The Crossing Profits Big from Pastor Kelly's Twirl Event

Yes, it's Twirl time again.  Dress up, dance around, worship Kelly Dykstra, get a token gift and some far NW Minneapolis suburb entertainment.  Apparently some chicks dig this and that's fine.  Yeah, I'm lying, as I'm judging the hell out of this, but still - go do you.

I've written previously about where I take issue with Twirl; Twirl is primarily to glorify Kelly Dykstra. The upcoming Twirl event is no different as the special guests are Kelly's mother and her sisters.  All expenses paid by Crossing tithes?  Possibly.  I suppose it could also be paid by the Twirl event fee, which has jumped in 6 years from $5 to $12 (or a whopping $20 at the door).  Kelly's recent Instagram post says thousands are coming.  

Lets stick with a flat 1,000 coming and assume they each pay $12 each, though there are also sponsorship packages of $150, and of course the $20 at the door people who get penalized for not buying early enough (Always only about Jesus!)  $12,000 made in one night.  Also charging $1 per child for childcare (previously they had the men volunteer to take care of the kids).  We'll go with 1/4 of the women needing childcare, and I'm sure I'm estimating low, so that's $250.  Everyone working there is volunteering so there are no expenses for labor.  It's their space so no cost to utilize the facilities.  Throw together some trinkets, printing costs and a bite to eat at about $5 a head (bulk rate).  They clear $7,000 for this one event.

Where does this money go?  Well the hashtag for the Twirl events has recently been "Fight for a Girl".  So is the money going to a charity?  It's implied that it goes to something but they never say this directly.  There will be a Twirl store to buy things and they do say the money from that will go somewhere.  I'm curious.  I know the Crossing doesn't do anything they don't benefit from so I suspect this is more about money and Kelly's ego than actually helping any "girls" in a practical way.

A challenge for Kelly Dykstra

I took a little time off from this blog as I was in a new adventure in my life which involved quite a bit of Buddhist readings.  I contemplated karma and the possibility, if it's even true, of something coming back to me for calling out The Crossing Church on their abusive and flat out ridiculous behaviors.  I decided, that even with my snarkiness, that since I only spoke truth that any karma would be good karma.  That said, I'd still considered stopping.  I considered walking away.  I tried.  And then this nonsense came up:

Wow, Kelly! 

A quote from her latest sermon - Minute 14:35 - she began praying for these shoes because "Why not? God likes me!"

Comments from Stuff Christian Culture Likes about this instagram post:

"my problem is that she's making a distinct effort to show them off with the hashtag #jesuslovesme, as if to rub it in the face of someone who can barely afford Payless. Does Jesus not love them then? "

"It feeds the lie that the size of a person's pocketbook somehow proves the measure of God's love for them."

"Forget the shoes... the message she is sending is so repulsive. So what do you tell the child praying that his mother is healed from cancer, or the family praying for a job so they can feed their kids or the wife in an abusive relationship? Based on her message she would say that God must not like them enough to solve their problems. She must have a nice life that wanting a pair of pricy shoes is her biggest "problem" and thankfully God loves her enough. Oh this story is so ridiculous. Who cares what her friend spent on the shoes, but the fact that this person spent time thinking and praying about buying her the shoes... I wish people could focus their energy on what really matters. I guess if God really liked me he would not have let my Mom die 4 years ago and wouldn't have given my Dad Stage IV lung cancer in the fall...#awfultheologyshouldntbeallowedtopreach"

"She could have fed two families for a month for the price of the cheapest Louboutins. I guess Jesus doesn't love hungry people."

"Yo Haters - this is what Jesus wants! She gets to have insanely expensive shoes because she's blessed. She's obviously tithing hard, doing shit right and in God's favor." - This one is mine. ;-)

So God gives you incredibly expensive designer shoes (Low end price of over $1000), you pastor a church of primarily blue collar, semi-rural people who shop at Wal-Mart and clip coupons, and you think it's a good thing to flaunt this?!

 Lets get back to that sermon: Minute 16:13 - A friend knew she wanted the shoes and bought them for her. "Her friend paid the price for the shoes like Jesus paid the price for our sins."  

No.  Just no.  You make it known you want these shoes, have the audacity to pray for them, and then compare your rich friend (I'm guessing Lisa Young or Lisa Cornelius) shelling out a few bucks to feed your desire for the good life to Jesus dying for the sins of the world!?!?  When I heard the sermon and the words "my friend paid the price for these shoes..." I thought "Of all that is holy please do not tell me she's going to compare this to the cross.  I'm agnostic and still find this horrendous!!

As my good friend said, "The only people that should be bragging about God giving them new shoes are the people who didn't have shoes in the first place!"

So here is your challenge Kelly: give up the shoes for the good of those without shoes.  Put them up for auction, sell them, you pick - but give them up.  Give them up just as you and your husband have asked others to give things (very specifically shoes in fact) up.  Prove you are the exemplary Christian you claim to be.  Prove my post about your use of tithe money was wrong.  Prove you care more about people than things.  Prove it.

Pretty sure this is what Jesus would do, right?