Ronnie Floyd: The Church Must Take the Lead Against Racism

Esther Laurie

Dr. Ronnie Floyd has been a pastor for over 38 years. Currently, he is the senior pastor at Cross Church and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Floyd seeks global advancement of the Gospel and is passionate about preparing pastors for life and ministry. Dr. Floyd shared with us some profound thoughts on how the church can lead through the issue of racism.

“I’ve not lost hope for our country. Quite honestly I have quite a bit of hope at the present time, because I see not only in the Southern Baptist Churches, but I see thousands of churches who are becoming desperate, and I see even secular people are becoming desperate. Something’s not right. They know something’s not right. They haven’t found an answer yet. They’re hoping for an answer. They’re looking for an answer.

“Well listen, we ought to be pointing them to the ultimate answer, and that is the church needs to wake up, and we need to see in this country an unprecedented move of God, another Great Awakening, and another Great Spiritual Awakening. I would say another thing that we really, really strongly encourage externally is the whole element of reaching across the ethnicities and the races.”

Dr. Floyd continued, “We had a national conversation about racial unity in America. The whole country, as you well know, we’re walking through some tumultuous days over race issues, and we would have never thought that. The church has got to lead this issue. The answer is in the church, and the last place in the world where there should ever be any element of racism ought to be in the church of Jesus Christ.

“We have all been saved from that. We are set free from any of that. And I’ll tell you, I’ve called it like it is, and I believe we need to call it like it is. Racism is evil, it is not of God. There is nothing about it of God. It is opposite of the Gospel. It is opposite of the love of Jesus Christ. It is opposite of everything Jesus stood for, and the church needs to lead the way, reaching our arms around people. We need to personify what Heaven’s going to look like. We know what Heaven’s going to look like, every tribe, every people, every language. Praise God.”