Are the poor really blessed?

Jamie Arpin-Ricci, Winnipeg, Manitoba, is pastor of Little Flowers Community, an inner-city Mennonite church with a strong emphasis on intentional community. He has contributed to several books and is the author of The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom (IVP Books, 2011), and The Beauty of Vulnerability: Radical Obedience, Missional Living and St. Patrick of Ireland (Paraclete Press, forthcoming). He also blogs at www.missional.ca. This article was adapted from The Cost of Community (copyright © 2011) and is used by permission of InterVarsity Press, PO Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA; www.ivpress.com.