This Week at Cross Church | Celebrating!
206 People Baptized in 7 Days
From June 27 through July 2, Cross Church witnessed the miracle of 206 people being baptized in 7 days. With our greatest student camp ever as well as a very successful Sunday night Baptism at the Crosses (in spite of the horrendous stormy weather), we experienced the blessing of seeing many be obedient to Christ. Our middle school camp has been taking place this week, beginning July 4 through today, with 248 participants. This means we’ve had a total of 1,131 students for both our high school and middle school camps. What great leadership among all of our student pastors! Additionally, with Vacation Bible Xtreme beginning on Monday, we are going to continue to see many come to Christ. Please pray for these two major experiences that are occurring.
The Dance Between God and Country
Please listen to my 22-minute podcast that was released on Tuesday. It deals with one of the biggest issues in today’s evangelical world. I have talked about our country and how all of this balances out with our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Please listen to it here. Share the link with others on your social networking and email lists. I recorded the podcast solo this week, sharing my heart with the thousands of people who will listen.
Did You Know that America’s Fight for Independence Began with Prayer?
On July 4th, The Christian Post published my article that is so appropriate for this week, as we celebrated our 241st anniversary as a country. I think you will find this article interesting and I hope you will take a minute to walk through this historical reality that is still the key to our nation today.
Are You Being Faithful Each Week with Honoring God Financially?
My dear church family, in this challenging, high vacation season, please make sure you are being faithful each week financially. Regardless of where you are, make sure you are giving the first tenth of all God has given to you through our church weekly. July is our biggest vacation month, so faithfulness from each of us is critical. Thank you for doing so. By the way, this is the way we are praying for our finances through our Cross Church Circle Prayer Ministry this month. Join us . . .
Lead our Cross Church Family to follow God’s Word this summer according to Your financial plan for each of our lives.
“’Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.’” Malachi 3:10
- Lord, may all of our people bring the full first tenth of all God has given to us in life to Your House, Your local church, bringing honor to You and doing so because we love You.
- Move our people to give weekly, regardless of travel or location around the world, doing so before they leave, after they return, or through recurring giving.
- Lord, move upon hundreds of our families to begin using weekly recurring giving, which keeps them faithful to biblical priorities weekly, regardless of travel, sickness, or work schedules.
- Lord, help our people to remember that when they give to the Lord through our Ministry Budget, this priority insures gospel work here, across America, and the entire world.
- Lord, provide the church’s basic operational and priority needs of $5,580,000 through our Ministry Budget during the 15 weeks of summer between Memorial Day Sunday through Labor Day Sunday.
- Lord, bless all of our people who give at least the first tenth of all they have been given financially in salary, dividends, stock, land, or anything else You have blessed them with in this life. OPEN THE FLOODGATES OF HEAVEN UPON OUR PEOPLE IN EVERY WAY WHEN THEY OBEY YOU!
Sunday Message: “Did God Really Say That Faith Will Take You Where You Have Never Been Before?”
This will be our message on Sunday at Cross Church. This is a continuation of our series in Genesis. Join us on Sunday. Bring a friend. Invite everyone. See you Sunday at Cross Church.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
America’s Fight for Independence Began with Prayer
The air that September morning of America’s First Continental Congress was fraught with anxiety and trepidation. The men who gathered had a monumental decision to make: will the colonies stand united and challenge British rule or will they disband and leave each to its own? Yet, they couldn’t even decide on who should lead prayer.
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anabaptists and Congregationalists were all present at the assembly, and their differing traditions caused some to oppose the motion of opening the meeting in prayer. But after some consideration, a local minister from Philadelphia named Jacob Duché was found and summoned to pray.
I’ll leave it to John Adams, who was present at this historic meeting and wrote to his wife Abigail in detail about it, to tell the rest:
“Accordingly the next Morning [Rev. Jacob Duché] appeared with his Clerk… and read several Prayers, in the established Form; and then read the Collect for the seventh day of September, which was the Thirty fifth Psalm,” recounted Adams to his wife.
This psalm begins, “Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation!’”
These words pierced straight through the hearts of those present at the assembly, tearing down the fear and animosity that had permeated the beginning of the assembly. “I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning,” wrote Adams.
But the good Rev. Duché was not finished. To everyone’s surprise, he broke into an unexpected prayer:
“Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly,” he prayed. “Enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people.”
“I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced,” said Adams. “It has had an excellent Effect upon every Body here.”
All of this took place Sept. 7, 1774 — seven months before the famous “shot heard ‘round the world” at the Battle of Lexington and Concord officially inaugurated the Revolutionary War. No matter how much historians and political commentators might argue, our history cannot be rewritten: America’s fight for independence began with Scripture and with prayer, not with muzzles and gunpowder.
Yet, as undeniable as the influence of the Bible is in our traditions and values, America seems bent upon attacking the very faith that strengthened our Revolutionary War heroes. While our Founding Fathers turned to God in supplication for wisdom and truth, we’ve driven prayer out of our schools and torn down the Ten Commandments from our public buildings. Like an autoimmune disorder that cannot recognize friend from foe, we turn against ourselves when we deny the faith of our founders.
On this Independence Day, I’m praying for a spiritual awakening in America that will lead us back to God and to the values that have made our country great. And I’m praying we will remember American freedom is won not only on the battlefield but also on bended knees.
God Bless America!
*Story based on John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 September 1774 and the First Prayer of the Continental Congress, 1774.
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the senior pastor of Cross Church and the immediate past president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Follow him on Twitter @ronniefloyd. Subscribe to Ronnie Floyd on Life and Leadership Today here.
This article was published on ChristianPost.com on July 4, 2017
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.