Archive for the 'Southern Baptist Convention' Category
5 Things You Can Expect at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention
I want to share five things to expect when you attend the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention. Many will be attending for the first time, others will be attending their first in a few years, and some will be like me, annual attenders. By the way, you can still register, so perhaps this will encourage you to do so.
God will meet with us powerfully.
A few thousand people have been praying for our gathering almost daily, if not weekly. In these final days before we gather, we pray and ask each of our pastors, church leaders, and churches to set aside a day to pray and fast for this gathering. At the least, thousands of our churches could set aside two or three Sundays before our meeting to take five to ten minutes in their worship services to pray for our upcoming convention.
Many of our churches have set aside entire Sunday mornings to pray for revival in the church, awakening in America, and to reach the world for Christ. More may do so before we gather in Columbus.
What I do know is that we have set aside moments to meet with God, especially on Tuesday night, when we will take the entire evening session for a national gathering of Southern Baptists to pray for the next Great Awakening and to reach the world for Christ. Do not miss it. God will meet with us powerfully. May this evening become a catalyst for the next great move of God in America.
Schedule will be completely different.
Our Order of Business Committee and the Executive Committee leadership have worked with me in partnership to create what we believe will be a very creative and impactful schedule. Take a moment to download the entire schedule or at least some highlights of it.
We have created packages, things that we believe go together, to help all of us understand more the impact of what God is doing and wants to do through us. The tone will be set in our Tuesday morning session, so do not be late and definitely do not miss it. I hope you will pray for me as I begin preparing to deliver my address to our convention at approximately 9:30 AM.
Multiple opportunities will be given to you continually.
Much occurs at our Southern Baptist Convention. While I rejoice in this and have attended many of them, they exist to complement what we do together inside the convention hall for two days, not compete with it.
I respectfully request all of the groups and leaders that are hosting something or offering something to our messengers to please remember this. Start and conclude before our sessions begin or after our sessions conclude. Let the people out in plenty of time to get into the hall.
Messengers, please be diligent in attending each session. You would be surprised to discover that many messengers never even make it into the hall to attend any sessions. Remember that your churches are funding your trip so that you can participate, listen, and return with a report of what our Southern Baptist Convention is doing. This is why we convene, so please join us. We have changed the way we do things so that new people will be interested in attending and to re-engage all of us.
Outstanding work is preceding our convention greatly.
At the present time, we have 81 of our 119 churches that are a part of our Metro Columbus Baptist Association involved in Crossover Columbus! This is due to the phenomenal leadership of their Director of Missions, Rich Halcombe, and the entire Ohio Baptist Convention staff team that is led by their Executive Director, Jack Kwok.
Preceding the convention, many of our churches from across the country will arrive early to assist in Crossover Columbus. Additionally, seminary and college students will be equipped to evangelize and lead various gatherings to impact the city. We could have up to 1,000 college students assisting in this and hundreds of them attending our convention.
There is still time to come and help. Everyone who will be there for the weekend before can come assist on Crossover Saturday, June 13. Give a few hours to touch Columbus for Christ. Discover what God is doing and how He can use you at crossovercolumbus.org.
Additionally, there will be many fabulous moments afforded to you before Tuesday. Here is a list of those various meetings from our outstanding Pastors’ Conference, led by Willy Rice, all the way to the great leadership given to our Women’s Missionary Union by Wanda Lee.
You will leave Columbus with vision and hope abounding.
I want to assure you, if you are in our sessions at the Southern Baptist Convention, you will leave with vision and hope abounding.
Can I guarantee that? Yes, because I am convinced the reports and presentations along with the various features will be outstanding. Additionally, I am convinced the business will be conducted diligently.
More than anything, I am convinced that God will meet with us powerfully.
I pray you will leave with a burden for what God wants to do; but even more so, we appeal to King Jesus that you also leave with vision and hope abounding.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church President, Southern Baptist Convention*******
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
Set Aside a Day to Pray and Fast for Our 2015 Southern Baptist Convention
I humbly call upon each one of our Southern Baptist churches and congregations to set aside one day between now and June 16 to pray and fast for our upcoming Southern Baptist Convention. Pastors and church leaders, please lead the way!
It is Time Now to Set Aside One Day to Humble Ourselves in Prayer and Fasting
We cannot fix ourselves. This is more than obvious.
We need to humble ourselves, placing ourselves low before God in prayer and fasting, and call upon the God of Heaven to do what only He can do. He is Lord.
Jesus was more than clear to His disciples and to us as recorded in Mark 9:29, “And He told them, ‘This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.’” The disciples could not cast a demon out, and asked Jesus why He could and they could not. Jesus was clear: Prayer and fasting! The Scriptures are full of illustrations about the power of coupling our prayer with fasting.
Set Your Day for Your Church: We are Setting Aside May 17 (7 p.m.) – May 18 (7 p.m.) to Pray and Fast for the SBC.
Fasting is abstinence from food with a spiritual goal in mind. Whether a person fasts from one meal or all three for the full day is between them and God, but we will call on our members to join us in prayer and fasting for our upcoming Southern Baptist Convention.
Set aside a day for your church. Set aside a day for yourself. One day between now and June 16, pray and fast for our upcoming convention meeting. So much is at stake. How do we not pray and fast?
You can still participate if you are unable to fast from food due to physical limitations. Choose to abstain from something you love besides food, like the Internet, television, etc.
Draw aside for a few minutes during the day when you would normally eat (or participate in the activity you’re fasting from), get in His Word, and call out to God.
Why Should We Pray and Fast?
Carnality abounds in life and church. Division dominates many churches. Gossip, skepticism, criticism, and cynicism are ruling the day. Many pastors and churches are jealous of and critical about one another.
Evangelism is lagging. Over 70% of our churches are plateaued or declining. We have missionaries ready to go to the field, but have limited funds to send them. We have gospel churches that need to be planted now nationally and internationally.
We need to pray and fast. We need to ensure we are right with God and get right with one another. When we are repentant, we will become flexible to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, be set on fire by the Spirit, and change whatever needs to be changed to reach our town, city, nation, and world with the gospel of Christ.
A Few Requests to Pray and Fast About One Day Before June 16
Please join us in praying and fasting over these requests and others that God may lead you to before June 16:
- Lead us Lord, to intercede in prayer and fasting with a mighty conviction that the hour is critical in America; we must pray intensely and responsibly.
- Holy Spirit, wake us up! Wake up our pastors and leaders.
- Holy Spirit, revive the churches of our Convention.
- Lord, we ask You for the next Great Awakening in the United States, as spiritual awakening is our greatest need.
- Lord, lead our Southern Baptist pastors, leaders, and churches to come together now in CLEAR AGREEMENT, VISIBLE UNION, and EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER for the next Great Awakening and to reach the world for Christ.
- Lord, I call out to You each of the people, by name, who will lead in some way at the Southern Baptist Convention. (Please click here to see the entire program relating to those who are leading us, calling out each of their names. Ask God to empower them with His Spirit as they do this.)
- God, pour out Your Spirit upon Tuesday night’s National Call to Prayer gathering in Columbus for all Southern Baptists, using it as a catalyst for the next Great Awakening in America and to reach the world for Christ. On this night, extend the reach across the world through sbc.net and other media venues, where thousands join us as we begin at 6:45 p.m. (EST). (Call out to God these pastors who will lead.)
- Lord, help our churches through our SBC Presidential Panel on Wednesday at 3:35 p.m. This panel will address The Supreme Court and Same Sex Marriage: Preparing Our Churches for the Future. (Call out to God the names of these people who will serve on the panel.)
- Lord Jesus, give our SBC President, Ronnie Floyd, Your message as he prepares his presidential address for Tuesday morning, June 16 at 9:30 a.m.; anoint him powerfully as he preaches, leads, and presides over our meetings.
- Lord, may the city of Columbus, Ohio, be impacted the week before the convention by evangelism and ministry, specifically Saturday, June 13, through Crossover Columbus.
If you will take the time, there is plenty to pray and fast about during one day. This could even become a daily prayer list.
Pleading With Southern Baptists
I am pleading with Southern Baptists to pray and fast for our upcoming time together. In reality, the call is for so much more.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church President, Southern Baptist Convention
*******
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