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Jamie Arpin-Ricci, pastor of Little Flowers Community & workshop leader at the upcoming re:Call Congress, has just released his new book “The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis & the Cost of Community”  (Likewise Books,an imprint of InterVarsity Press).  Here are a few videos for the book. This first one is a great overview of the book, exploring the three main focuses of the book: St. Francis, Little Flowers Community and the Sermon on the Mount. Check it out:

The following is Darryl Dash’s latest column at Christian Week reviewing one our speakers excellent books:

Gary Nelson has a word for our new context: borderlands. Borderlands are the place where “Christian faith, other faiths and unfaith intersect.” According to Nelson, it’s where the Canadian church finds itself. It’s a “strange and safe place that promises nothing and delivers nothing.” It’s a “holy wild” where God is present.

Nelson is author of the book Borderland Churches: A Congregation’s Introduction to Missional Living. Last July, he began a new job as president of Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto. I visited Nelson in his office and asked him about the challenges facing the Canadian church.

It’s clear that Nelson loves the challenges that we face. “This is a very comfortable time for me,” he says. He’s pastored and led a group of Baptist pastors, so he knows that not everyone is excited. People don’t like chaos. It’s clear, though, that most pastors and church leaders intuitively know that something is different. “There’s not much you can do with people who think it’s 1950.”

I’ve grown somewhat cynical of authors who write about church from a theoretician’s viewpoint. What I appreciate about Nelson is that he’s steeped in local church ministry. He’s a member of a small Baptist church not far from where I live, and he’s lived out what he’s talking about. It’s a church that doesn’t get a lot press, but I know from some of my friends in the community that it’s building strong connections there. I love it when he writes, “The greatest secret of the Christian faith is the community of the local church.”

Nelson says pastors and church leaders need to experience deep change. We have a tendency to look for “magic bullet” solutions. These inevitably fall short of the change that’s required. It will take more than a few cosmetic changes to appear “contemporary” or relevant. Rather, we need to be changed, beginning with ourselves. “Effective leaders wishing transformational change in their congregations must first be transformed,” he writes. It’s not about developing a new way of being church. It’s about “discovering the core essential quality of what it has always meant to be the church.”

We also need to learn patience. “We need to come with a long-term view. We will not change a place overnight,” he says. Learning to adapt to these times is going to be tough for some congregations, especially those who have been effective at a more attractional model of church.

We also need to learn to become comfortable in the borderlands. He uses the Hebrew word ‘abar (pronounced HABAR) to describe our context. It means “crossover.” Nelson believes we’re in a crossover time; we’re no longer inside Christendom, but we haven’t yet arrived on the other side. Because it’s a crossover time, we need humble sensitivity. We’re in discovery time; some of the things we thought were dying aren’t. We need to patiently resist cosmetic solutions and discern some of the deeper adjustments required as we discover, or rediscover, a God who is present and at work.

Pastoral ministry has been turned upside-down in this context. We’ve lost social significance, and face “ambiguity and cross-purposed assumptions.” Many pastors can articulate where they want to go, but are struggling to implement change. Nelson suggests we need each other more; that we can help each other by finding that we’re not alone. He suggests the answers aren’t found in conventions, conferences and books; we have many of the answers ourselves. “We’re in this together,” he says.

As Nelson talked, I found myself looking for the magic bullet solution he warned against. Nelson never gave me anything like a magic bullet – “three steps to missional transformation” or anything like that. What he gave me were some good questions, and optimism that God is at work in our context.

“People are asking questions,” he says. “When I talk in churches, I don’t get lots of resistance. We’re further on the journey than we realize. It’s a fun time to be the church.”

I left our meeting grateful for Nelson’s leadership at Tyndale, and encouraged about the challenges of ministry in the borderlands. It is indeed a fun and challenging time to be the church.

We all want people to feel at home in our churches, yet St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg’s West End takes the cake! In addition to the Anglican community, the building is host to several other churches and ministries, all serving the inner city community for many years.

Yet the sanctuary built to hold thousands has only been drawing a few dozen people.  Rather than close up shop, St. Matthew’s has decided to use it as an opportunity to meet a critical need in the community while still maintaining a smaller place of worship within the building: They are converting the nearly century old church into 24-unit low income apartment complex.

This story stirs the imagination of what is possible, even in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances!

For more details, see this article from the Winnipeg Free Press.

A large West End church will soon be home to a 24-unit apartment complex that will ensure its survival.

St. Matthew’s Anglican Church on Maryland Street, which can seat more than 1,000 people, measures Sunday service attendance in the dozens.

For years, its congregation has been praying to turn the church into a multi-use building that would include a housing component. It appears those prayers have been answered.

The three levels of government will hold a news conference Monday morning to unveil a $4.9-million affordable-housing initiative, supported by $2.2 million in tax dollars.

“It’s a really awesome project,” a government source said Thursday, adding the apartment units will range from one to four bedrooms in size.

A non-profit corporation will operate the building and lease space to the tenants, which will include the five congregations that now operate out of the imposing red-brick structure. The church is also home to several community groups and social agencies that operate from its 12,000-square-foot basement.

Cathy Campbell, St. Matthew’s rector since 2003, declined comment Thursday.

However, in a video posted on the church’s website, Campbell said the project is necessary for St. Matthew’s and its community programs to survive.

“There’s a desperate need for affordable rental housing in this neighbourhood, especially quality, safe housing for families,” she said.

Four other congregations meet at the church — Grain of Wheat Church Community, Shiloh Apostolic, Emmanuel Mission and the Lutheran urban ministry.

The church, originally built in 1913, was largely destroyed by fire in 1944. It was rebuilt after the Second World War and reconsecrated in 1947.

Several aging Winnipeg churches with dwindling congregations have been sold in recent years.

Worshippers at St. Matthew’s are giving up control of the building but will conduct services there in a smaller space more suited to congregational size.

Jino Distasio, director of the University of Winnipeg’s Institute for Urban Studies, praised the redevelopment.

“It’s a good, creative use of an existing structure that really is too big or doesn’t meet the needs of what people want today,” he said.

Other city churches have also been converted to multi-use facilities, he said, including Crossways in Common, built on the footprint of the old Young United Church on Broadway, which was destroyed by fire several years ago.

In the coming months we will be posting more information about the 2011 Congress, as well as resources, stories and other great content.  Our goal is to continually provide quality material between now and the event next year.  If you have ideas or suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section or contact us.

On behalf of Church Planting Canada and the re:Call congress team, we hope you enjoy the blog and we look forward to seeing you in Winnipeg next year.