Ronnie Floyd

Archive for February, 2016

February 15th, 2016

God, America, and Politics: 5 Major Issues Facing Genuine Evangelical Believers

America, Join the Movement, Southern Baptist Convention

God-talk is filling the campaign trails across America. The candidates and their public conversations about God range from comfortable to unfamiliar. Often, this results in confusion within the minds of Christian voters about whom they should support.

A Biblical Worldview

There is a competition of worldviews occurring in this season. This is not new, but it is becoming more and more apparent as we listen to the views of the candidates for President of the United States. Additionally, secularism is growing in America. A secular worldview is indifferent toward God or just excludes God from the thought process completely. Therefore, when you listen to the views of candidates or read their various positions, listen for their specific worldview.

Are their thoughts coming from a biblical worldview, a secular worldview, or even a combination of these two competing worldviews? You should not necessarily look for them to quote Bible verses or stories from God’s Word. But when holding a Bible in your hand and opening up its eternal treasure of truth, is anything they say they believe found anywhere in God’s Word?

God’s Word is the only forward truth. It is the only truth that has been true, is true today, and will be true eternally. Therefore, we need to be familiar enough with God’s Word to evaluate not only the politics in American life, but all things in this world.

5 Major Issues Facing Genuine Evangelical Christians

Prayer is not inaction, but our greatest action. Simultaneously, it is incumbent on us to not check the Bible and Christian worldview at the door when we live life and participate in the political processes afforded to us in America.

We are to live out our faith and the principles of the Bible through dating, marriage, family, workplace, recreation, church, government, and all of our relationships. A faith built on Jesus Christ is a faith that is strong and balanced enough to be lived out in all areas of our life. It is not intimidated by intellect nor does it retreat when attacked.

Even though there are many things that genuine evangelical Christians must consider, I want to highlight five issues in this political season:

1. The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life

The sanctity and dignity of human life from the womb to the tomb should be a major concern for all Christ-followers. The de-valuing of human life in the way we treat one another is not without great consequence. This includes the racial crisis that is real and big. The divine imprint of our God is on each human being. He places value on each of us; therefore, we should mimic His treatment of all people.

We need to remember that regardless of who becomes the next leader in our nation, one day we will stand in the presence of God and give an account of ourselves to Him. The sanctity and dignity of human life should be non-negotiable for all evangelical Christians.

2. Marriage and Family Concerns

Biblical marriage is between a man and a woman. The brazen attack against this most important fundamental truth is outrageous. Evangelical Christians must stand strong for biblical marriage even if the cultural winds deem us irrelevant.

As you evaluate the words and positions of candidates, what do they believe about family? We believe that redemption is possible for anyone. A new path toward righteousness is always applauded by any genuine evangelical.

Yet, will this person have your family on his or her heart in all their decision making? Do they have the next generation on their heart? What will they do to lift up the family unit in America?

3. Religious Liberty

While the threats and horrific actions against Christians exist globally, will the next Commander in Chief of our nation sit idly by hoping it will just go away, or rise up and lead toward a solution?

Even though religious liberty was the core belief that led to the creation of our great nation, we know it is being threatened more today than any of us remember in our generation. This is unacceptable and defies not only the dignity of each human life, but also the history of our nation.

America needs a champion for religious liberty. The world needs America’s next president to be a champion for religious liberty internationally.

4. Competent Executive

Evangelical Christians should desire that our president be competent in leading our nation. He or she may not be able to state theological positions and quote Bible verses to your satisfaction, but he or she must be a leader that understands the history of our nation and the Constitution of the United States.

He or she needs to be a competent executive and an effective leader of people. He or she needs to be able to gather other competent leaders around them who can assist in charting a robust future for our nation that honors our history and Constitution in every way.

5. Appointments, Appointments, Appointments

Leadership matters. The president of our nation makes appointments to various places of influence all over our nation and world. Have you ever considered the power of his influence in these appointments? Some of these appointments are not for a term, but for life.

We need to remember: One of the most critical issues facing the next president will be the appointments to the Supreme Court of our nation. These appointments are for life. Some say they next president may be able to appoint as many as four different Supreme Court justices.

While preparing for the release of this article, we became aware of the sad and untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court. It was President Ronald Reagan who appointed Justice Scalia in 1986. Leadership matters! Justice Scalia leaves a legacy of conservatism on moral and social issues. He was a giant of a man and a leader. He championed human life from the womb to the tomb, biblical marriage between a man and a woman, religious liberty, the second amendment, and he was a brilliant jurist and faithful to upholding the United States Constitution.

Now with his untimely death, we may finally see the appointment powers of the president become talked about in this election season. We must wake up and ask each candidate: What kind of people are you planning to appoint to any open positions on the Supreme Court of the United States?

Leadership Does Matter

As evangelicals, we need leaders from across the world of business, government, education, church, and beyond to do what is right. Your leadership does matter. The spirit of your leadership is critical. We must be involved in these processes. Leadership matters!

I say it again. Dear America: Evangelicals Can Pick the Next President, Period. Your leadership matters.

Now is the Time to Lead,

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 51,094 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.

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February 12th, 2016

Do State Conventions and Associations Have a Future in the Southern Baptist Convention?

Southern Baptist Convention

The present generation of Southern Baptists will have to answer many difficult, unavoidable questions in relationship to the future. Being proactive in dealing with difficult questions such as these is wise.

One of these difficult questions is: Do state conventions and associations have a future in Southern Baptist life?

Boots on the Ground

Does this structural model still serve us effectively? I believe that if we were starting from scratch in 2016 with a mission to reach America with the Gospel, we would need a way to have local “boots on the ground” in order to assist our churches in reaching their mission. If we were starting with a clean slate today, state conventions and associations might look somewhat different, but the key reality for the future would place more importance on function than on structure.

In fact, while these bodies today are more geographically-related, I believe if we were starting all over again, I could see not only the geographic alignment we have now, but also affinity alignment. Some of this may be occurring already.

A Personal Testimony

In 2009-2010, I served as the Chairman of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force of the Southern Baptist Convention. In leading this overwhelming task, it was imperative that I was able to relate to both state conventions and associations.

As a bit of background, I had been very involved for quite some time in Southern Baptist life prior to this assignment. I had already had the privilege of serving on the seven-member Program and Structure Committee that had the role of studying and recommending the needed restructuring of the Southern Baptist Convention. We moved the 19 entities of the convention to 11 entities plus the Executive Committee. Additionally, I had served on the Executive Committee for 10 years, serving as chairman two of those years, and served as a trustee of GuideStone.

When I began leading the Great Commission Resurgence, I had serious concerns about associations and state conventions. Yet, I became a firm believer in their role in Southern Baptist life. Somehow, some way, we must have ministry bodies as close to our churches as possible.

Four Things Are Imperative for State Conventions and Associations to Have Viability in the Future of Southern Baptist Work

1. Clarify their mission.

State conventions and associations exist for one purpose alone: To serve our churches in reaching their God-assigned responsibility of going, baptizing, and making disciples of all the nations. These ministry bodies do not exist for themselves or their structures, but for the churches.

2. Simplify their responsibilities.

State conventions and associations must do only the things that align with the mission of the churches. Otherwise, they do not need to be doing it. It is not a matter of good versus evil, but a matter of what is good versus best.

Additionally, state conventions and associations do not need to duplicate and triplicate one another, nor do our national entities. We must find a way to cease duplication and triplication locally, statewide, and nationally.

3. Agile in their response to the churches.

Weighty, needless structure prohibits immediate response to the churches. We need to rid anything in our state conventions, associations, and even our national entities that slows responsiveness to our churches. This is why these bodies must be lean structurally, excellent at what they believe God wants them to do, and able to respond quickly to the churches.

4. Sustain their work financially.

If a ministry cannot sustain itself financially, serious questions have to be asked concerning the ministry. While an initial investment may be necessary in the creation phase of the ministry, perhaps up to five years, beyond that, serious questions should be asked and answered. Perhaps the ministry of assisting our churches in going, baptizing, and making disciples of all the nations can be best served by some associations merging together and some state conventions merging together for the greater cause of helping our churches more effectively.

Of course, these groups would have to make these decisions themselves. No one else can make them on their behalf.

What Best Serves the Churches

There are times when greater personalization is needed, regionalization is realized, and decentralization is imperative for the greater good of assisting our churches in going, baptizing, and making disciples of all the nations. Each association, state convention, and even national entity has to address these matters honestly and boldly. Our goal should never be to preserve any of our old wineskins, but exist for our churches to help them advance the gospel in the best way. Yes, it comes down to one thing: What best serves the churches!

Robust with Gospel Cooperation

Our culture is not always friendly to working together. Therefore, our commitment to cooperating for gospel advancement must be chiseled into our character and practices or our future together will be limited. I respectfully request that each of us refuse to be held hostage by our present, but be freed into a future that is robust with gospel cooperation.

The Best Jobs in the Future

After all of my years in Southern Baptist life, I am now convinced that leading one of our robust state conventions that serves and assists our churches in the Great Commission has to be one of the great ministry opportunities for the future in Southern Baptist life.

Let’s pray for one another. Now is the time for each of us in our churches, associations, state conventions, and national entities to be freed into a future that is robust with gospel cooperation.