Archive for June, 2015
What Others Are Saying About “FORWARD: 7 Distinguishing Marks For Future Leaders”
Ten days ago, my newest book was released. It is entitled FORWARD: 7 Distinguishing Marks For Future Leaders. This is a book about how leadership will look in the future.
I thought it might encourage you to know what others are saying about FORWARD. It is available at Amazon.com or your favorite book retailer in print and e-reader versions.
Ronnie Floyd has been a mentor and friend of mine for over fifteen years, I have watched and learned so much about leading and development of leaders which I use daily in my life and work as a football coach. He does a great job of clearly communicating the traits that are so valuable.
Gus Malzahn, Head Football Coach, Auburn University
In Forward, Ronnie expertly illustrates seven leadership characteristics that when unpacked and applied will propel your leadership to new heights and position you as a leader to accomplish more than you ever thought possible.
Donnie Smith, President and CEO, Tyson Foods
Anyone who knows Ronnie Floyd knows that he is a leader’s leader. In this short but compelling piece, you get a glimpse of what makes him so effective: character, formed by confidence in God’s Word; humility, shaped by the gospel; and vision, inspired by the urgency of the mission. He not only gets things done, he inspires scores of leaders to come along with him. And what better measure is there of leadership?
J.D. Greear, Ph.D., Author of Jesus, Continued . . . Why the Spirit Inside You Is Better Than Jesus Beside You and Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary
Where are the leaders in the world today? What kind of leader needs to emerge in the future to lead our nation’s government, schools, businesses, and churches? Ronnie Floyd answers this question in his new book Forward. Every leader and want to be leader needs to read this book.
Dr. Tony Evans, President, The Urban Alternative and Senior Pastor, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship
My pastor and friend Ronnie Floyd brings to us words that affirm how we are moving forward as well as “pushing us out of the nest” in order to fly with purpose and direction. Forward reinforces that we are to be visionaries with our eye on the goal, not allowing us to be derailed by matters or things that take one off course. Forward is not the natural approach towards leadership but rather God’s way.
Johnelle Hunt, Co-Founder, J.B. Hunt Transport
Some people talk about leadership; Ronnie Floyd exudes and exemplifies it. His new book, Forward, 7 Distinguishing Marks for Future Leaders provides insights from a man who is not a good observer of leadership, but a model of it. His impact on the nation as pastor of one of America’s most dynamic churches as well as in his role as President of the Southern Baptist Convention is eclipsed only by the less visible, but perhaps more significant leadership as a man of personal and intense prayer and devotion. He has long been able to balance a highly visible and public role as a national leader with the quiet and “behind the curtain” role of a humble servant of God.
Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas and talk show host
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a wonderful leader and a prayer warrior whom so many admire. It’s great to see he’s taking the lessons he has learned and is passing them along to a new generation.
Roma Downey, Actress and Producer and President, LightWorkers Media
Insightful and powerful . . . Pastor Floyd drills straight to the heart of the issue. It is time for the emergence of a different brand of leader in this country. Forward provides an inspirational message of faith and vision . . . no matter what your field.
Bill Simon, President and CEO, Walmart, US 2010–2014
Evangelical pastors and ministry directors must be committed to compelling, biblical leadership. Ronnie Floyd is a man of unparalleled experience as a leader. He has demonstrated an unswerving commitment to the Great Commission and to the type of personal integrity that characterizes good leadership. Forward is a tremendous resource for those who aspire to God-honoring ministry.
Albert Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
This book will help you think through leadership for a new generation, guided by one of the church’s most respected and influential leaders.
Russell D. Moore, President, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
With an estimated 265 million people facing an eternity without God on this continent, the North American mission field needs the kind of forward leaders Ronnie Floyd describes in this book. Ronnie’s clear, passionate call for biblically grounded, visionary leadership will prove invaluable to those—both young and old—who seek to make a gospel-sized difference in our world. But don’t just read this book. Let it transform how you influence others.
Kevin Ezell, President, North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Return to God
Have you ever been under anesthesia? Remember what it’s like trying to wake up? That groggy, foggy-headedness, the heavy eyelids and attempts to focus on what the sounds are around you?
Some people talk nonsensical when coming out of that deep sleep, a sleep I’ve heard called “coma sleep.” It’s a bizarre sensation.
Wake Up! Wake up!
Have you ever felt like you were under some kind of spiritual anesthesia, like no matter how hard you tried to focus, God’s voice wasn’t clear? Like the nurse saying, “Wake up! Wake up!” you know someone is talking, but it just isn’t making sense. Or maybe the spiritual sleep was so deep it was only upon waking up you realized something drastic had happened.
Over the last several years, God has burdened me tremendously over the need of our churches to experience revival, a manifestation of the presence of God and nation to experience awakening, an experience where millions would come to Christ. It does seem to many (and to me) that we are in a deep, coma-like spiritual malaise. Our country is experiencing moral upheaval and most churches seem powerless to respond.
We need to return to God.
In our spiritual walk we face the possibility of failing or becoming distracted from our pursuit of God. As I noted in Bible Studies for Life, Awake: “It may be subtle at first, but after a while we look back and realize we’re not the people we wanted to be. At that point we often wonder, What does it take to get back on course?”1
How do we return to God
There is no clearer story in the Old Testament of leaving the path of God than Jonah. The book of Jonah contains a personal story of repentance and return (the prophet himself), and a national story of repentance and return (the city of Nineveh).
Jonah’s run is in chapter 1, where God says, “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me. However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.”2 Chapter 3 records the repentance of Nineveh, “Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, ‘In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!’ The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth–from the greatest of them to the least.”3
In each of these instances people had departed from following God, repented, then returned to Him. The keys to seeing God move among us are repentance from sin and returning to Him. It will happen no other way.
Repent and Return
It could be there are many you will see this week, either at church or a small group study, who have departed from following God. Distracted, they are living for self rather than for God.
It can be easy to sit in judgment on those who are not following. Yet, some of the time we are just as guilty. We need to repent and return. We need to awaken from spiritual slumber that we might follow God once again.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention
References
1– Bible Studies for Life, Awake, Ronnie Floyd
2– Jonah 1:2-3a, HCSB
3– Jonah 3:4-5, HCSB
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.