I'm Offended!!!

The Crossing is doing a new series called "Random" and random really is the perfect description for it.  (No offense.)  It's whatever God is talking to them about.  The entire premise that the sermons are coming straight from God's mouth to their ears/thoughts/whatever puts an implied level of authority and closeness to God.  It's subtle but powerful.  

I could say quite a bit about this but my focus is instead of some specific statements made during this sermon.  

Random Sermon

Minute 36:25 - "A couple years ago there were some people who were INTENT on hurting Eric and I and this church.  
Minute 36:50 - "Change where we needed God to change us."  What exactly did you change?
Minute 37:04 - "Something funky got in there."  Yes something funky indeed...your actions!!!

Kelly, lets be clear as to why people spoke out against your church.  

• A mother was trying to save her son after your reckless comments and authority trip caused him to leave his family, get married hastily and leave college.  Here is her story: One Mother's Journey 
• You were kicking people out of your church, ruining lives and acting like a cult.  Another story: Open Letter to Eric Dykstra
• You were so focused on church growth and yourselves that people were treated like they were disposable. Another story:Keeping the Faith
• You were forcing submission, insane amounts of tithing and promoting fear.  WCCO news report: Community in Elk River Discusses Controversial Church
• You wouldn't take accountability for anything.  WCCO news report: Pastor Addresses Controversy
• You were allowing abusive leadership to lie and hurt others. My Story Though I will give you credit for admitting this and asking for forgiveness, you still haven't apologized to the person you kicked out due to your leader's lies about her.  

Minute 37:19 - "As I drive to work everyday there is a street sign that is the name of one of the people that set out to hurt me..." 

Is this the street you're seeing?  She wasn't trying to hurt you Kelly.  She was trying to save her son!

Again, no one was trying to hurt you.  There was a time I would have said you were my friend; though I see that thought was clearly delusional.  As I said in my first blog post - I would have come back in a second had you simply admitted wrong.  

Let me be succinct here: you still need to admit to what you did that was wrong.  Admit it.  Own it.  Be accountable.  

The Crossing Church comes out of the closet

Minnesota made history today becoming the 12th state to legalize same sex marriage.  Since this blog is devoted to The Crossing Church of Elk River, Minnesota, it seems an appropriate time for them to come out of the closet.  No, The Crossing Church isn't gay, even if some of the recent band members outfits might cause you to question this.  They have always claimed to be welcoming to everyone.  I’d heard it said many times from the pulpit that they had a huge variety of people attending; atheists, agnostics and also gays.  So while they’d allude to being open and accepting with statements such as “all are welcome” and “grace full, guilt free”,  they never actually said their true feelings on someone being gay.  Seeing as they are affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, I certainly knew which way they were expected to roll yet it was a topic they were very evasive about. 

This blog post from Pastor Kelly Dykstra was a first clue.

I reasoned that this blog entry was from many years ago, and like so many other people, she certainly could have evolved in her view point.  

They recently had a speaker at their church recently named Hannah Parks.  Her story is one of drugs, gangs, hard living and also being a lesbian.  She preached from their stage against being a homosexual so I take this as The Crossing's belief and statement as well .  I should say she was a lesbian, as apparently her sexuality has now miraculously changed since she became a Christian.

I watched the video and I’ll simply say how much it saddened me.  She’s still gay.  Nothing has changed.  She’s out of the hazardous behaviors she once was into but she’s white knuckling it with her sexuality.  You can only suck up being who you are not for so long.  I hope there is someone loving and accepting there for her when she crumbles. 

So there we have it:  Crossing Church - Grace Full, Guilt Free, Gay Friendly but certainly not Gay Accepted.

Closing thoughts from the article: Jesus Was A Hipster? 7 Funniest Ways Christian Churches Are Trying to Get Hip With the Kids

The response from conservative Christians is to try to have it both ways, to both disapprove strongly of gay people living their lives openly while also claiming to be accepting and tolerant of gay people.

At the end of the day, the real reason that churches are bleeding members isn’t their lack of preachers in fashionable shoes and monitors blaring good-enough imitations of indie rock music. It’s because young people have turned away from the ideological values that conservative Christianity has worked so hard to embody: homophobia, hostility toward science, misogyny, sex-phobia, and support of regressive economic policies.