Archive for May, 2015
Deepening Your Walk, Broadening Your Influence
Every pastor wants to make a significant impact with his life and through his ministry. This passion and vision is true regardless of the size of the ministry you lead today.
When I was younger, I wanted to make a difference in a major way. I still do today. When I was in a smaller church, I wanted to have an impactful ministry. I still do today.
How do we do it?
Deepen Your Walk
Pastor, if you want to have a broad influence in your life and ministry, it all begins by deepening your walk with God daily. I am firmly convinced that God’s pathway to impact begins with a growing depth in your personal walk with God. There are no shortcuts!
The Bible reminds us in James 4:10,
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Additionally, we read in Psalm 75:6-7,
For promotion does not come from the east, west, nor south; God is the judge. He puts down one and sets up another.
While there is a factor that God alone determines, the value of our unqualified pursuit of the Lord Himself is undeniable. And while we cannot control what God may choose to do with us sovereignly, we can pursue our relationship and fellowship with Him personally.
Therefore, how can a pastor deepen his walk with God?
- Be consistent in a daily time with God, filling your mind with God’s Word, growing in your personal prayer life, and pursuing His face relentlessly.
- Pursue holiness, putting aside thoughts, choices, and habits that distract you from Christ rather than lead you to Him. Again, pursue His face relentlessly.
- Trust the Lord alone for your future. He knows what is best for you, even when you do not. Refuse any human manipulation or politics to gain a position or increase your influence.
As you prioritize deepening your walk with God, trust the Lord with everything else.
Broadening Your Influence
Broadening your influence is not up to you, your friends, or even your denomination. It is in the hands of God. Why?
For years, I have observed men attempt to manipulate their future in all kinds of ways. There was a day I tried to do the same. But as God has constantly moved upon me, leading me into moments of brokenness, I have learned that God alone is the one who broadens our influence.
I often tell pastors: If you want a broader influence in ministry, it all begins with deepening your walk with God daily.
Your motives determine your future, not just your vision. Your prayer life determines your future even more than your vision. Your prayer life will never surpass your commitment to daily deposit the Word of God into your life.
Pastor, when your daily walk with God results in a hot heart for God, your ego is under the Lordship of Christ. When the Holy Spirit is developing your giftedness through quality ministry experience, God may be preparing you for more in your future. All of these things together will result in God broadening your influence.
In His way and in His time, He may choose to do it for His glory.
3 Important Things to Remember
1. God determines your geography, not you. Release your future to God by dying to your desires geographically.
2. God determines your influence, not you. Surrender your life daily to His Lordship, being content wherever you are and with whatever God has you doing in your life right now.
3. God determines your future, not you. When you committed your life to Jesus Christ, you died to your own desires. When you surrendered your life to God’s calling in ministry, you declared your future was completely the Lord’s, not yours.
He alone determines whether you are in Abilene or Africa, North America or South America, or ministering nationally or internationally.
Let it go. He has you in the palm of His hand. There is no safer place to be.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Leadership Requires Persistence
The Bible teaches us about how God acts in the affairs of humanity. Sometimes these actions are miraculous, other times strange. Sometimes they are both. Remember the floating axe-head?1 Or the time Jesus rubbed dirt and spit in a man’s eyes to heal his blindness?2
As the old hymn says, “God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.”
God’s Plan for Bringing Jericho Down
As Joshua lead God’s people to conquer Canaan (the “Promised Land”), one of the first challenges he faced was the walled city of Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world. The city expected an attack by the Israelites, and had fortified itself.3 Almost certainly they expected an assault on the walls or a blockade whereby the Israelites would try and starve the population of the city.
God had another plan. And it was a strange one.
“The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its fighting men over to you. March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the trumpets. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the city will collapse, and the people will advance, each man straight ahead.”4
Joshua had not been the leader of Israel for very long. The unique nature of this command would challenge the faith of nearly any leader. I’m not sure what Joshua was thinking, but I have a feeling what many people would be thinking: “We have an army. Why aren’t we attacking?” “Why are we using our priests to lead the attack?”
Spiritual Leaders Leading the Way
But, Joshua most likely remembered God’s orders when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River at the beginning of their journey into Canaan.5 It, too, featured priests leading the way.
God’s command to attack Jericho required time. It wasn’t a straightforward attack. It required persistence from Joshua. The longer God commands us to wait, the easier we can fall into doubt. The longer God commands us to wait, the more likely we are to get impatient and create plans of our own.
Are You Persistent in Your Leadership?
What do you do when your leadership gets difficult? When it seems like God has thrown you a curve? Are you persistent? Do you wait on God or run ahead of Him? Do you keep at it or give up?
Persistence requires us to trust the character of God that does not change, even when leadership situations change. And we need to trust God especially when God leads us to do something that doesn’t seem to make sense. Why? Because He is with us. Paul Jimenez writes about this, asking, “What was at the heart of God’s unconventional strategy?” Then answers, “His presence.”5
And God’s presence is all we need to lead with persistence.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention
References
1- 2 Kings 6:1-6
2- John 9:1-7
3- Joshua 6:1
4- Joshua 6:2-5 (All scripture HCSB)
5- Bible Studies for Life, Be Strong and Courageous, Paul Jimenez
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.