Pastor's Circle - Ronnie Floyd

Dr. Ronnie Floyd has served as the Senior Pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas for 25 years. He has authored 20 books, including his most recent, Our Last Great Hope: Awakening the Great Commission. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of his interview on the Matt Friedeman Show.

You talk about "Awakening the Great Commission." What does that mean?

We need the Church of Jesus Christ to awaken and fulfill what God has always asked us to fulfill, which is to tell everyone in the world about Jesus.

Other places internationally are doing a great job of the Great Commission. What has happened to this country?

We've lost our authoritative source, which is the Word of God.

We do not pay strong attention to what God says.

I think God is obviously trying to get our attention. I believe God is calling us to himself.

I hope that the Church will run to God during this time.

You have a chapter here on kudzu. What is that about?

Kudzu is a vine...that is what we would call today somewhat out of control.

What we've done in the book is try to learn basic principles of the Great Commission.

We use kudzu as an illustration of planting churches.

We need to do our best to plant more churches, to where there is an explosion in America.

Why plant more churches, rather than just revitalizing the ones we have?

I believe there is nothing wrong with saying we need to have our churches revitalized.

But as Andy Stanley says so well, new triggers momentum.

People are attracted to new things periodically.

There are many reasons we need to do it. One reason is that it's biblical.

Every church in America, big or small, needs to become committed to church-planting.

Talk to us about discipleship in the home.

We cannot expect the Great Commission to be fulfilled if we're not discipling our own kids.

In reality, children need to be brought up conscientious  of the Great Commission.

They need to understand it goes from a  friend or neighbor all the way across the world.

What would be the one thing to do to awaken the people of God?

I believe that the true evangelical church is concerned about the lostness of their world.

I believe if they understand the lostness of their own communities and nation and world, they cannot help but be moved to action.

Until we individually own passages like Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:18-20, it's going to be hard to take seriously the mission in our own backyard.

Why is it important to evaluate everything financially?

It takes resources to do ministry. It takes resources to do church. I takes resources to do business.

The single most important thing in the world is that people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our money needs to follow that prioritization.

We have got to get really serious about this. So serious that we embrace a new way of thinking.

I make a strong challenge in the book in relationship to giving ten percent to the Lord, like he commanded.