Our Mission is:
"To Love God. To Love people. To Follow Jesus."
We're giving that our best shot.

News Updates as of 6/15/2009

• Coming Soon ... Conspire! Plotting Goodness: Issue 2
  
  • Our second issue of Conspire! is on en route from the printers and will be available FOR FREE from co-conspiring communities around the country soon. Check out www.conspiremagazine.com
• Get involved from a distance! Folks have asked how they can help if they cannot come to Philadelphia. We will need supplies from Home Depot, so you can mail gift cards to our office or you can contribute money to the restoration fund
• Changes on our block! During our last work day, while we cleared up the yard and boarded up an abandoned house, a neighbor told us how the landlord wasn't taking care of that property or his. We were able to get in touch with the owner who sold us the abanonded house along with the two other houses on Potter Street he owns (and has been neglecting). Take a look at some of the pictures (before and during) the clean-out process.
  
  
  
  
  
  We are gutting the house to start from scratch in renovating it and making much needed repairs to the other houses (which have folks living in them!). If you would like to be a part of the restoration process, you can sign up here and we'll contact you with more details about your specific area.
  
• Philadelphia City Paper wrote an extensive cover story about us. You can read it on their website.
  
• CALLING ALL SKILLED WORKERS! Are you willing to donate your services? We're compiling a database of skilled workers in the area (including tutors). Let us know you're out there by filling out this form.
  
• We have a calendar! Want to find ways to join us for dinners, work days, community service, and the like? We're putting it all online into a calendar so that you can keep an eye on what we're up to. Check back regularly as we add more! http://thesimpleway.org/calendar.html
• Openings for New Members of a sister community here in Philadelphia
  Shalom House, an intentional Christian community created by Circle of Hope Church and dedicated to proactive peacemaking is seeking the next community members to make a 2-year commitment to live and work towards peace in Philadelphia, PA. For more information go to www.shalomhouse.us or call 215-474-1195.
  
• Big News! TSW went before the City of Philadelphia’s Vacant Properties Review Board in order to try and acquire 3202 and 3204 Potter Street (2 more lots destroyed in the fire), and it was spectacular. The Board unanimously approved the transfer, and as we finished, the Chairman, John Coates applauded the decision and jokingly said “as long as you take our names off the Simple Way website”. Laughing he said that The Simple Way has friends all over the world that have their back, along with support of the city. So we are grateful for your support! Your phone calls and letters make a difference. Special thanks to John Coates, Susie Jarmon, Coucilwoman Quinonez-Sanchez, Justin DiBerardinis… There’s still much work to do but we are glad to work together to restore these abandoned spaces.
  
  Feel free to drop a little card in the mail to John Coates to say thanks:
  
  John Coates
  Office of Housing and Community Development
  1234 Market Street, 17th Floor
  Philadelphia, PA 19107
• WORKDAY PICTURES! We opened our monthly community store and cleaned outside of an abanonded house in our neighborhood. And of course, we had fun with each other.
  
  More pictures here
• Eastern scholarships… We arranged a meeting with the head administration of Eastern University recently, accompanied by one of the star kids on the block, and we asked them point blank if they would provide scholarships to kids from our neighborhood. Without hesitation, They said YES! Over the next year we will be working out logistics on it, but within a year and a half we will have this incredible resource and TSW board will recommend the kids each year. Shane cried. Literally, a big ole soppy mess. Unbelievable! We are proud of the continual partnership with Eastern University, and their courage to laugh in the face of a recession and taking daring risks for the Kingdom of God. Special thanks to Chris Hall (Chancellor), David Black (President), David Urban and John Levis (Admissions).
• Liturgy Submissions
  • As you may know, an incredible team of folks from all over the planet have been collaborating to create a common book of prayer, which will be released in 2010. It will have the common liturgy and lectionary readings of the Church, with a little of our own contemporary fingerprint. Each day we will greet the day together, remembering saints (and "saints"), significant dates for the Church and for the world, and learn to sing, cry, and praise God together. That's where we need your help.
    
    A few weeks back, we gathered a couple of dozen folks in NC to kick things off. And now we are making a broad call for everyone in our relational network of communities, new monastics, and friends to submit songs and readings (excerpts and quotes less than 200 words...). Undoubtedly there will be tons to sort through (but better too much than too little). We are asking for your "A-List", those contributions that are at the heart of your spiritual journey or your community -- stuff you have hanging on your walls or written on your soul... songs you sing in the shower. Send them on -- and we will be creating the collage that weaves together the many streams and voices that are a part of the history of the Church. Please use the link here: http://www.newmonasticism.org/dailyoff/
• Our Simple eStore is new and improved! And we've added new titles such as Becoming The Answers To Our Prayers by Shane and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (here) and The Ordinary Radicals, directed by Simple Way co-founder Jamie Moffett (here).

Needs:

• Clothing and donations for our community store, The Gathering. Nice, seasonal clothing, especially men's
• School Supplies for kids in our neighbordhood
  1. Composition books (B/W journals)
  2. Glue sticks
  3. Pens/Pencils
  4. Spiral Notebooks
  5. Calculators (small/basic)
  6. Compass/Protractor kits
  7. Dictionary/Thesaurus
  8. Backpacks
  9. Markets/Colored Pencisl
  10. Scissors (for kids)
• One million dollars to buy the porn shops in our neighborhood
  • Over and over folks are abused and shooting each other outside the bar and adult bookstores. We'd love to give the owners an offer they can't refuse, and a legal agreement not to reopen. Hey, we had a friend that did it… it's worth a shot. We'll turn that porn shop into a red tent revival.

• CCDA 2009 -- Join us in Cincinatti , October 21-25 for the annual gathering of the Christian Community Development Association (ccda.org). It will be a magical time.
• PAPA FESTIVAL 2008 -- WE DID IT AGAIN! PAPA FEST 2008. Nearly a thousand folks from all over the planet converged on Plow Creek Farm June 19-22 (and doubled the size of the town of Tiskilwa!). It was magical. Special thanks to all the lovely folks of Plow Creek for hosting us! For photos, video, and more info check out the site http://papafestival.org/

• Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Shane have created a list of “50 Ways to Become the Answer to Our Prayers” check it out here: jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com
• Relational Tithe is an interactive platform for connecting and meeting needs across socioeconomic and geographic barriers. It is also a place to explore, to meet, to share dreams and ideas, to ask and discuss questions, to learn and to grow together. http://www.relationaltithe.com/
• Alternatives to the Military: We have now launched CENTURION'S PURSE, our alternatives to military resource headed up by former and current servicemembers and conscientious objectors. We are now taking applications for these grants www.centurionspurse.org/apply. We are also accepting donations – checks payable to "Centurion's Purse" and mailed to: PO Box 14751 Philadelphia, PA 19134
  • Meanwhile, our friend Logan is an Iraq war veteran and current Christian peacemaker.  He’s been helping compile resources for other soldiers who are ready to beat their machine guns into farm tools.  Here’s a word from Logan.
  •  And here are some resources for those of you in the military, or who have friends and family, who are struggling to find the strength to carry the cross and the sword and are looking for community and friends who will accompany you. FOR RESOURCES CLICK HERE.
  • For a great resource to help with folks returning from war or just to spark good discussion, check out The Ground Truth (the film we recently showed here).  
  • Another story of a soldier who said “Enough!” Click here.
• Alternatives to Insurance: Imagine a group of folks committing to pool their money together every month in order to cover each other’s medical needs? Sounds pretty sweet eh? Well, it’s happening.
  • It is preposterous to think that folks don’t have proper medical care here in one of the world’s richest countries (the US is one of the only industrialized countries without universal health care). Many of us here on Potter Street remember the life of She-She, a little girl who died a few years ago of asthma (yes, asthma) because she did not get adequate treatment. And while we are grateful for the tireless labor of folks working toward health care for all, we are not willing to wait for the government to do what the Church is meant to BE. Christian Healthcare Ministries is one of a growing number of innovative communities bearing each other’s burdens when it comes to medical expenses. Each month folks contribute money to a common fund of which over 90% goes directly to meet needs. Members receive newsletters that tell who is in the hospital and how to be praying for one another. CHM now has over 20,000 members who have collectively paid over 400 million dollars in medical bills over the past 20 years. Check them out: www.chministries.org
• The Alternative Seminary now has a website! The Alternative Seminary is a little underground seminary here in Philadelphia area. Visit the website for more information and keep an eye out for upcoming events. We are grateful for all the tireless work of our friend and TSW board member Will O’Brien for facilitating the Alternative Seminary all these years. Keep an eye out for ongoing events, especially if you don’t mind a little homework here and there. http://www.alternativeseminary.net/
• PRACTICAL IDEAS FOR ORDINARY RADICALS
  • Lots of folks have asked for some simple, practical ideas... so we threw together a little list. Check em out, and create your own little recipes for holy mischief…
• Grey Water Waste bathroom plumbing system
• Getting an abandoned house
• Community of Communities Database
  • Folks are always asking about how to find communities near them, other models of living in intentional community… so we have created a new website to serve as a directory of hospitality houses and intentional communities – a way to connect the dots a little… Check it out www.communityofcommunities.info