Archive for the 'This Week at Cross Church' Category
This Week at Cross Church | Resignation Given and Final Sermon on May 19
Resignation Given and Final Sermon will be Sunday, May 19
This past Sunday morning in all eleven services on the four campuses of Cross Church, I submitted my resignation as your Senior Pastor. For the past thirty-two and one-half years, you have given me the highest honor to serve you in this capacity and live life with you here in Northwest Arkansas. If you missed this historic Sunday, which was both painful and powerful for all of us, you can watch the message in its full version from our Pinnacle Hills Campus or you can watch the final few minutes only with the conclusion and resignation. Share with friends and family across the world. I want others to know a pastor and church can truly love one another and experience their greatest years together as pastor and people. I love you, Cross Church, and one thousand thank yous for loving our family. My final sermon and Sunday with you as Senior Pastor will be Sunday, May 19.
In the Mean Time, I will be With You Each Weekend, Preaching and Leading
Between now and May 19, I will be leading and preaching every weekend at Cross Church, as I have all these years. Until I hand the baton over to your next Senior Pastor following my final message with you on Sunday, May 19, I will be leading and investing in our church, preparing for all going on now and moving us forward to the summer, the fall, and beyond. As I stated Sunday, with the coming National Day of Prayer on May 2 and the Southern Baptist Convention on June 11-12 and all the pre-convention days before, I have much going on; therefore, during the week, I may be from Washington to Nashville to other cities preparing, but will mostly be here, as I have been. Please pray for me. I will give the best I have here in the days I have together with you. On Monday when I drove up to the Springdale Campus, I lost it again emotionally as I did Sunday, knowing soon my time with you will end. I know God will see me through, but there is a part of me that will never leave you. Pray for Jeana and me daily. We really do need it.
Palm Sunday on April 14 is a huge day: Communion with our Cross Church Family and the Succession Announcement
This past Sunday, toward the end of my message, before the conclusion and resignation, I gave you an important announcement about the succession plan announcement that will occur this Sunday, and the importance of April 28 for our church’s future. You can watch this brief segment here. The video announcement relating to succession will occur in each of our services on Sunday. Following two weeks of intensive prayer, on April 28 in each service, our Board of Directors is asking you to vote for and affirm whom they believe by God’s divine purpose, preparation, and will to be the man God is raising up to be the next Senior Pastor of Cross Church. If this occurs, then my final days with you will be preparing all of us, including him, to take the spiritual entrustment of leadership once I complete my final sermon on May 19. It is my desire and the desire of our church’s leadership that there will never be even one moment when Cross Church will not have a Senior Pastor providing spiritual leadership and direction for our Cross Church family. Prayerfully, it will be one of the most powerful God moments as we prepare to enter the 150th year of Cross Church.
Easter Weekend is Before Us on April 20-21: 4 Campuses, 16 Services, 2 Services in Spanish
MY LIVING HOPE is our incredible theme for this coming Easter Weekend. It will be a grand and powerful day. Due to our number of services and at times occurring back to back, our goal is each service will last an estimated 65 minutes. Friends, please ask yourself: Who’s Your One?
- Your one friend you will invite and bring
- Your one family you will invite and bring
- Your one relative you will invite and bring
- Your one colleague you will invite and bring
- Your one acquaintance you will invite and bring
Please use invite cards or even email or text invites you can get here.
As we have prepared for this weekend, we believe it will be our greatest Easter in our entire history. It should be, as we are right now experiencing our greatest year ever, and even last week almost broke the 10,000-person per week goal we have set before us to average by the end of the year 2020. Therefore, Easter should be very special. Let’s pray for hundreds to come to Christ. Emotions flood my heart as I even think about this being my final Easter weekend with you as Senior Pastor. It is always one of my favorite weekends of the year.
Pray for Cross Church… I will See You Sunday… Bring Someone With You
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
This Week at Cross Church | This Sunday, I Will Resign as Senior Pastor of Cross Church
This Sunday, I Will Resign as Senior Pastor of Cross Church
This Sunday, April 7, 2019, I will resign as your Senior Pastor of Cross Church. In my thirty-third year of serving you, it took me a few minutes to even write the first sentence of this paragraph. I am not sure I will be able to even say it on Sunday, but at least I will attempt to do so. It may take a few brothers to hold me up, but eventually I will get it out before our beloved church. So many years, so many relationships, so many memories. That is why the counsel of the writer of Hebrews is quite descriptive when he says in Hebrews 11:10, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Abraham did not live for a city in this world, but for the new Jerusalem, Heaven.
The Loss is Undeniable, but the Calling is Greater
As I told you last week, the sense of loss is undeniable, but the sense of calling at this point is greater. After this past Tuesday, April 2, “the sense of calling” and “at this point” have to be removed. I was asking God for a declarative call and the Lord gave us that, and more. The call was overwhelming. Therefore, when the votes came in and everything was settled, I walked to the platform hand-in-hand with Jeana and stood before the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, accepting their calling to serve as their President and Chief Executive Officer. You can see the Baptist Press news story here. This Sunday, I will not just give my resignation, but I will talk about when my final day of ministry will take place with you, plus, a few other important items. More later my friends. Do not miss this Sunday.
Easter 2019 is Nearing: April 20-21, 16 Services on our Four Campuses
Do not miss Easter at Cross Church. We are preparing now for what we pray will be our greatest Easter Weekend yet at Cross Church. Our theme will be My Living Hope, and it is our prayer that many find living hope in Christ that weekend. Plan now to attend a service on your regular campus and begin inviting others to join you.
Saturday, April 20
Springdale | 5:00 p.m.
Pinnacle Hills | 5:00 p.m.
Fayetteville | 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 21
Springdale | 9:30 & 10:55 a.m. (Español | 10:55 a.m.)
Pinnacle Hills | 9:00 & 10:30 a.m. (Español | 10:45 a.m.)
Fayetteville | 7:30, 9:00, 10:30 a.m. & 12:00 p.m.
Neosho | 8:00, 9:15 & 10:45 a.m.
20th Anniversary Release of My Book, How To Pray
When the publishers approached me about revising, expanding, and updating my book, How to Pray, I had a great burden to add information about praying for more areas of life with great specificity. I feel like that has been accomplished in this new edition. We began work on this project last year and had no idea the events that would surround its release. However, at the time, I felt led to write the following dedication:
I want to dedicate How to Pray to my Cross Church family, who has prayed me through all of our years together! One thousand thank-yous!
Little did I know of the transitions about to happen, which makes this even more special to me. I hope you will pick up a copy and continue to increase your prayer life. As you know, I believe prayer is one of our greatest actions as believers.
I love you Cross Church Family,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.