Meet the Pastor

Pastor Erik Reinertsen was born in Duluth in 1974 and has never wanted to live anywhere else. He graduated from Duluth Central High School and the University of Minnesota-Duluth and has a Master’s of Education from St. Mary’s University. He and his wife Jessica met in high school and were married in 1996.  Erik, Jessica, and their eight (that’s right– eight!) kids lived in the Piedmont neighborhood of Duluth for 17 years before moving to Lincoln Park in 2015.  Erik and his family spent 14 wonderful years at Mount of Olives Baptist Church prior to starting The Water’s Edge. In his spare time, Erik loves to spend time with Jess and the kids, play basketball and golf, and read his Bible and good Christian books.

Erik was very content as an unbeliever for the first 23 years of his life. Though he had been to church on a fairly regular basis since childhood he rarely gave God or eternal things much thought. Like many people, he wondered about the existence of God, questioned the truthfulness of the Bible, assumed there had to be many paths to Heaven (if Heaven existed at all), and figured that because he was a pretty good guy, if there was a final judgment of some kind, he would be okay. 

On a challenge from his believing wife Jessica, Erik read through the Bible for the first time and God opened His eyes to the truth. He repented of his sins, put his faith in Jesus Christ, and began to grow in his faith and get involved at Mount of Olives. In the summer of 2003, he felt the call of God to leave math teaching (a job that he dearly loved) and become the Youth and Young Adult Director at Mount of Olives where he was blessed to serve for 5 years. Erik received informal seminary and eldership training while working as Youth and Young Adult Director. Then, in 2009, Erik again felt the call of God to leave the youth pastorate (a job that he also dearly loved) and start The Water’s Edge Community Church. The Water’s Edge was blessed to meet at Lakeview Christian Academy for the first nine years of its life before being blessed to merge with Lincoln Park Community Church in 2018. Erik has a huge heart for Duluth and its people and firmly believes that God wants to use The Water’s Edge to make an eternal difference for Him.

Erik’s life verse is Philippians 3:7-8,

"But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss, for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”