Archive for October, 2014
Being Ready to Help the Poor
What thoughts come to mind when you see a person begging on a street? “Get a job”? “I can’t give him money because he’ll only buy alcohol”? “The Bible says if a man does not work, he should not eat”? All of these are common responses, but are these the right responses?
Questions
What thoughts come to mind when you hear news stories about poor families on government assistance? Does scripture come to mind, or political positions? Are we concerned about the plight of their children, or silently condemn the adults for not becoming more educated? Does the daily news roundup make us angry about tax dollars or do we become burdened over hurting people?
The Bible and the poor
The Bible has a lot to say about helping the poor. The ancient Israelites were to cancel debts every seven years (Deut. 15:7-11), vineyard owners were to leave grapes for the poor during harvest time (Lev. 19:10), Jesus preached to the poor (Luke 4:18), affirmed helping the poor (Matt. 26:11), and the early church received offerings for the poor (2 Corinthians 8:3, 4). The kingdom of God is built on the principle of helping others.
Let me tell you a story
This past summer, I made a trip to the Texas border. This trip reminded me of the great need to help the poor in every way. Whether people are immigrants or already living here, we need to help them. I also preached a sermon on the Bible and immigration which may give you some insights not only on immigration, but also actions toward the poor.
Our own Cross Church ministry, Compassion Center, is committed to not only minister to the poor, but also the immigrant. We believe it is very important to live out our faith in this way.
Generosity and giving are matters of the heart and hands
Generosity is a matter of the heart. Giving is a matter of our hands. We need both. Chip Ingram writes in Bible Studies for Life, “The heart has everything to do with attitude, and the hand has everything to do with action. The heart is about belief, and the hand is about behavior.”1 This is absolutely correct. Heart and hand must be connected when helping the poor is concerned.
Sometimes we do “good deeds” to curry favor with people. We “give” in order to get them to notice us, or give us something in return. But we need to give with no expectation of a return gift. This is the true indicator of a generous heart.
Giving is action
In the story of the Good Samaritan2, the traveler who finds a beaten man on the side of the road, the Samaritan uses his own resources to aid the wounded man. He provides oil from his own flask, and secures lodging at his own expense. He even promised the innkeeper to reimburse any extra expense the man incurred. His generous heart and giving hand likely saved the man’s life.
When we give, we exhibit the character of God who “gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”3
We are never more like God than when we give. Give to the poor.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention
1– Bible Studies for Life, Ready, Chip Ingram
2– Luke 10:30-37
3– John 3:16, HCSB
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
10 Burdens About the Southern Baptist Convention, Part 2
Last week I began to share 10 burdens many leaders have about the Southern Baptist Convention. To understand how this list was comprised, I would encourage you to go back and read Part 1 in its entirety.
Last week in Part 1, I shared these five burdens:
- Revival and Great Awakening – A heart and growing desperation for a great move of God in this generation.
- Unity and Cooperation absolutely must happen across the Southern Baptist Convention in order for us to realize the future God has for us.
- The Cooperative Program is needed & valuable. Therefore, we need to discover ways to help all generations understand its importance for what we do today and for our future.
- The Great Commission – We need to remember what we are about, reaching America and the World for Jesus Christ.
- Change the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention
Now, it is time to share the remaining five burdens some of our leaders have about the Southern Baptist Convention.
Communication – Tell the compelling story of who we are and what we are about.
Our story as Southern Baptists is highly compelling. I believe in who we are and what we are doing together. As in any church and certainly in our Southern Baptist Convention, we must find ways to tell our story better – what God is doing through His people called Southern Baptists. I believe we are going to do this at our 2015 Southern Baptist Convention in Columbus in a fresh and compelling way.
Better engagement of the younger generation in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Be encouraged – we are seeing this change right now before our eyes. In the most current research about our recent annual convention meetings, our younger generation is attending more than we have seen in recent history. The Great Commission Resurgence Task Force’s desire when their recommended resolutions were adopted in 2010 was to hand the next generation a convention they would be fired up to lead in the future. What is happening through our North American Mission Board and the overwhelming response they are receiving at their various gatherings has been incredible. Additionally, with the International Mission Board’s decision to call David Platt as President, and involving younger adults serving as trustees of our national entities or committee members in our national and state conventions, I believe we are making incredible strides in better engagement of the younger generation in the Southern Baptist Convention. I am excited about the days ahead and the remarkable changes that will occur in the decade ahead.
Duplication – Address structural challenges in the Southern Baptist Convention that permit duplication of ministries, resulting in monies being spent that should be spent elsewhere.
This is something that only our national entities, state conventions, and local association can address; not only individually, but collectively. I do know that our churches expect that duplication not take place and monies not be wasted.
Since our polity does not let us determine this from the bottom up or from the top down, those who lead a national entity, a state convention, or an association will have to lead out in an evaluative, strategic, and aggressive effort to eliminate any duplication and communicate the actions you take to all of our churches.
I am convinced that our churches will rise up and give more through the Cooperative Program when they have complete confidence that the monies received are stewarded in the highest manner and truly used to fulfill the Great Commission effectively and aggressively.
Diversity – Celebrating our progress and continuing with intentionality.
Theologian and scholar, Timothy George, in an article entitled, “Troubled Waters”, stated these words:
Southern Baptists have become one of the most ethnically diverse and multilingual denominations in the country.
His words are true. We should celebrate as a denomination that we have over 10,000 churches who are ethnically diverse and multilingual.
In our national church planting strategy, many of the 15,000 churches we will strategize to plant will be ethnically diverse and multilingual. Southern Baptists have learned and are becoming more convinced daily that if we are going to reach our nation with the gospel, we must aggressively win people, disciple people, and plant gospel churches that are ethnically diverse and multilingual.
Legacy Churches – Raise up a generation of young men willing to bring new life to these kinds of churches.
While we do celebrate planting new gospel churches, we have thousands of legacy churches that need young men to invest their lives to leading and revitalizing. It is not more spiritual to plant a church than it is to follow God’s calling in our lives and ministries to a legacy church or the international mission field.
Therefore, I want to appeal to not only our younger generation of pastors, but to all of us: Celebrate the legacy of thousands of our churches located in villages, communities, towns, and cities that are in great need of being re-energized and revitalized by the leadership of a biblical preacher committed to evangelism and discipleship, empowered by the Holy Spirit. To pastor search committees of legacy churches, call God’s man regardless of his age, but also don’t eliminate any man because of his age, whether he is older or younger in years.
Where do we go from here?
We keep these ten burdens on our heart and call out to God about them regularly. These are real issues that demand our attention in prayer, but also in strategy.
This Week
Please pray for me this week as I travel to Lynchburg and Louisville. I have the privilege to speak at the ReFUEL Conference for Pastors at Thomas Road Baptist Church, to the staff at Highview Baptist Church, and at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel service for Heritage Week. It will be a joy to engage with pastors, staff members, and students this week.
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.
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.