A Tribal Alternative

In the past two days I have had meeting with two people- one representing the Mennonite Brethren community, the other from the Vineyard- both of which have been exploring the idea of developing a missional order.  I found it very interesting, as it was not the intention of either meeting to discuss these ideas, but rather “just came up”.  Further, all three of our communities are rooted in Winnipeg’s inner city neighbourhoods.  While each of us is still wrestling through what we mean by “missional order”, we had a lot of common tensions.

One such tension came with the issue of inclusion & exclusion. While we embrace the ideal of inclusion, there are aspect of our faith and its practices that are exclusive.  For a group of people to embrace a shared set of practices, a rhythm of life and mission in a specific community, there is inevitably a level of exclusion that will result, even necessary.  I said that we were attempting to make sure that any aspect of exclusion was that of the heart and not of means.  By this I meant that we intentionally avoid requirements that are limited by financial means, social standing, educational/intellectual development, etc.  Rather, if a person is to be excluded, it must be of their own choice or condition of the heart.

It is a real tension, especially in communities such as ours that have been crippled my poverty and systemic injustice.  Generosity, grace and exceptions can bridge a lot of these gaps, but not all.  For example, while conferences can & should be important gatherings for growth & relationship, they are largely unachievable by most of the urban poor we work with.  Further, use of language and ideas that presuppose a level of understanding and education can also be exclusive (acknowledging that education/learning is part of our ministry to offset this).

With this in mind, my question to you all is this: How have you seen this tension navigated well?  What practical examples can you give that we could learn from in this process?

I am eager to hear from you.  Thanks!

When we started letting people know that our van had died and that we would need to replace it, we could not have anticipated the depth, breadth and speed of your generosity.  As a result of your help, we were able to purchase a van yesterday to replace our old one.  With all you gifts, the anonymous matching donor and an amazing dealer (Roy Lee at Terry Ortynsky Nissan), not to mention all of you who helped get the word out (including coverage in the Winnipeg Free Press onlin), God has helped provide us with a great vehicle at an amazing cost.

After deciding on the van, we knew that Kim & I would still need to cut into our adoption fund to cover the remaining costs.  While this was difficult, we were further blessed to discover that the van has an extended warranty for nearly two more years.  This will more than cover any loss to that fund.  As always, God is so good.

Because our old van was gifted to us and because our new van came as a result of generosity from people like you, we have decided to donate the old van to Teen Challenge, knowing that it will go on (even in “death”) to bless others.  Thanks all!

P.S. Dino’s first response to the new van was to claim it as his own.  Ah, Dino…

EXCITING UPDATE: We just received words from a donor (who wishes to remain anonymous) who is willing to match donations dollar for dollar up to $2500 to see our goal reached! This will help us reach our goal in half the time.  Let keep it going!

For the last eight years, since founding our ministry here in Winnipeg’s inner city, Kim & I have been very personally invested in everything we do.  Our ministry could not afford a vehicle, but one was clearly necessary for the work.  To that end, we donated our small car to another missionary and bought a minivan, allowing the ministry to use it as needed, donating even the gas money as part of our personal support.

Sadly, within two week the van was stolen and totaled by some local kids.  As is usually the case, the insurance company gave us only a fraction of it’s value, hardly enough to replace the small car we had donated.  Then, to our joy and surprise, some family members gave us their van as a gift to us.  It had a lot of kms on it and had seen better days, but they had taken very good car of the engine and it served us well for longer than expected.

Again, sadly, this week the transmission on the van died, the repair cost too high to be worth investing into the ol’ beast.  And so we are retiring it.  This leaves us in a very difficult situation.  Both the ministry and us personally need a vehicle.  With Little Flowers Community, The Dusty Cover and our YWAM ministry (not to mention the pending arrival of our adopted child from Ethiopia), it is critical to replace it very soon.  However, we simply do not have the means.

We hesitated asking for help, as so many people give so much to us already- supporting our ministry, our adoption and us in general.  However, others encouraged us to get the word out.  As the fund raising thermometer shows, we need to raise $5000 to see the van replaced.  Generally this would not be enough for a decent van, but a local dealer has offered us a significantly reduced rate in support of what we do, so that we don’t end up with a money-guzzler.

$2500 given PLUS the donation matching = TOTAL so far $5000

This vehicle will help us in many ways.  To name a few it will serve to transport staff & volunteers around the city for service projects; pick up donated books for The Dusty Cover; pick up church members/kids who are not able to drive themselves/injured/etc.; food pick ups & drop offs for outreaches; emergency transport & intervention; and much more.

If you are willing and able to help us in this way, we would be very blessed.  You can give directly through PayPal here (see Make a Donation button on the sidebar of my other blog or use PayPal id jamie@arpin-ricci.com) or read about supporting us through YWAM Project Funding here (if you go through the funding office, please let us know, as we are trying to determine amount ASAP). Another HUGE way to help us would be to help us get the word out.  Above all, pray with us that God will continue to provide.  This process has already humbled us with respect to His love and the love of all of you.

Thanks!

Jamie & Kim Arpin-Ricci

In the past few months, like many of you, I came across Seth Godin’s very provocative and challenging book entitled “Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us”.  Having lived as a white guy among indigenous cultures for several years (often where I was among the minority in numbers), I realized how quickly I reacted to the use of the term “tribe”.  Then recently the launch of Missional Tribe further consider the term.

My first real encounter with tribal culture came while living on the mission camp in Winfield, BC.  At the time, the majority of our staff were Polynesian islanders, some acting chiefs for their villages even while living in Canada.  While I won’t go into detail now, my stereotypes, assumptions and even romantic notions of what a “tribe” was was challenged.  During this time I also began to explore the history and culture of the various First Nations peoples of North America, connecting with people like Richard Twiss, Anita Keith and many others who have become dear friends, changing my worldview forever.  Today I live and serve in an inner city community that is primarily First Nations, with a significant Eritrean & Ethiopian communities as the second largest group.  While by no means an expert or even an insider, I have a growing understanding and experience of tribal dynamics.

It is because of this that I find myself very sensitive to the use of terms in popular culture that have very deep meaning to indigenous peoples.  While I was and am thrilled by the community forming here at Missional Tribe, I will admit that my first reaction was chagrin at the term.  It got me thinking.  In the end, I was not overly bothered by the use of the term.  After all, with some Celtic blood in my veins, I know that tribal culture is not totally foreign to white folks.  Further, the people of God in the Old Testament functioned as tribes as well, making for some formational tradition for us today.

However, I think it is critical that as we engage in conversation here and elsewhere, using terms to develop and embrace an identity (and I truly believe Missional Tribe chose the name for identity, not merely branding), we must be mindful of our colonial history.  It can be too easy for us to thoughtlessly co-opt aspects of other cultures or traditions- be that indigenous cultures or historical church traditions.

Again, this is not a rebuke or correction, but a gentle caution.  What do you think?

Over the last eight year, my wife & a small community of missional voyageurs have been living and serving in the West End of Winnipeg, MB, an inner city neighbourhood in the heart of downtown.  Our initial commitment to neighbourhood was that we would not only do ministry in the area, but would make it our home as well.  To that end, we bought a duplex (an abandon gang house of some disrepute), where we live in something of an intentional community.

After several years, building relationships with our neighbours, laying the foundation of reconciliation (i.e. white & First Nations; middle class & poor, etc.) and beginning to build bridges of collaborative service, we realized that there had been a shift.  Winnipeg, being the coldest city in the world of it’s size or larger, has very long and harsh winters.  As a result, the street culture that often emerges in other inner city communities was not as vibrant.  For nearly 6 months of the year, people rarely saw each other except at the local market, bank or dodging traffic in a parka.  This presented a very real challenge in building relationships.

At about this time I was beginning to become aware of the writings of Ray Oldenburg in respect to “third places”.  We were also becoming aware of several such places being opened by others to connect with their communities.  We were particularly inspired by The Ellice Cafe & Theatre, the dreamchild of our late friend Pastor Harry Lehotsky, and The Freeway in Hamilton, ON.  We began to wonder if creating a missional third place was something we should pursue.  We decided, after much prayer & consideration, to try it.

And so was born The Dusty Cover used bookstore.  I won’t go into great detail about the store, as you can hope over the site and read for yourself.  However, it was designed to create a welcoming and neutral space where people in our neighbourhood could connect with each other.   The store is heavy on comfortable seating, a large section for kids books & activities (we run an inner city kids program twice a week), wireless internet access and free fair trade coffee.  Prices on books are kept as low as possible.

Our initial plan was to have a small cafe/coffee house aspect to the store, but due to a lack of funding and limitations placed on us by the city, we had to pull back on those plans.  If we are able to expand in the future, it is certainly something we would hope to be able to add, as it would offer a great appeal for people to sit and visit longer.  In time…

We have now been open for nearly a year and have learned a great deal (with much more to learn).  As John Perkins has mentioned about such ventures, it has not yet become financially self-sustaining yet.  As a ministry we are building excellent relationships in the community, but learning to “grow” the businesses aspect is a serious challenge, especially in a depressed region of the city.  This is, perhaps, our single greatest challenge at this stage.

Another challenge that must be faced by any such missional third place is the issue of neutrality.  Be definition, third places are free of agendas, which seems to suggest that being missional is a conflict, even a contradiction.  There is truth to this.  The first thing to acknowledge is that missional third places are not completely neutral.  We have clear intentions about why we are creating and/or participating in these third places.

However, while we have missional intentions does not mean we have to be agenda-driven.  And neither should our commitment to create safe, neutral places make us compromise on our missional intentions.  This is a very, VERY difficult balance to strike.  If you make your space a bait-and-switch evangelism trap, it cannot truly be third place (or truly be missional).  In the same way, if the relationships and service that happens out of the third place do not in some way draw people towards the God in whom we all find our hope, it isn’t missional.

At The Dusty Cover we wrestle with this daily.  From what titles are shelved (and not shelved) to the nature of our inner city kids program to the volunteers we have involved, we are very careful that we make the space a genuinely safe place where people can relax, relate and invest into the community.  We do not hide the fact that we are Christians, but neither do we beat people over the head with it.  As we build relationship and people get to know us (and us them), it generally leads (in time) to invite them to our home for a meal or to hang out.  Once we reach that level of friendship, it becomes a more natural place to explore issues of faith together.

Of course, the above paragraph is a VERY generalized and very brief description of how things can work, but the idea is that we face the challenge of being welcoming without compromise, respecting the individuals who come enough to seek genuine relationship, not simply “targets for conversion”.

There are, I am sure, hundreds of other questions people will have about the bookstore and third places in general.  Have at it!  I’ll respond as best I can.