Dr. Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in Springdale, Arkansas, will serve as the new president of the National Day of Prayer, announced the organization’s board of directors today. Dr. Floyd will also continue to pastor Cross Church.
As president of the National Day of Prayer, Dr. Floyd will oversee the national operation of mobilizing individuals, churches, denominations and organizations to unified public prayer for America throughout the year, which will culminate annually on the first Thursday of May, when the whole country observes the National Day of Prayer.
The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, the law was unanimously amended by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Thursday, May 5, 1988, designating the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer. Every president since 1952 has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation.
In 2017, an estimated 2 million Americans participated in over 30,000 events, organized by 40,000 volunteers across all 50 states, to observe the National Day of Prayer. Additionally, the National Day of Prayer was also experienced in some way in over 80 countries of the world. Next year’s National Day of Prayer, May 3, 2018, will mark the 30th anniversary of President Reagan signing the law into effect.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, prayer has always been at the heart of our nation’s founding and history,” said David Butts, chairman of the board of the National Day of Prayer and founder and president of Harvest Prayer Ministries. “The mission of the National Day of Prayer is to mobilize our nation to unified public prayer for America. Our heart is to see a mighty spiritual awakening in America.”
“As we step into a new phase of carrying this mission and legacy, I believe we couldn’t have found a man more passionate or dedicated to prayer and spiritual awakening than Ronnie Floyd,” Butts said. “Throughout his life, he has demonstrated he is a leader with a unique calling to lead others to unify together to pray for our nation and the need of spiritual awakening. America is blessed to have him as the new president of the National Day of Prayer.”
Other members of the National Day of Prayer’s board of directors also expressed their support for Dr. Floyd.
“Ronnie Floyd is one of the great Christian leaders in America. I believe he has been uniquely prepared and called by God to give leadership to the National Day of Prayer at this important time,” said Paul Cedar, chairman and CEO of Mission America Coalition.
“Dr. Ronnie Floyd has a heart that beats for the very things that mirror the heartbeat of God,” said Dick Eastman, international president of Every Home for Christ. “He radiates a passion for a great Christ Awakening in our nation born out of a sweeping revival of the Church in America unlike ever before.”
Pat Chen, founder and president of First Love Ministries International, Inc., said, “Dr. Ronnie Floyd is a voice to our nation for healing, unity and spiritual awakening.”
Nationally recognized leaders, including Gov. Mike Huckabee, Former Rep. Michele Bachmann, Dr. David Jeremiah, SEBTS President Daniel L. Akin and Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., including more than a dozen others, commended Dr. Floyd on becoming the new president of the National Day of Prayer. A full list of endorsements is available here.
Dr. Floyd, in a letter to his congregation announcing his new role as president of the National Day of Prayer, said, “In this desperate and urgent hour when turmoil and division is evident in America and security threats are being made against America, it is imperative that we do all we can right now to mobilize unified public prayer for America.”
“America’s greatest need today is to experience the next Great Spiritual Awakening, [and] we know that no great movement of God ever occurs that is not preceded by the extraordinary prayer of God’s people,” wrote Dr. Floyd. “The National Day of Prayer mobilizes unified public prayer for America.”
Dr. Floyd requested his congregation to pray for him daily as he leads the National Day of Prayer and expressed hope in the future of the movement. “God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime,” he wrote.
As part of his vision as new president, Dr. Floyd sees the National Day of Prayer becoming a larger multi-denominational, -ethnic, -lingual and -generational movement. He also believes the National Day of Prayer can become America’s leading provider of prayer resources and strategies, engaging Americans daily via the digital world. Dr. Floyd’s life mission is to help usher America’s next Great Spiritual Awakening, with prayer being the driving catalyst of this spiritual movement.
Dr. Floyd, who brings decades of expertise and passion for revival and awakening to the National Day of Prayer, has a long history of leading prayer movements in America.
He was a prominent figure in the Promise Keepers movement of the 1990s and spoke at the organization’s 1997 event “Stand in the Gap,” where an estimated 1.4 million people filled Washington, D.C.’s National Mall. The event is still considered one of the largest religious gatherings in American history.
In June 2014, Dr. Floyd also carried his passion for prayer, revival and spiritual awakening when he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), America’s largest Protestant denomination. In his two-term tenure as president of the convention, Dr. Floyd led Southern Baptists to focus on prayer, evangelism, racial unity, repentance and calling out to God for the next Great Spiritual Awakening. In one of the most striking moments of the 2016 SBC Convention, Dr. Floyd and Dr. Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention, led a panel titled “A National Conversation on Racial Unity in America.” This historic event in Southern Baptist history was recognized by national media and sparked conversations of healing and unity within the movement.
Dr. Floyd also hosts his popular leadership podcast, Ronnie Floyd on Life and Leadership Today, and has written multiple books on leadership and prayer.
Dr. Floyd has pastored the Cross Church congregation since 1986. Today, Cross Church has a membership of over 20,000, making it the largest church in the state of Arkansas and one of the largest in America.
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