We meet Arn in his offices of Basics, an organization he founded in 1996. Arn is an 80 year old, white Evangelical Christian. Twenty years ago he left his corporate America job and founded two organizations dedicated to solving issues in the poorest, most violent and predominantly black neighborhoods of Milwaukee.
Before he arrives we chat with Lisa in the reception area of the City on a Hill building in which Basics is housed.
City on a Hill
In the mid 90’s a huge hospital closed in the Avenues West or Near Westside neighborhood - a ½ mile from Marquette University. “Adding to the blight in an area already marked by poverty, unemployment, addiction and crime,” as the brochure summarizes. In 2000 Convoy of Hope (a Christian relief non-profit) moved in with local churches and Urban Ministry Center of the Assembly of God (Evangelical Christian) held a weekend “relief” event for 8000 neighbors providing food, dental services, games and the gospel. Impressed, the Hospital owners arranged to transfer the huge hospital buildings (300,000+ Sq ft) and two square blocks to City on a Hill. Since then they have turned one of the buildings into a “mall” of organizations serving the neighborhood. Lisa tells us the only two requirements for organizations is 1. Local focus and 2. “Like minded (read: “Christian”) vision.
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| Convoy of Hope event led to permanent City on a Hill (Background) |
We ask her how things are going. She says pretty well. “Lots of improvement. And some of the ‘board ups’ (boarded up buildings -- Lisa nods her chin toward the neighborhood) are good. They show evil is being pushed out.” She gives an example of a local bar.
Upstairs in the B.A.S.I.C.S office we are greeted by Deanna. She is cheerful and is proud of the work that BASICS is doing. She says there is some up and down in the City. And explains that Milwaukee is “blue collar” liberal as compared with Madison being “academic” liberal.
Upstairs in the B.A.S.I.C.S office we are greeted by Deanna. She is cheerful and is proud of the work that BASICS is doing. She says there is some up and down in the City. And explains that Milwaukee is “blue collar” liberal as compared with Madison being “academic” liberal.
Arn’s Back Story
Arn arrives. He is striking: 6’1 or more; a shock of white hair, white beard and prominent bushy white eyebrows. His eyes are not large, but intense. He is just coming from a meeting with the US Attorney regarding parole terms in the local prisons. He is gracious and we settle in a shared office around a round Formica topped table. We ask him to share is story. And we are off…
Arn was born in Grand Rapids, MI and raised in a Dutch Reformed Church (“Calvinistic” he adds to dial us in on the style.) At 13, Arn feels God’s presence and is called. He attends the local Calvin College. But to his surprise, instead of attending seminary, through the influence of an early construction company employer, he decides to study engineering, “a practical subject,” he says. With this credential he joins Johnson Controls, a Milwaukee-based building controls (HVAC, energy usages etc.) company. He is an early application engineer, “getting what the salespeople were selling to actually work. He describes the day when he was “noticed” by the President and his career started to accelerate. Soon he had hundreds of engineers working for him. Then he left to join Rockwell Automation/Allen Bradley, also headquartered in Milwaukee. Here he soon had built a global process engineering team of 1200 in 26 countries and was running it from the Netherlands. Forty years in, his career was going great and he was on track to be part of the senior management team at Rockwell.
God Has Other Plans
One stormy night Arn was alone in his house on the North Sea. His wife (“champion of the family”) is back in the US with one of their five boys’ family (Arn has 15 grandchildren). Arn walks out to the sea wall and the wind is howling. Arn hears God speak to him: He has other plans. At the time Arn isn’t sure what the plans are but he “knows God knows.” But a little while later he is called by the Elders at his home church in Brookfield, WI. (This is Elmbrook, THE Milwaukee mega evangelical church we learn later from several experts.) He is asked to chair the building committee to expand the buildings to accommodate 5000 parishioners, up from 2500. Arn quits Rockwell and successfully leads the project. Then he is asked to join Operation Mercy, an evangelical Christian program which “mobilizes” relief in the Middle East. But then he discovers God’s big plan for him.
B.A.S.I.C.S. (Brothers and Sisters in Christ Serving)
Arn explains that God’s plan for him is to address urban poverty in Milwaukee. Arn believes he has been prepared by his work as a “change agent” and “new systems builder” at Johnson Controls and Rockwell. He takes advice from an Urban Minister in Chicago who instructs him to spend a year on the streets to understand the environment. So Arn does - he compares it to “reconnaissance work” in military terms. Among other things he visits with all of the Christian Churches in the city and the suburbs -- black and white. In 1996 he writes a “vision for Milwaukee” document which spelled-out how to bridge between the suburban churches (time, treasure, prayer) and the urban needs. Basics is the 501c3 that results. The primary work of BASICS is to support the ministries of individuals and groups who want to make a difference in the most challenged Milwaukee neighborhoods. (Back to his military analogy, these are the front line soldiers). Arn and his team train, support, network ministries with each other and the needy communities, and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of ministries. An example Deanna shared with is is the Grilling Ministry -- a man with a bbq grill who pulls it up in a neighborhood or at an event and grills food for everyone who comes by. He takes the opportunity to preach the Gospel as well. We are given a sheet which lists 21 ministry/projects which are supported by Basics.
GENESIS (A deeper focus on integrating citizens returning to Milwaukee from incarceration)
In 2009, Arn passed the running of BASICS to others and with God’s direction applied his considerable energy and gathered knowledge on the problem of “returning citizens” as he calls them from incarceration. Arn tells us that the 53206 zip code of Milwaukee had a 90% recidivism rate -- the highest in the nation. His program has worked for eight years, researching the criminal justice system, understanding the many layers of problems contributing to the problem (Arn rattles off: children raising children; moral values missing; the problems of a “workless world” where men haven’t worked, don’t know how to work, don’t respect themselves; where the urban world is dominated by the government and its programs). The shootings are worse in this area than in Chicago, he reports.
Over time he has developed a comprehensive program which resembles the time/flow/responsibility charts of the corporate world Arn and I come from. The “returning citizens” progress through five stages. Taking from our conversation and the Genesis written materials I summarize as follows:
Over time he has developed a comprehensive program which resembles the time/flow/responsibility charts of the corporate world Arn and I come from. The “returning citizens” progress through five stages. Taking from our conversation and the Genesis written materials I summarize as follows:
- In prison - preparing the inmate prior to their release for the process before them including: mentoring, evaluations of their needs, develop a strong relationship.
- Welcome - greeting the returning citizen at the gate of the correctional facility, driving them to their new home, orienting them to the program, strong emphasis on emotional support and physical needs
- Work - Life skills and employment training tailored to the individual. Life Skills may include financial literacy, anger management, parenting skills. Employment coaches are advocates for the citizen in their workplace. This includes being a reference, helping to overcome challenges such as transportation, mitigating workplace issues by meeting with the citizen and employer.
- Wealth - With employment comes some measure of wealth, self respect and stability. The coaching and mentoring continues.
At each stage twelve groups play a role to support the work of the “citizen.” Employers, health and welfare services, donors, family and friends, Department of Corrections, are each listed with responsible tasks at each of the five stages. Their roles may include “donate, sponsor and pray,” “train and employ,” “monitor and hold accountable,” etc. Genesis coordinates the delivery of the work of these twelve groups on a citizen-by-citizen basis.
Genesis has received two major federal grants for their mentoring work. Arn explains that “mentoring in our mind is disciplining to teach them that there is hope in life, and the truth. And the government enables us to do this, it is not a problem for them.” At the same time sometimes this is a problem for the government, they know that they should make available other religious views but maybe they don’t have comparable programs to support. Arn told us he was giving us the model so if UU’s wanted to use it to develop a similar program with our religious beliefs we could. “But it won’t happen overnight,” he concluded.
Genesis has lined up potential employers; training curriculum and life coaching; housing and programs to help these (mainly) men begin to give back to other more recently returning citizens. The recidivism has now dropped to 63% -- although Arn is quick to explain that this is not all the result of Genesis’ work.Arn’s philosophy
- “If a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat.” This comes up in a couple of ways:
- 1. Handouts, especially from the government, are more of a problem than a solution -- sapping the initiative from the poor.
- 2. Work in and of itself is essential to the building of self respect and breaking the cycle of recidivism.
- It’s the Supply Lines. Today Basics’ work is to be the supply lines for the “war effort” of the ministries working on the front lines helping the people in these inner city neighborhoods. “In military terms, supply lines are 9/10ths of the war effort.” “The people in the pew (of the suburban churches) are the ones we want to connect with the programs that are in place.”
- The “supplies” come from surrounding Christian communities in four ways: Pray, Care, Share, Prepare:
- Prayer: Some “people (“in the pew”) don’t want to go into the city, but they are willing to pray.” And that makes them aware of the fact that there are people in need.
- Care: “Some people have compassion and want to show God’s love. They may “gift” (donate money) to the projects (the “marine” ministries).
- Share [pictures from website]: “Evangelizing - Sharing the good news of what God can do for them.”
- Prepare “This is really the role of the church, to teach people how to obey God’s commands.”
- Apostles Creed. When asked if others (for example the UU Church in Milwaukee) could join Basics or Genesis’ work. Arn was clear that “leadership” is open only to those who accept the Apostles Creed. “We work with all sorts of churches. But we want people to understand the dimension we are coming from...When it gets down to preaching and teaching, this is what our beliefs are.
Fear of Islam
Our conversation takes a turn. We present a scenario where a Muslim man maybe being released. First Arn says that in working with that person Genesis will be clear that they are using a “Christian-Judeo” approach. He goes on, however, to explain to us that Muslim mosques “believe in Sharia Law, however, they are very careful in their strategy not to push it, yet.”
Arn: Now in Detroit [mosques] are far ahead of most communities in America. They have a very specific area that they have taken over. They have a Muslim mayor. And they are taking over that city. Strategically. And they feel strong enough in that community they will introduce Sharia law in the court system. That is what is happening in Europe, in London for example. The strategy of the Muslims... I’ve studied that because I was the Chairman of the Board of Operation Mercy which was in the Middle East and had to study Sharia Law. They aren’t all in agreement either. We have to recognize that we’re going to have to deal with these differences. And respect each other. And work together regardless of our differences, there has to be respect. When that respect is broken down it becomes hatred and warfare.Black Lives Matter - a White man in a Black world
Arn is proud to tell us that he was invited to start a new organization in Milwaukee of black pastors and ministry leaders. He was then invited to be a part of the group, Pastors United from its inception. That organization now numbers almost 500 people and Arn is the only white member.
Arn: They get into some heated debates, anti-white many times, over Black Lives Matter. They don’t feel that their lives matter in a white community which is dominated by white controlled politics and money they feel that they have nothing. And yet they have been given so much that they have overlooked, that they don’t recognize because it is controlled by the white community. So Black Lives Matter resonates with them very strongly and they are fighting with this whole idea of control. They want to have control of their community.
After nearly every weekly meeting after these anti-white debates, Arn is invited into the office of the black leader of the group and he apologizes for what they are doing to the white community. Because, he says, “the white community doesn’t matter. The Black Lives Matter.” Arn says he goes to these weekly two hour meetings “not to convey his thoughts, but to listen.” To be a sponge. He tells us that our listening tour caught his attention for this reason. When Arn is in other meetings outside of the community he “brings out whatever he thinks will be helpful for a white group to understand where they [the black community] is coming from. Because we don’t communicate. And our media is not helping matters. Sometimes our President doesn’t know. Sometimes our past President didn’t know. We have so many things that are focused on the negative. So little on the positive side.”
Reflecting back on his 40 years in corporate America, he notes that “corporate culture is very time, number, money focused. The African American culture is very relational.” Arn goes on to express, referencing a Dr. of Cultural Studies friend of his how confusing it is to work with all of the culture and sub-culture complexity. “Even in Milwaukee there are 30 different cultural groups just in the Hispanic community, much less the black community.”
This is where he believes that “Basics and Genesis are part of a seed to bring our cultures together. The black community, the white community, the Asian community. We all have to learn to live together the American way. Where human lives matter. We don’t have different races. We have the human race.”
Arn is critical of the media who he believes are reporting so little on the positive side, the progress being made.
Arn: They get into some heated debates, anti-white many times, over Black Lives Matter. They don’t feel that their lives matter in a white community which is dominated by white controlled politics and money they feel that they have nothing. And yet they have been given so much that they have overlooked, that they don’t recognize because it is controlled by the white community. So Black Lives Matter resonates with them very strongly and they are fighting with this whole idea of control. They want to have control of their community.
After nearly every weekly meeting after these anti-white debates, Arn is invited into the office of the black leader of the group and he apologizes for what they are doing to the white community. Because, he says, “the white community doesn’t matter. The Black Lives Matter.” Arn says he goes to these weekly two hour meetings “not to convey his thoughts, but to listen.” To be a sponge. He tells us that our listening tour caught his attention for this reason. When Arn is in other meetings outside of the community he “brings out whatever he thinks will be helpful for a white group to understand where they [the black community] is coming from. Because we don’t communicate. And our media is not helping matters. Sometimes our President doesn’t know. Sometimes our past President didn’t know. We have so many things that are focused on the negative. So little on the positive side.”
Reflecting back on his 40 years in corporate America, he notes that “corporate culture is very time, number, money focused. The African American culture is very relational.” Arn goes on to express, referencing a Dr. of Cultural Studies friend of his how confusing it is to work with all of the culture and sub-culture complexity. “Even in Milwaukee there are 30 different cultural groups just in the Hispanic community, much less the black community.”
This is where he believes that “Basics and Genesis are part of a seed to bring our cultures together. The black community, the white community, the Asian community. We all have to learn to live together the American way. Where human lives matter. We don’t have different races. We have the human race.”
Arn is critical of the media who he believes are reporting so little on the positive side, the progress being made.
Election, Politics, Society and Trump
Arn: I recognize that America was founded on the Christian-Judaeo value system. We come from that tradition. That culture. But the culture is changing. I don’t think the church in America has seen that change. There is a silent majority that elected Trump to the surprise of everybody, nobody expected that, even Trump! There is an undercurrent of a belief system that has turned away from a strong Christian Judeo belief system. We’ve been taught by the media to be flexible in acceptance of whatever the society is. Even our Supreme Court has changed to accepting what people are doing as the way we want to be and setting up their own laws to accommodate that kind of change. Which is not always healthy. But I think we may see a change back. Or we may not see a change back. If it continues the way it is, I see a high probability that we will see what is happening in the Middle East.
Peter: describe what that would be like.
Peter: describe what that would be like.
Arn: Beheadings. For Christians who won’t change their beliefs to become Muslims.
Peter. ...beheadings of Christians by whom?
Arn: By Muslims.
Peter: In the United States?
Arn: In the [US]...it is happening now throughout the Muslim world. We refer to the remnants of Christians who remain true to the point of being martyrs. That’s what is happening today. And thousands are [being martyred] but we don’t hear about it. The media is really suppressing a lot of that.
Arn views himself as a “marginal Republican.” “I’m very disturbed with some of the things that are going on in the Republican Party. When I had to vote I had a hard time voting for either candidate.” To select who to vote for he went online to view and compare the Republican and Democratic platforms. “For me that was like going back to the Constitution or going back to Scriptures. What do you really believe, if you are following it or not. ...and what is the foundation of your belief system.” “I have a strong belief in the sanctity of life. ...and I found it to be true in the Republican platform and not in the Democratic platform.”
Arn adds, “And I pray for the leadership whether it is Democrat or Republican that they identify God’s way and I know some don’t know God the way that I know God, and I have to accept that. I try not to be openly Republican or Democrat. Because the criminal justice system has become very liberal on the side of allowing things to happen that I don’t think should happen. Like the dignity of life. They believe throw a criminal in prison, lock the door, throw away the key and keep them there forever. I believe a person can change with their belief system, that there is hope for a new way of life. And that God can enable that to happen.”
Peter: Did you vote for Trump?
Arn views himself as a “marginal Republican.” “I’m very disturbed with some of the things that are going on in the Republican Party. When I had to vote I had a hard time voting for either candidate.” To select who to vote for he went online to view and compare the Republican and Democratic platforms. “For me that was like going back to the Constitution or going back to Scriptures. What do you really believe, if you are following it or not. ...and what is the foundation of your belief system.” “I have a strong belief in the sanctity of life. ...and I found it to be true in the Republican platform and not in the Democratic platform.”
Arn adds, “And I pray for the leadership whether it is Democrat or Republican that they identify God’s way and I know some don’t know God the way that I know God, and I have to accept that. I try not to be openly Republican or Democrat. Because the criminal justice system has become very liberal on the side of allowing things to happen that I don’t think should happen. Like the dignity of life. They believe throw a criminal in prison, lock the door, throw away the key and keep them there forever. I believe a person can change with their belief system, that there is hope for a new way of life. And that God can enable that to happen.”
Peter: Did you vote for Trump?
Arn: I voted for the Republicans. I know the Vice President has very similar beliefs to me. So that underscored my decision to vote that way. I’m seeing some things change with Trump. With some of his values that I think align with mine. So I’m hopeful.
Why (and how) do you do this work?
Arn: I don’t want to be hyper religious. But I have certain devotional texts that keep me on track. That keep me encouraged. My daily devotional (My Utmost by Oswald Chambers) gives me a focus on what I have to be to be able to continue and not be discouraged. Unless you have some reference point which supersedes all of that.
“Virtually every day I run into something that is so overwhelming I don’t know how to deal with it.” Arn goes on to describe how one of the facilities they are trying to buy for their work had a break-in last night. “They stole all sorts of stuff. They broke all kinds of windows. It is very discouraging. I spent a year getting to this point and working [with the city and] the community partners.” “We don’t know what God wants us to do, but we faithfully investigated each of the facility options.”
Peter: Do you think that what happened last night was God’s..?
“Virtually every day I run into something that is so overwhelming I don’t know how to deal with it.” Arn goes on to describe how one of the facilities they are trying to buy for their work had a break-in last night. “They stole all sorts of stuff. They broke all kinds of windows. It is very discouraging. I spent a year getting to this point and working [with the city and] the community partners.” “We don’t know what God wants us to do, but we faithfully investigated each of the facility options.”
Peter: Do you think that what happened last night was God’s..?
Arn: I think He is testing us and building us up to be stronger. We’re sort of being tested to see if we still have faith.
PH: You must get tired.
Arn: I get sick and tired of being sick and tired of being tested.“It is so easy to get caught up in man’s world...all the numbers, all the logic. With God it is not that way.” Arn describes an analogy of working a puzzle. God knows what the picture is. But man needs to work each piece and try it upside down and right size up to see if it fits. “We’re operating in faith with the Holy Spirit guiding us”
“It’s my shift. God put me here. I’m only 80 years old, so I have a long way to go, yet.”
-- Peter
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