This Week at Cross Church | Summit, Time Change, and Looking Ahead
Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby, Speaks at the Summit Today
Regardless if you are a businessperson or retired, young or old, in legal, education, sports professions, or you love being at home, come to the Northwest Arkansas Business Persons Luncheon to hear and learn from Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby. Additionally, Steve serves as the Founder and Chairman of the Board for the Museum of the Bible, which will open late this year in Washington, DC. This will be a powerful experience today at the Summit, so get your tickets now. Based on availability, tickets can be purchased at the door.
Jeff Crawford is Preaching on Sunday, March 12, His Last Day at Cross Church
This Sunday, Jeff Crawford will be preaching at our Springdale and Pinnacle Hills campuses. He has served as President of the Cross Church School of Ministry and Teaching Pastor. Recently, we informed our church via email that Jeff has accepted the pastorate of Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and March 12 is his last Sunday on our team. For those of you who have enjoyed hearing Jeff preach, this will be your final opportunity to hear him before they move to Knoxville. I asked him to share his story as an illustration in our message this past Sunday. We taught on, “My Plans versus God’s Plans” so watch here if you were away. We do love and appreciate Jeff and Julie Crawford and their family, and we will miss them greatly. I was asked to introduce Jeff via video to the congregation of Grace Baptist Church when he preached in a view of a call. You can watch it here.
Move Your Clocks Forward 1 Hour on Saturday Night
Yes, this is Time Change Sunday… the difficult one! You must move your clocks forward 1 hour before you go to bed on Saturday night so you can be ON TIME to church for Sunday, March 12. Please remind your friends, Bible study groups, choir and band groups, and leadership teams to turn their clocks forward 1 hour on Saturday night.
Children’s Day Was Special
This past Sunday on each of our campuses, we observed Children’s Day! It is always such a special day as preschoolers and children flood into the classrooms and experiences here at Cross Church. I am so thankful for our staff team who minister to these groups along with the dynamic laypeople who serve the Lord by ministering to children weekly. So many of these people are not in our personal view each Sunday, but they minister to families by loving, teaching, and ministering to children weekly. To each of you 1,000 thank yous!
Passion Week and Easter Weekend are Being Planned in Detail Now
Over the past two weeks, we have spent a lot of time planning and preparing for Passion Week and Easter weekend at Cross Church. Yes, it is a few weeks away, but put Passion Week and Easter weekend on your calendar now: Sunday, April 9 through Sunday, April 16. More details will come in the near future. Right now, begin praying for this experience and ask God who in your neighborhood or circle of influence He desires you to invite to come to one of our services on Easter weekend with you. We will offer 15 services on April 14-15 on our five campuses. There is a place for them somewhere.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
The Government Makes Policy, The Church Serves People
During my 2014-2016 tenure as president of our nation’s largest body of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention, we adopted a resolution “On Refugee Ministry.”
Recognizing the global mass displacement of people — in particular the Syrian refugee crisis — and our denomination’s history of caring for the sojourner, we resolved to encourage America’s 15 million Southern Baptists to serve and minister to refugees who come to the United States.
Furthermore, we affirmed that “refugees are people loved by God, made in His image, and that Christian love should be extended to them as special objects of God’s mercy in a world that has displaced them from their homelands.”
To us, loving refugees was an unquestionable matter of Christian faith. It wasn’t about whether we agreed or not with President Obama’s policies on refugee resettlement and immigration. As Christians, we understood the ancient biblical mandate to love the foreigner in our land.
Yet, amidst these resolutions of compassion and care, we also inserted a clause asking our nation’s leaders “to implement the strictest security measures possible in the refugee screening and selection process, guarding against anyone intent on doing harm.”
Why did we do this?
The government determines who gets in the country, and the church serves those who do.
Making policies in the interest of the national welfare, especially in relation to protecting the American people, is the government’s job. Christians must honor and respect our elected officials as they do so. Yet, some Christians in recent days have treated America like a theocracy arguing that it is the government’s job to serve refugees.
It isn’t.
It is the church’s job, and while the government might choose to serve refugees they have no theological mandate to do so in the way the church does. It’s the government’s first job to protect our nation, and it’s the church’s job to serve the world.
The apostle Paul affirmed this. In his letter to the early Christians living in Rome, the epicenter of the Roman Empire, he said, “For government is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason.”
Peter, a leader of the first church and one of the original followers of Jesus, goes as far as to say that submitting to government is part of God’s will for Christians in presenting a good testimony to those around them.
Even Jesus, in his unique and pithy style of teaching, instructed his disciples to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” He also reminded his disciples — perhaps especially Peter, a quick-draw zealot ready to start a rebellion at a moment’s notice — that his kingdom was “not of this world.”
Jesus, Peter, and Paul were rewiring the early church’s way of thinking. In a world concerned with who are the movers and shakers, they were telling them that the church marches to the beat of a different drum. While emperors, presidents, and prime ministers might change policy with the flick of a pen, the millennia-old calling of loving one’s neighbor remains as consistent today as the day Jesus first uttered those words. And this calling transcends time, language, borders, and any executive order signed by any American president.
As our country faces some of the biggest changes in refugee policy in decades, it’s important for the church to remember that her mission is not contingent on what happens at the White House. Nor, should the church attempt to force our Christian theology on our government.
We should always raise our voices in defense of the poor, the broken, and those in need, and do everything in our power, as citizens, to urge our representatives to make compassionate decisions to ease the suffering of those fleeing violence and persecution. But we should also have humility to know our place and their place.
The government decides who gets in; the church serves those who do.
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. The opinions expressed in this piece are his alone.
This article was originally published by the Washington Times on March 2, 2017
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.