching the world for Jesus Christ.
This conversation in the past has, at times, been sidelined by the wrong things, leading to divisiveness and disunity, resulting in a lack of trust. Some of where we are in our statistics today is a result of the years where non-essentials became highlighted and negativity became fashionable.
But be encouraged! We have seen the focus turn toward the fulfillment of the Great Commission, and we are continuing in that direction.
2. Our convictions today are setting us apart from many others.
Due to our two-decade long and needed battle over what we believe about Holy Scripture, our Southern Baptist Convention today is not warring over the cultural issues that are dividing so many denominations. Why? Because we believe the Bible is the Word of God and we believe it together.
While many denominations are signaling to the culture an uncertainty about many of these issues and even warring internally about them, we stand with clarity and unity. Thank God for our pastors and churches that are faithful to Scripture and courageous in their convictions. Because this is where our churches are, our Southern Baptist leaders can stand emboldened in this challenging hour.
3. Our Convention today is becoming younger in age and more ethnically diverse.
If you were present in Columbus, Ohio, at our 2015 convention, you saw how much younger we are and how much more diverse we are becoming ethnically. This should encourage each of us greatly.
What is happening nationally in our convention will occur eventually in your state convention. Perhaps it is already. It needs to occur in our churches. The future depends upon it.
Fifty-eight percent of the new churches we planted in North America last year were non-Anglo churches. Prayerfully, this will continue to increase. With our focus on church planting nationally and internationally, we will see a younger and more diverse audience increase.
4. Our recent experiences are leading us to a growing hope.
Since I have been President, I have tried to call us to extraordinary prayer for the next Great Spiritual Awakening in America. The most recent convention in Columbus exemplified this in many ways, where thousands joined us in prayer during the Tuesday night session for the next Great Awakening and to Reach the World for Christ. In fact, I believe the entire convention, along with the ministries, meetings, and conferences that preceded it were highly positive and hopeful experiences.
Then, as thirteen thousand of us gathered this past week in Nashville focusing on living our lives on mission with God, it is evident that God is working. What we saw and experienced in our SEND Conference in Nashville is the coming Southern Baptist Convention where the arena is filled with enthusiasm and life, abounding in young adults and ethnic diversity.
Therefore, be encouraged. If you missed the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention, watch this recap video. If you missed the SEND Conference this week in Nashville, you can watch the recap here. Each have their distinct purpose, but this is what we are doing together. Be encouraged.
Yet My Eyes are not Blind to Reality
Dear friends, though I am increasingly hopeful about our present and our future, my eyes are not blind to reality. While I believe so passionately in our hope for the future, I am just as burdened by:
- Descent in evangelism and baptisms
- Lack of contagious and sacrificial giving in funding our mission to reach the world for Christ
- Minimization of the need for extraordinary prayer and the power of God
These begin in the local churches that comprise the Southern Baptist Convention. Somehow, some way, we need to prioritize these matters more than ever before in our churches and the result will be a robust explosion in our churches in reaching the world for Christ together.
Now is the Time to Lead,
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.
Stand Up With Moral Courage and Address the Planned Parenthood Debacle
Now is the time for moral courage in America. Moral courage is the courage to take action for moral reasons despite the risk of adverse consequences.1
The reported actions by Planned Parenthood should result in an immediate outcry. Unquestionably, if Planned Parenthood does not decry what has been exposed as immoral, brutal, and barbaric, then it is time that the mighty Planned Parenthood should fall.
Justifying or rationalizing their actions is not moral courage. As Commentator Brit Hume states, “The sight of a senior Planned Parenthood official and a doctor to boot, discussing the market for fetal body parts in between bites of salad and sips of wine was stomach-turning.”2 The Administration, the Board, and the entire Planned Parenthood organization must be held accountable for their actions.
Congress needs to exert moral courage now
The House and Senate need to demand the termination of all funds to Planned Parenthood now. Not one more dime of the reported $500 million should go to the brutality of killing the unborn. If the needed investigation proves the allegations true, then ultimately, Planned Parenthood should be completely defunded. This is not about the 2016 election, but what is right morally.
The White House needs to exert moral courage now
The President and his White House need to call for an immediate inquiry into these matters, demanding Congress deal with the issue now. This is not about polls and parties, but what is right morally.
Aspiring politicians need to exert moral courage now
Since the 2016 Presidential campaign faces us daily as well as other elections locally, statewide, and nationally, aspiring politicians need to exert moral courage now. Regardless of their support or lack of support in the past for Planned Parenthood, now is the time to stand with moral courage.
It was English politician, William Wilberforce, who led the movement to see slavery abolished. We need to remember his profound words: “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”3
Perhaps aspiring politicians or even elected officials have never chosen to ask Planned Parenthood the hard questions. However, you can never say again that you do not know. Now is the time to exert moral courage and speak your heart to the American people not only about Planned Parenthood, but your personal conviction about abortion. Since 1973, 57 million abortions have occurred. This would be like taking the lives of the entire populations of California and New York. Without a doubt, we need national leaders who exert strong moral courage.
Business leaders need to exert moral courage now
Leaders in the business world cannot remain silent. Moral courage demands these leaders ensure the company’s gifts to all organizations, including Planned Parenthood, would never contribute to the brutality of the unborn child.
The media needs to exert moral courage now
It was reported Thursday that the Media Research Center studied the major networks of ABC, NBC, and CBS, comparing the coverage of their stories between Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe and the story about Planned Parenthood. Interestingly, the unfortunate incident about Cecil the lion received 30 minutes of coverage compared to the Planned Parenthood story that received 11 minutes of coverage.
Yes, the media should cover the story about Cecil the lion, but one would certainly expect equal, if not more coverage of the Planned Parenthood study. Regardless of their personal convictions or thoughts, it is very much news when an organization like Planned Parenthood is doing what it is doing. The media should continue investigating until the entire truth is known. Yes, even the media needs to exert moral courage at this time.
Pastors, churches, and denominations need to exert moral courage now
Pastors, stand up and speak against the brutality of abortion and other moral issues. This is not being political, but prophetic. God did not call you to sit this one out. He has called you to stand on God’s Word. Refuse to buy into any type of pseudo-spirituality that says silence is your calling.
As I stated in my 2015 Presidential Address to the Southern Baptist Convention on June 16th, “America: We stand believing that abortion is a glaring desecration of the unborn child’s purpose and value. We must be vigilant to always stand for the unborn child, all human life, and human dignity from the womb to the tomb. Any decline in America’s commitment to the unborn child will lead toward an accelerating desecration of human life, resulting in more abuse, more violence, and more chaotic disruption. God has created us to bring Him glory. When we devalue human life in any way from the womb to the tomb, we are robbing God of His intended glory for each of us.”
This biblical and moral conviction is why I requested our 2015 Resolutions Committee prepare and present to our convention a resolution on the sanctity of human life from the womb to the tomb. They did so, and you can read where our Southern Baptist Convention stands on the issue of abortion. If the Planned Parenthood story had broken before our convention meeting, I believe deeply that our convention would have called for the complete defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Take action now. Let your representatives know you support the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the end of abortion. The ERLC offers a resource to help you find your representatives and tips on correspondence.
Moral courage or moral cowardice
What will history say one day about all of us who lived while abortion existed in our nation? Will it say when the curtain was finally pulled back about the brutality of abortion that Americans stood up with moral courage? Or will history record that we were cowards?
We cannot be adrift on denial. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right when he said: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”4
Now is the Time to Lead With Moral Courage,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, Southern Baptist Convention
1 Moral Courage
2 Brit Hume, FOXNews, July 20, 2015
3 William Wilberforce
4 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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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.