Ronnie Floyd

Archive for November, 2014

November 24th, 2014

A Month of Preaching That Will Call Your Church to be All God Wants You to Be

Join the Movement, Southern Baptist Convention

The most influential voice in the life of a church is the voice of the preacher when he preaches the Bible, God’s Word. This preacher is usually the pastor of the church.

Every pastor I know wants to call His church up to be all God wants the church to be. What we preach, how we preach, and when we preach all influence the outcome. Therefore, I am humbly requesting every pastor, every church, and every chapel of our Baptist entities, conventions, seminaries, and colleges to consider a month of preaching that may involve four or five messages that call the people of God to be all God wants them to be.

1 Month of Preaching on These Subjects

Between the months of January and May 2015, move into a one-month emphasis to preach and teach God’s Word on the following subjects:

Personal Repentance
Extraordinary Prayer
Fasting
Personal and Church Revival
Spiritual Awakening
Reaching the World for Christ

In our newly released 16-page e-book, Pleading With Southern Baptists, we presented an urgent call to five actions for every Southern Baptist Christian and church. Last week, I wrote about the first action, 3 Minutes at Sunset or Sunrise Can Turn Your Church Around. The second action is to give a month to preaching on these subjects.

At Cross Church, we are doing this series over five or six weeks, calling it, Pleading With Cross Church. We have used the word “pleading” in correlation with the e-book. Consider doing the same, really calling upon your church or ministry to read the 16-page e-book as well.

Pastors and preachers, you can go here to see various biblical messages on these subjects preached by some of America’s greatest preachers of the gospel. Use or quote from these inspiring sermons as God leads you. This collection is well worth the experience and we are adding to it continually.

Extend Passionate Calls to the People of God Individually and Collectively

As you ground your message in the Word of God, present it with a passionate call to the people of God. While we lift up these great biblical and spiritual principles, call God’s people to spiritual greatness individually and collectively.

This is an opportunity for thousands of churches and ministries to call their people to become what God wants them to be. As you proclaim the Word, present the wonderful message of the hope we have in the Lord. It is time to look to Him alone. He can turn any person, church, city, nation, and any convention of churches around.

When Will We Realize…

When will we realize that above all our perceived needs in life and church, there is no greater need personally and collectively in the church than a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have seen what man can do; it is time for us to see what God can do!

This is why we need to preach on these great subjects like personal repentance, extraordinary prayer, fasting, personal and church revival, spiritual awakening, and reaching the world for Christ. They are all interconnected and imperative in both life and the church.

A Historical Precedent

When Jonathan Edwards wrote his “Humble Attempt”, he called the pastors and churches to action, resulting in a mighty moving of the Spirit. They believed more than anything that they needed to agree together and visibly unite in extraordinary prayer.

When they did, God moved. He moved so powerfully, we call it awakening! Multiple thousands came to Christ, culture was affected, and churches were changed.

We must begin to believe there is a connection between a great move of God and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This is why we must repent, pray, and fast to experience revival that leads to awakening, which will become the catalyst to the acceleration of the gospel to the nations.

It is past time to see what God can do.

Enough of us, more of God.

This is why we must preach it!

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

Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.

Follow Follow Contact

November 21st, 2014

3 Minutes at Sunset or Sunrise Can Turn Your Church Around

Southern Baptist Convention

I think every church in the Southern Baptist Convention and beyond would want their people to engage in preparing weekly for the worship services of their church. Just imagine the power that would be upon God’s preachers and the power that would come upon worship services around the world if the church consistently prepared for these moments spiritually. It would be God-sized!

Consider letting the sunset on Saturdays or the sunrises on Sundays serve as a reminder that it is time to pray for your church for 3 minutes or 180 seconds, as referenced in Pleading With Southern Baptists. There is nothing holy or biblical about three minutes of concentrated prayer, but it is an attainable goal for every Christ-follower I know. It does not matter where you are or whom you may be with. 3 minutes to slip away and pray for your church should be possible most weeks, if not all. You could set a 3-minute timer on your cell phone, and pray until the alarm goes off. This will help increase your focus in prayer.

Issue the Challenge to Your People Soon

I believe these 3 minutes at sunrise or sunset can turn your church around. Yesterday in our worship services, we began issuing the challenge to our people to let the sunset on each Saturday or the sunrise on each Sunday remind them it is time to draw aside and pray for 3 minutes for our church.

Last week, I released a 16-page e-book entitled PLEADING WITH SOUTHERN BAPTISTS. In this easily readable book, I asked every Southern Baptist pastor and church to participate in this challenge. How can we expect our churches, from smallest to largest, from oldest to newest, to see God use us mightily if we do not pray? We will never see dead churches come to life, lukewarm churches get hot for God, discipleship become a culture, evangelism occur, and the Gospel advanced to the nations if we do not pray.

What do we Challenge Our Churches to Pray For in These 3 Minutes?

Let me suggest that we keep this very simple not only for attainability, but also for the sake of communication.

Challenge your church and one another to pause either at sunset on Saturday evening or sunrise on Sunday morning to pray for 3 minutes for these two things:

1. For the anointing of God’s Spirit to be upon your pastor as he proclaims God’s Word to God’s people on Sunday.

Pastors would love to know that their people paused for 3 minutes to pray for them specifically to be anointed with God’s powerful Holy Spirit to proclaim the Word of God. In fact, text your pastor or get a message to him sometime to let him know that you are praying for him like this weekly. It will ignite his faith and encourage him greatly. Dead preachers will come to life in their preaching when people pray for them!

2. For the anointing of God’s Spirit to be upon the worship services of your church.

I am convinced that singing would move from half-heartedness or disengagement to whole-hearted worshipping of our Lord when we pray for our worship services. When we pray for our worship services, expectation will replace boredom and passion will replace apathy.

These 180 Seconds of Focused Prayer Will Soon Begin a 180-Degree Change in Our Churches

Yes, 180 seconds of weekly, focused prayer can help turn your church around. Prayer can change the culture of any church, which will lead us to change, not only spiritually, but also strategically.

God will lead our churches to strategic change when we are praying weekly. We will begin to rise up more than ever; ready to do whatever God wants us to do strategically to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Finally…

If you have not yet downloaded this free 16-page e-book, please do so today. You can print from your download or contact our ministry if you desire printed copies.