Eric Offstage

On Being Bread

****I am deeply indebted to Henry Nouwen and Bishop T.D. Jakes for rocking my world and teaching me what I am about to so poorly communicate.****

Luke 24:30 As Jesus sat at the table with them, He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

This little verse is packed with so much. Jesus took bread, He blessed the bread, He broke the bread and then He gave it to the people. This is the same pattern Jesus must take all His people through in order to be used by greatly by Him.

• Jesus takes us. He takes us from where we were and what we were doing, and He takes us for a new use. He takes us to be used by Him and for Him (Col 1:16). We would never choose this on our own, so God initiates grace towards us and takes us in spite of ourselves. God did this for me when I was seventeen. He took me from a path of sin and rebellion and despair and gave me a second chance. I am so thankful God did this for a rebellious guy like me. And once He took me or I like to say “OVERTOOK” me, I was never the same.

• Jesus blesses us. After Christ takes us, He blesses us. As we follow Him, he blesses us with His Spirit to guide us (John 16:13), His wisdom to make good choices (I Cor 2:16), His heart to love others (Ezek 36:26), His vision to care about broken and lost people (Lk 19:10), and His ways to interact in our world as His hands and feet. (Ps 86:11) I am so thankful Jesus has blessed me far more than I will ever deserve.

• Jesus breaks us. This is where it gets hard, and so many people quit on God. After He takes you and blesses you, He must break you. (James 1:2-4) You have to die to yourself before you can truly live like Jesus and for Jesus. For this to happen He must BREAK you. And to go through the breaking process is the most painful thing you will ever endure. It will feel like you are going to die, and you will not be able to make it another day. St John of the Cross calls this the “dark night of the soul”. But if you are unwilling to go through this breaking period, you will never live up to your full potential. Remember, if God brutally breaks you, it means He has great plans for you. So don’t quit. (Gal 6:9) Don’t give up. God will not break you and abandon you. He will break you in order to use you in greater and greater ways.

• Jesus gives you to the people. Once you are broken, then the new you, the better you, the usable you, can be given out to help the world around you. God will give you out to feed the spiritually hungry and hurting, and the end result is spiritual nourishment for all. You will be bread for the world, like Jesus is the “bread of life.”

This pattern is seen all throughout Scripture.

Moses:

• He was taken from the river.

• He was blessed to live in Pharaoh’s house.

• He was broken by living as an outlaw shepherd on the backside of the desert.

• He was given to the people as leader.

David:

• He was taken and anointed king.

• He was blessed with leadership and courage to defeat Goliath.

• He was broken by an evil king whose desire was to kill him, and spent years in the wilderness as a fugitive.

• He was given to the people as king.

Jesus

• He was taken and chosen by God at His baptism.

• He was blessed by God at the transfiguration.

• He was broken by God at the cross.

• He was given to the people with the resurrection.

He is the bread of life.

Leader, pastor, teacher, Christian. - In order to be used greatly by God you must not only be willing to be taken and blessed, but also to be broken and given.

Once I heard Pastor Mark Driscoll say it this way, “In order to be used greatly by God you must first be wounded deeply by God.”

Today, allow God to be God.

Let him do what He wants with your life. Don’t fight Him. Trust Him. You are just bread. This is the best place you could be. You are in the hands of JESUS!

Super Secret Staff Meeting Stuff

Psalms 9:1-2 I will thank you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done. I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.

Scripture wants us to constantly tell of the good things God has done in our lives. As we praise Him for how good He is we are filled with joy! This morning in our staff meeting we shared many of the crazy cool things God is doing right now at the Crossing Church. Because most people don’t get to sit in on our staff meetings, I thought I would share a few of the things that we praised God for this morning:

1. Over 200 people in our services this past weekend made commitments to make Jesus the forgiver and leader of their lives for the first time or recommitted their life to Christ. It was amazing watching people giving their hearts and lives to Jesus! It gave me chills.

2. This summer is the largest summer attendance this church has ever experienced (by many hundreds of people!)  God is good.

3. Someone I love and care deeply about finally after years of indecision decided yesterday to go public with their faith in Christ and get baptized. I have the honor of baptizing this close friend next Friday. That made me cry when I heard the good news!

4. We just found out in the past week that ground breaking on our Elk River campus expansion will probably begin by middle to late September!!! Things are falling into place big time for our new building!!!

5. We had the privilege of spending the day learning from a great man of God last Wednesday. Pastor Larry Brey from Elevation Church killed it! He spent the day teaching our staff and key leaders and was really just a blessing to our whole team.

6. THIS ONE IS AN ACTUAL, LEGIT MIRACLE. During one of our services back in February I said, “If you know God’s will for your life and you don’t do it, you are a coward.” One couple (Samm & Angie Platt) took that literally and sold their house, got rid of most of their possessions and decided to obey God by taking their 3 sons and moving to New Zealand for a period of time, to reach people for Christ in that country. They were to leave on a plane last Thursday morning, July 21.

   Early in the week, they asked for us to pray over them before they left. We said, “How is your fundraising going?” Their answer: “Well, it's not all there, but we're going to the airport anyway. We know God is going to provide!”

   We had them come to our Community of Leaders meeting on Wednesday night; just 7 hours before they were to leave for the airport, where we could all pray over them.

   We were so encouraged by their faith that we decided to give an offering to help them meet their goal. I was hoping we could raise a few thousand dollars to help, and The Crossing was going to match what was given, up to the amount they needed. What occurred blew my mind.

   The offering was counted, and Kelly wrote the total on a piece of paper and took it to Angie. Angie looked at it, freaked out, and then said, “Wait, what was that total again?” Kelly: “$9,471.44.” Slowly, Angie said, “Nine thousand four hundred seventy one dollars? That's EXACTLY THE NUMBER WE NEEDED!!!!” We couldn’t believe it. What are the odds of that? Our leadership gave, and God worked it out so they gave the exact dollar amount! It blew my mind. God is so amazing. The Crossing didn't need to match any of it, but added $1000 anyway. GOD OVER-PROVIDED!!!

Crossing Church, church leaders, pastors, committed Jesus people, skeptics and seekers: GOD IS GOOD! “HIS MERCIES ARE NEW EVERY MORNING! HIS LOVE NEVER FAILS. GREAT IS HIS FAITHFULNESS.” Trust Him.

I don’t know your life story, but no matter WHO YOU ARE, God wants to give you His favor. He is for you and not against you. If you will seek Him and trust Him and follow Him, you will be surprised by all the great things He is will do in your life! I hope you will try it. He is good.   

Who Is Your "One"?

I talked to our community of leaders about this last month and I thought it would be wise to bring it up here as well. 

Ministry is hard work.  We are trying to help thousands of people know Jesus, love Jesus, serve Jesus and become radically committed to Jesus.  Because we are dealing with crowds of people coming and going each and every week, it is easy to forget that every face in the crowd matters to God.  Every number is a life, and every life has a story. 

To help myself remember every life matters.  I have "one" person-- "one lost sheep" that I write every talk directed towards.  This person is far from God, hurting and in need of Jesus.  I meet with this person regularly.  He gets my phone number and email address.  We cry together, and I pray for him, and try to push him to know Jesus and love Jesus.  

He is my "one".  He is the person God sent me to reach right now, and if I remember this "one" as I lead the crowds, I love the crowds well.  If I forget about this "one" I forget to love the crowds well. 

Something about helping "one" helps them all. 

So I would ask:  Who is your "one"?  Not do you serve in the kids ministry, or on the parking team or help with greeting, but what "one" person are you doing life with?  What one person are you trying to help and save and change and coach to become like Jesus?  I think every pastor and church leader of God, needs to have "one" life that he/she is pouring into. 

It is a principle I heard Andy Stanley preach about several months ago.  He says, "Do for ONE what you wish you could do for ALL."

You can't help everyone, but you can help one.  And in helping one, we better care for all.  WHO IS YOUR ONE? 

My Correction & Repentance -- Aww, Maan!

Even pastors (especially intense ones like me) make mistakes and need course-correction from time to time.  So here is one I am making as of today.   

Back in January, I started preaching without a script.  It was awesome!  I preached more and more from my heart and just kept to general points on an outline.  I really was enjoying it, but the downside of this style of communication is that I didn't control my tongue quite as much as I had in the past because I wasn't following my script as closely.  Because of this, I started to get more crass and insensitive from the stage.   

Last week, two gentlemen-- a local priest and a pastor whom I love and respect -- pulled me aside and called me on both of these issues.

The priest corrected me for being insensitive and making the sign of the cross in a flippant manner from the stage.  (I watched the video and he was right!) I was trying to explain that rituals without explanation become meaningless.  And I said something like, "You know, stand up, sit down, kneel, cross yourself is a big waste of time without explanation.  God is not interested in your rituals; He is interested in your heart!" (While saying this, I made the sign of the cross flippantly.)  I still believe what I said, but the flippant sign of the cross was insensitive and stupid--and this priest was kind and courageous enough to call me on it.  I sincerely apologized and promised to never do it again, repenting for my lack of respect for my Catholic brothers in Christ.  He was gracious enough to accept my apology. 

The pastor friend of mine told me my language had become too crass several times in the last 6 months, and I had used some words and phrases that were just plain over the line for a pastor to use.  Once again, I went back and watched some video-- and, holy cow! He was right!  DANG!  I was an over-the-top shock jock a few times, for no good reason. 

So, (drum roll please) I am repenting of this behavior and apologizing for my lack of discernment; and I will seek to change.  Scripture says in Prov. 12:1, He who hates correction is stupid. 

And I don't want to be more stupid than I already am.  So to everyone who reads this blog, know that I repent of being overly crass and insensitive.  If I offended you - I was out of line and stupid.  I will make an effort to not be a shock jock, but a minister of the Gospel of Christ.  

Now, that doesn't mean I am going to go all churchified with my words, it just means I will be more careful with my choice of words so that I can reach as many people possible with the Gospel. 

2 Final Thoughts:

I believe in failing forward.  I use every failure as a stepping stone to my success, so God is going to use this correction to help me reach more people who are far from God.  Watch out, world! A newly-adjusted Eric Dykstra is going on to GREATER THINGS because of this change!  YEAH!

I now take you back to your regularly scheduled programming - I'M GONNA GO REACH SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE FAR FROM GOD!  No use crying over spilled milk!  I'm going back to my mission TO MAKE ELK RIVER AND THE NORTHWEST SUBURBS THE HARDEST PLACE TO GO TO HELL FROM!

Important Announcement about My Health & Emotional Sanity!

One of my doctors, my personal counselor, and my mentoring pastor have all told me that I can not continue to preach six times per weekend.  It is damaging me physically and emotionally in several ways:

• I lose my voice every weekend, and if I keep up this pace, I will eventually ruin my vocal cords permanently and have no ability to speak at all. (I do have a vocal coach who helps me.)
• The last service I preach live I am less coherent, joyful, and excited, due to being so exhausted.
• Each service I speak, my body releases 6-10 shots of adrenaline through my system.  If I speak 6 times on a weekend that is up to 60 shots of adrenaline.  My body can not come down from that much of a rush till Wednesday.  So I don't sleep well, and my body snaps back awake for at least two nights following the weekend.
• On an emotional level, I am cranky and irritable because of no sleep and the adrenaline till Wednesday (which sucks for my wife, my family, and my staff).
• The end result of all this is that I put TONS of wear and tear on my body and soul, so I must make a change.  

From now on:  I will only be speaking live 4 or maybe 5 of our 7 services in Elk River.  The other services will be shown on video like they are at our other campuses. 

A couple thoughts here:

I will be rotating around so no service always has video or always has me live.  Don't try to figure out what service I am live in, and constantly switch service times. More than likely you won't be able to figure this out, and you will just end up seeing more on video.  Just keep attending the service you always attend; sometimes it will be live and sometimes on screen. 

Over the last few weeks as we have experimented with this teaching technique, we have watched hundreds of people give their lives to Christ--and I (or Kelly) was not even present. (Remember: it is not about the speaking we do; it's the speaking Jesus does through His Word.)

If you get me on screen, know that it is better for you--because when it was recorded, I was still joyful, excited, and articulate--not brain dead. 

I want to be leading people to follow Jesus for another 40 years. To do that we must make this change. 

When our new building is built we will reduce the Elk River service times down to 3-4 so I can speak live at all the services again.  We are only a year away from this because of your audacious Code of the Samurai commitments!  Thank you!

Be patient.  Pray for my throat, my exhaustion level and my emotional health.  Together we are running a marathon; not a sprint. I need to pace myself so I make it across the finish line for Christ and not burn out halfway.  

Thank you for understanding, Crossing Church.  I love you all. 

Pastor Eric

 

 

Prune Juice is Good for the Body of Christ

No one likes to drink prune juice.  It tastes awful and is super disgusting, BUT (there is a big BUTT here and I cannot lie) prune juice does keep you healthy. Prune juice purges from the body the things that would make you sick. 

Same is true in the body of Christ.  Every once in a while a church needs a good purging.  It needs to drink some prune juice and PRUNE OUT the people that could make the church sick.

Jesus said in John 15:1-2 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more."

God the Father is the gardener of the church.  His job is to PRUNE OUT the people that are faking it and consuming resources but not sacrificing or producing anything for the kingdom of heaven.  God as gardener cuts out the unhealthy spiritual fakers to make room for new growth:  Real, Jesus-loving, passionate disciples who make more disciples.  

So pastors HEAR THIS:  Stop worrying about people leaving your church!  Sometimes the best way to grow your church is through subtraction, not addition!  Sometimes you need to let God cut some people out of your church--or you need to be the instrument in God's hand to cut some people out.

God is not interested in a weekend crowd in your city; He is interested in a vibrant, committed, sacrificial ACTS 2 church dedicated to changing the world. 

Your city doesn't need a crowd on the weekend, either.  It needs a vibrant, committed, audacious, faith-filled church willing to do whatever it takes to rescue people from hell and bring them into a real, life- saving, committed relationship with CHRIST.

A church can only be healthy when there is consistant pruning! 

A church will only grow long term if you are willing to cut the complainers, the consumers and the complacent people loose.  You are not trying to just grow a crowd; you are trying to cultivate a healthy, vibrant, faith-filled CHURCH in your city. 

So, who do you need to prune out or pray out of your church so it will grow? 

What risks are you failing to take because you are afraid people will leave? 

Remember: Prune juice is good for the body.  Without prune juice, you will get all backed-up and toxic and gross. 

DRINK UP and get healthy! 

Christmas Commitment

1 Timothy 4:7-8  Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

This is one of my favorite verses in all the Bible.  Listen up!  It is not your mom's job to make you godly, it is not your church's job to make you godly, it is not your pastor's job to make you godly, it is not your small group's job to make you godly, it is not some other preacher's job to make you godly.

IT IS YOUR JOB TO TRAIN YOURSELF TO BE GODLY. 

Don't blame your lack of spiritual growth on anyone but YOU!!  Train yourself.  OWN YOUR OWN LIFE!!  Stop being a victim; own your own life and train yourself.   

The only way I progress at anything is that thought: I HAVE TO TRAIN MYSELF!!

For me this year to train myself to be godly means a massive commitment that starts Christmas Day and lasts for one year.  I am committing to not eat food any day until I have spiritually and physically trained myself to be like Jesus.  

Let me spell it out for you.  That means I don't eat that day until:

• I have read Scripture and prayed.
• Done some form of physical exercise.

This way my body stays healthy, I can serve Jesus, and my mind stays healthy so I can think like Jesus.  I want to be Godly.  That happens when I own my own faith and don't blame others when I am not growing.  

Anyone that wants to join me is welcome.  One year: we don't eat until we exercise physically and spiritually that day.  Am I nuts?  I don't think so.  I just want to be like Jesus. 

Don't SHOULD all over yourself today.

Too many of us live our lives in guilt.  We tell ourselves things like:

• I SHOULD be a better dad.
• I SHOULD be a better wife.
• I SHOULD be a better employee.
• I SHOULD be a better Christian.
• I SHOULD, I SHOULD, I SHOULD...

And we just live in guilt.  We live looking at all our flaws, and we just walk around feeling like crap all the time.  When we live like this we are not trusting that God really loves us and cares about us.  We are living in fear of our Savior and trying to impress Him instead of just accepting His love.  This is crazy. 

Stop SHOULDING all over yourself!  God is already pleased with you.  He already loves you.  He is already proud of you.  He is already impressed with you and loves you as much as He ever will.  STOP BEING AFRAID HE DOESN'T LOVE YOU, AND REST IN HIS LOVE!  

Scripture says:  Romans 8:38  Nothing can ever separate us from Christ's love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away.

See God is loving you no matter how you PERFORM!  You can't impress him.  You don't have to be a better father or better Christian to get God's love.  He ALREADY LOVES YOU!  REST IN THAT! 

STOP LOOKING AT YOUR FAULTS AND REST IN YOUR FATHER'S LOVE.

DON'T SHOULD ALL OVER YOURSELF!

 

 

God is Filthy Rich in Mercy.

I just want to remind you church that your God is a merciful God. 

Ephesians 2:4  "God is so rich in mercy..."

• Yes God is a God of standards and wants you to be holy and good. 
• Yes, God knows the difference between right and wrong and wants us to do right,

BUT God is also VERY VERY rich in mercy. HE is filthy rich in mercy.  When we do the wrong thing; when we fail and screw up, I just want to remind you church that your God's mercy never runs out.  He never looks at you and goes, "well you screwed up too much.  I am mercy broke for you." 

NO!!  He is always rich in mercy. This brings me to 2 thoughts:

1.  Are you beating yourself up over past stupidity and sin and regret?  Stop it!! 

Ask God for forgiveness right now, accept His mercy and forgiveness, and walk with your head held high.  You are forgiven if you would just ask Him for it.  He forgives freely and totally regardless of the issue.  He is rich in mercy.  Accept his wealth in your life and walk away guilt free. 

2.  Are you showing mercy to others?  See, if your God is rich in mercy and never runs out of forgiveness for you, don't you think that you should be rich in mercy also? 

The Crossing must always be a church that is rich in mercy, not condemning others but loving and forgiving others because that is who God is. The same is true for your life personally and mine.  We are to be filthy rich in mercy. 

Who do you need to forgive?  Who are you holding a grudge against or being judgmental toward? 

Let it go.  Forgive them.  Become rich with mercy. I promise you that you may never be well off financially, but nothing is closer to the heart of God than people who are rich in mercy. 

God is filthy rich...  will you be?