Archive for February, 2014
Cross-Generational Leadership
What kind of leader are you? Would you consider yourself a leader to your own generation? What about generations other than yours?
Our Goal
Our goal should be to make the biggest difference in as many lives as we possibly can. Therefore, we need to adjust our leadership as much as we can without ever compromising biblical truth and principles. This is possible, and in reality, we must do it if we are going to make the biggest difference with our own lives.
Someone told me years ago, “The sharper the ax, the bigger the blow!” Therefore, sharpening our leadership can increase the influence we have in the lives of people.
The Key: Leading Cross-Generationally
Few leaders lead across generations of people. What is a cross-generational leader? Leading cross-generationally occurs when you are able to lead people in your own generation, the generation that came before you, and the generation that comes behind you. This is cross-generational leadership.
Quite honestly, few lead like this. Many are so focused on their own generation that they are leaving the others out. Others are so focused only on the generation behind them that they ignore those beside them and ahead of them. This limits your influence in every way.
How to Lead Cross-Generationally
In a conversation with some younger leaders today at Liberty University, I was challenging them in this very area. They asked me how I had learned to lead cross-generationally.
I shared that if a leader is growing in his spiritual life, he should also be learning in other areas of life. I also shared that through the experience of operating in different cultures and leading people from all backgrounds and generations to a common goal, it forges you into the capacity to lead cross-generationally. Or at least, if you want to lead successfully and effectively, it does.
Therefore, here are three quick thoughts to consider:
1. Cross-generational leadership is biblical.
Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus led cross-generationally. They were leaders who reached around, ahead, and behind.
2. Cross-generational leadership is missional.
It is so important that we keep the completion of the Great Commission in everything we do. Presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to every person in the world and making disciples of all the nations is our priority. Since this is our missional calling, it must serve as our missional motivation to impact as many people as possible. The only way to do this is by leading cross-generationally. Again, we must be able to reach people within our generation, behind our generation, and ahead of our generation.
3. Cross-generational leadership is spiritual.
When the Holy Spirit fills, empowers, and anoints us as leaders, He equips us to reach all generations. The love of Christ ignites me to reach all generations. Jesus loves people within my generation. Jesus loves people behind my generation. Jesus loves people ahead of my generation. Therefore, when the Holy Spirit is leading my life and the love of Christ is motivating my life, I will lead cross-generationally.
When You Lead…Lead Cross-Generationally! In the coming days, I will share more on what it means to be a cross-generational leader. Until then…
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Thanking God for Rest
In this unit of Bible Studies for Life, Productive, we have been looking at the biblical teaching on work, including how to be generous with the income we receive. To be thoroughly biblical, however, any discussion on work needs to include the concept of rest.
The United States is a work-intensive culture. On average, Americans in the workforce work 11 hours more per week than in the 1970s.1 A June, 2013 CBS News report found most American workers are unhappy at work.2 I wonder if the extra work and unhappiness at work are related. Followers of Christ recognize the value of work, but we should also recognize the value of rest.
Rest is God’s Idea
God instituted a Sabbath day for the children of Israel patterned after His own activity. After the six days of creation, the Bible records that God rested: “By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.”3 This pattern of rest was instituted by God for the people, animals, and land.
Because we live in a society not given to biblical thought, not only is the idea of a Sabbath foreign, often the idea of rest is, too. Christ’s followers are forced into a mold of economic productivity driven by greed; which can make us feel like we are merely cogs in someone else’s wheel. We feel it in our relationships, our spiritual life, and our bodies. Weekends become recovery times rather than rest and recreation times. That is, for those who get a weekend.
God is Serious about Rest
So serious was the idea of a Sabbath rest for God, that He commanded Sabbath violators be put to death.4 As Nick and I noted in this unit, “Observing a weekly day of rest and worship is a gift from the Lord as well as a holy obligation. Throughout Christian history, most believers have applied the principle of setting aside a day of rest and worship to the first day of the week as ‘the Lord’s day’ (Rev. 1:10)”5
Because of the pressures around the workweek – and often the requirement of Saturday work – some Christ followers turn the Lord’s day into a day of physical entertainment. Our temptation to neglect worship in favor of football, fishing, or shopping is to our detriment. Gathering with other believers for corporate worship to the Father, Son, and Spirit is a significant part of our rest. We need to rest from work and rest in the Lord.
God has already done Salvation’s Work
The writer of Hebrews built on this concept of rest while reminding his readers we do not work for salvation. “The person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.” To say it another way, we receive salvation when we rest in God’s rest, not when we work to earn it.
We should be thankful for rest; both spiritual rest and the physical rest it encourages. We need not work ourselves to death for material possessions, as we have all we need in Christ. And, we need not work ourselves to death for salvation, as Christ has done all that needs to be done to secure it. Therefore, let us rest as God has and experience that bit of heaven here on earth.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
1–http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/life-line-healthful-habits-made-simple/2012/apr/22/nation-overworked-abandoning-happiness-and-health-/
2–http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57590832/
3-Genesis 2:2, 3 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
4-Exodus 31:15
5–Bible Studies for Life, Productive, by Ronnie and Nick Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.