Archive for February, 2015
Pastors, Lead
A few years ago, I read an article that summarized almost 1,000 interviews with some of the nation’s top corporate leaders. The article declared that the #1 need a leader of a corporation needs to provide for everyone is clarity.
If a leader does not lead, he cannot provide clarity. If this is true for global business leaders, it is even truer for every pastor of a local church or one who is leading a Christian ministry or institution built on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pastors, Lead With Clarity
Ask yourself this question and be honest in answering it: Am I leading with clarity? Does everyone around me know where I am going and where I want him or her to go with me?
If you are really daring and desire a complete, honest assessment, ask the leaders in your church: Am I leading with clarity? If you have a staff team, ask them: Am I leading with clarity?
If any leader should be leading with clarity, it is a pastor. I did not say it would be easy, but as pastors, our mission is clear. Do not let the negative people of your church distract you or determine the agenda of your church.
Jesus is the Chief Shepherd of His Church and He is more than clear about what He wants us doing. He states in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
If it is not clear enough that we are to make disciples of all nations by going, baptizing, and teaching them, then perhaps this will help. Jesus gave His final marching orders to His followers right before He ascended to heaven. Acts 1:8 says:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
With clarity, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to make disciples and witness His gospel everywhere regionally, statewide, nationally, and internationally.
Pastor, get back on message! Readjust your life and leadership with clarity. Lead with clarity!
Pastors, Lead Strategically
Since you have been given this clear task of leadership as described above, lead strategically. You are on mission with God and your task is to move the church or ministry entrusted to you to be on mission with God. His mission to redeem the world!
Leading strategically toward accomplishing the grand task is given to us in Acts 1:8. If your church runs 25, 250, 2,500, or 25,000 on Sunday, lead your church to strategically advance the gospel globally. The influence of the web as well as television gives your people a global perspective they did not have ten years ago. Today, they are influenced by it whether they want to be or not.
Strategically lead your church to advance the gospel in your small community of 300, town of 3,000, region of 30,000, or city from 300,000 to 3 million people. Pastors must lead their churches to advance the gospel strategically or we are like a basketball team that prides ourselves on being good dribblers. You can have the greatest dribbling basketball team in the region, but if you do not put the ball through the net more than the other teams you play, you will lose continually.
Sadly, we have thousands of churches that are good at dribbling a lot of church stuff that does not matter! We cannot continually miss our goal: Making disciples of Jesus Christ by going, baptizing, and teaching.
This is our clear message, task, and mission. If we do nothing else well, we must do this well.
Pastors, Lead Boldly
As I have traveled this country and beyond, there is a fearfulness that is consuming pastors today. We fear failure. We fear criticism. We fear people. We fear Satan.
New Testament churches were led by pastors who led this missional advance boldly! They had their detractors just like we do. They had their critics just like we do. They had their contrary vocal adversaries just like we do. They faced Satan head-on just like we do. None of this has changed nor will ever change until Jesus comes again.
What has changed is that fewer pastors are leading their ministries today with boldness. This “play it safe” mentality is plaguing the Church with carnality and paralyzing the advancement of the Church.
Let me give an example. This past Monday, I released an article, America Needs Heroic Leadership in the Present, Leadership That Champions Religious Liberty Globally. If you haven’t read it already, please take the time now. When you come to the end of the article, ask yourself this personal question about your leadership: What am I doing about the brutalization, abuse, and murder of thousands of people that is happening globally in the name of religion?
Pastors, stand up this Sunday and the Sunday following, sounding the alarm, calling upon your people to take action with their leaders locally, statewide, and nationally, calling upon them to do something now about this global crisis. We must speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves. We must stand up and do something now.
Perhaps you may be thinking, “Ronnie, what if my people get upset?” Let them! Lead boldly!
Pastors, LEAD! I am cheering you on!
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Jesus’ Death is Like No Other
Have you ever considered how differently we think about death depending on who has died? We tend to respond more emotionally if we share some kind of connection with one who has passed away. Even within our own families we can experience varying levels of grief. The death of a spouse or child will affect one differently than the death of a distant cousin barely known even by name.
If we have experienced a particular death–spouse, friend, parent–we tend to respond more emotionally when someone we know goes through that same experience. Most people realize this.
People respond in all kinds of ways when people die
But, why do some respond so viscerally when a celebrity dies? Few people know celebrities in any way other than by music or film, yet when a music or movie star dies people with no other social connection weep, leave mementos, and write odes to their memory. Sometimes this even happens with famous world leaders. When compared with the number of people who die unrecognized, and unmemorialized from violence and disease around the world, the difference is quite stark.
Jesus’ sacrificial death was like no other and has an impact still today
There is a death that stands above any death history has ever known. It is more important than any head of state, military genius, or celebrity who has ever lived. That death is the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
Here is how the Bible describes the death of Jesus:
“They stripped Him and dressed Him in a scarlet military robe. They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and placed a reed in His right hand. And they knelt down before Him and mocked Him: ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they spit on Him, took the reed, and kept hitting Him on the head. When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe, put His clothes on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him.”1
We know more about the death of Jesus that any other person of the time, and more than almost everyone in antiquity. Most died then as most die today: mourned by family and friends, while unnoticed by the rest of humanity. But not Jesus Christ. His death is still studied, revered, and celebrated the world around.
Jesus’ death is significant
Jesus’ death was on behalf of everyone. He was the spotless sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world. The Apostle Paul wrote, “[God] made the One who did not Know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”2
He was the One who died for many. He is God who died for those separated from God. Tony Evans writes in Bible Studies for Life, “How ironic that the One who came to bring justice to the bruised reeds in this life was bruised Himself by a reed. He who would cup the wilted reed in His hand and nurture it back to health and strength stood bloodied, beaten, and mocked by those He came to save.”3
Jesus’ death has never and will never lose its significance. We should constantly praise God for the death of Jesus as well as His resurrection. It will for all of time and eternity be a death like no other.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church General Editor, Bible Studies for Life President, Southern Baptist Convention
References
1– Matthew 27:28-31 (HCSB)
2– 2 Corinthians 5:21 (HCSB)
3– Bible Studies for Life, Like No Other, Tony Evans
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.