Previous Post – Disciples, Not Volunteers

Earlier this years, a few of us from Winnipeg’s West End felt the need to bring together Christians from the community for a regular time of relationship and connection.  Since then, this group of people who live and/or worship in our neighbourhood have been gathering once a month, taking on the name the West End Christian Collective.  Made up of pastors & lay people from many denominations and traditions, we’ve been working together to building God’s Kingdom in our community.

One of the initiative that we decided to pursue not too long ago was to bring in Dr. Glenn Smith of Christian Direction, a gifted urbanologist & missiologist from Quebec, to spend a day with a small group of Christians in our city.  As an informal group with no money or defined leadership, we were able to pull it together remarkably well and yesterday spent an amazing day with Glenn & each other (about 65 people) exploring what it means to live faithfully as Christians in our Canadian urban context.  And we did the whole thing without charging participants a penny.

For those interested, we recorded the sessions and put them online.  They are unedited and in 6 part of varying lengths, but the quality is good and the content is amazing.  While focused on the Canadian context, it is widely applicable to almost any urban setting.  You can find the audio here.  Please feel free to pass on word of the sessions to anyone you think might benefit.

There is so much to share about what Glenn explored with us (such as the powerful way he guided us through exegesis of both Scripture and our communities, bringing those two things together), but one of the most encouraging things for me was the response we received from the West End Christian Collective at the end of the day.  We all agreed that we would do the work of exegeting our community together.  Again, remember that this is an informal group made of Christians of all ages, experiences, etc.  We are identified by our neighbourhood, not our denominations or even by our formal leadership positions.  I am hopeful that this model of collective, grass-roots leadership could be an amazing model for other neighbourhoods (in fact, several other representatives at the meetings plan to visit our Collective to see what it is about and possibly replicate it in their context).

Again, please take the take to check out the audio of Glenn’s teaching.  I hope it blesses you and your community as much as it did ours.

Previous Post – Book of James – Part 1

In the eight years since we moved to Winnipeg’s West End, a great deal has changed.  While the challenges of poverty and crime are still very much present, as is the wonderful cultural, racial and linguistic diversity, the all too common effects of gentrification are also beginning to the neighbourhood.  Aspects of its influence are positive- the reduction of violence, organized crime and the sex trade, for example- but all too often it is not as a result of the problems being treated as it is that they are simply forced out into other parts of the city.  In other words, the so-called improvements to our community are often the result of lower income residents being forced out.

The West End is our home and the place that Little Flowers Community calls home.  Sustaining relationships with our neighbours is very difficult, as many find themselves pushed out after only a few months.  While some will argue that this transience is typical of the urban poor (and there is an element of truth there), more often than not it is a dynamic created and perpetuated by the trend of the privileged and the wealthy.  This reality has made us consider if we should consider relocating to the more “stable” locus of the poor, but we have felt that we are meant to stay where we are.

In response to the dynamics that make it more difficult for lower income residents (including members of our church community) to stay in the West End, we have tried to find ways to make life more affordable.  Through various methods, such as community gardens & bulk shopping, intentional simplicity, debt/credit counselling, intentional community, etc., we have slowly been able to find ways to resist the impact of the gentrification.  We are working on other approaches too, such as micro-loans, small business plan development and other ideas.  However, the scale is small and the pace is slow.  Most of all, the impact is limited to the small group of people in our immediate community.

One of the bigger dreams that we are pursuing in respect to helping the wider community is the plan to make quality low income housing available in the neighbourhood.  Our immediate plan is to purchase an apartment building in our community where the suites would be made available for low income housing.  This could include those on government subsidies or housing programs for the mentally ill.  We would also hope to have members of our Little Flowers Community living in the building too, nurturing a supportive community atmosphere.  One of the buildings we are considering would even leave space for the intentional community we have been expanding and developing.  We are very excited by this.

The challenge we face, of course, is resources.  In order to make such a dream a reality we will need a great deal of money and skilled labour to purchase, renovate and sustain the building.  We are blessed that a group of Christian business people from the Mennonite community in Manitoba have committed to get behind us in this project, carrying the bulk of the responsibility.  Their goals is to do this without any expectation of return, but rather as a Kingdom investment.  However, we will need a great deal more above and beyond this group.  Our hope and dream would be that we could eventually offer several such facilities that would help protect the unique diversity that is represented in the West End.

We are a small church of 20 to 30 people.  We know that for God’s vision to coming into being in this neighbourhood it will take something amazing and miraculous.  If you are interested in being a part of this, let me know.  While we do need money, we also need people willing to relocate their lives into our neighbourhood and invest themselves in these emerging expressions of the Kingdom.  We also need prayer.  Feel free to fire any questions my way.

When we started Little Flowers Community we hoped it would, like the other aspects of our 7 years of ministry here, help build bridges between the world of the urban poor and the suburban/rural church.  However, we also knew that in doing so, we were going to set up both sides for the kinds of lessons only learned the difficult way.  This Sunday was one such occasion.

After our weekly meal together before our time of worship together, a few of our smokers were in the front yard getting their fix.  While there, a native gentleman cycled past, to which Amy (one of the most natural evangelists I know) called out a greetings.  In a matter of minutes, she had invited him into the house for a plate of food and, if he wanted, to join our service.  Somewhat intoxicated, he wobbled in, introducing himself as “Hector”.  While Amy & Sean prepared a plate for him, our service got underway.  Near the end of the sermon/study, Hector kept interrupting to share his thoughts on the Scripture.  Most of us who were regulars thought little of it, as this is not an atypical experience for us, but we did have a couple of guests from out of town who were not used to these situations.  After the service, Hector joined the smokers outside for a drag or two, then promptly gave everyone a group hug, hopped on his bike and rode away.

It was just about that time, standing on the deck waving goodbye to Hector, that heard the shouts from inside.  I went in to discover that one of our guests was missing her digital camera, which had been sitting in the living where we had met.  I really feel for her, as it was her boyfriends camera and she was not used to having things go missing.  She immediately wanted us to get Hector before he left and ask to search his bag, which we said we would not do.  No one had seen him take it. I’m not shy to confront people when it is clear someone has stolen something, but this was not that simple.  Besides, he was gone.

Thankfully the event ended without too much drama or conflict.  It could have become a really messy situation.  And while I don’t try to avoid every situation, in this case we wanted Hector’s experience with us to be untainted.  Even if he did steal the camera (which is a very likely scenario), it was worth the price of a camera.  Now, I know it is easier for me to say that, since I didn’t lose my camera, but keep in mind that I have had many things stolen from me in my years in this community, including my car.  Despite what cynics might say, even though we may have been taken advantage of, the impact of Hector was real and we continue to pray the Spirit will work in his heart.

This whole situation brings to mind again why the issues of poverty and affluence are paired principalities facing the church.  It highlights the need to careful, intentional and genuinely mutual partnership with Christian communities in the urban core and the suburban/rural neighbourhoods.  It is also why we are intentionally careful about how we bring in people from outside of our community into this unique context.  We want the diversity, but it has to be introduced, nurtured and developed very carefully.

If you are in a suburban or rural church and want to better connect with the urban poor of your city or region, take the time to get to know the locals.  Trust those people who have been doing ministry AND life in the community.  Even if it goes against your “better judgment” or sense of efficiency.  It might feel pride-wounding.  However, if you take that time and be humble, you will begin to truly connect to people in whom you will discover Christ.