IN NEW BOOK, PASTOR SHARES VISION FOR A FULFILLED LIFE
APRIL 14, 2006
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. – When Dan Erickson lay in a hospital bed in August 2004, he felt the still, small voice of God whispering, “Find your greater yes.”
Dan, an associate pastor at Lee’s Summit Community Church (LSCC), 1440 S.W. Jefferson, was on a retreat in the Ozarks when heart problems sent him to the emergency room. Doctors performed surgery to remove two blockages.
The shock of his health collapsing was a wake-up call: Dan wanted his life to count. But his packed schedule — serving as a pastor and a leader of a non-profit organization — had made him a mile wide, an inch deep and on the verge of a health crisis.
It was time for some bold moves. Dan resigned his paid role at the church, lost 50 pounds and dove full time into People Matter Ministries, a service organization he and his wife, Cathy, had founded the year before. People Matter, which is an extension ministry of Lee’s Summit Community Church, serves single mothers, blended families and divorced people. It also provides vision and leadership coaching to individuals, churches and companies.
“It all starts with vision,” Dan says. “If you can’t see it, you won’t do it.”
He tells the story of his life-defining moment in his new book, “Finding Your Greater Yes: Living a Life That Echoes in Eternity” (Thomas Nelson, May 2006). The book offers a fresh paradigm, explaining how to define, discover, develop and deploy the vision that God has for each person.
Dan notes that many people end up sidelined by focusing on the “do-nots” of life. They attempt to “just say no” to temptations and vow to try harder. When they fail, many give up or live in quiet desperation. But Dan says that when people focus on doing what is right, bad habits have a way of fading into the background. They are supplanted by a “Greater Yes.”
“When we are living passionately for a noble cause that we were designed to pursue, it crystallizes our thinking and our focus and helps us live productively and joyfully,” he says.
Dan is presenting The Greater Yes Conference with local author Debi Stack [“Martha to the Max: Balanced Living for Perfectionists” (Moody Press, 2000)] and guest speaker Fawn Brents at Lee’s Summit Community Church on May 12-13. He is planning a series of Greater Yes conferences around the nation, and also offers Vision Retreats (the next one is at the church on June 24) to help people unearth their dreams and goals and begin taking concrete steps to realize them.
Dan’s bout with heart disease brought a moment of clarity in his life that he is now sharing with others on a national stage.
“This is truly what God has called us to do,” he says. “I can say that after more than 30 years in ministry, these are the best days of my life. I’m sorry I delayed it as long as I did.”
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