Listeners asked questions about the particulars of communal life and I had questions too. Tammy and I recorded another episode and we also discuss the terrifying and powerful concept and discipline of confession in a way you may not have heard before.
This is a good one!
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Show Notes
Tammy Perlmutter is a talented creator who lives (along with her husband and daughter) with the intentional community of Jesus People USA, a commune of Christians that dates back over 40 years.
MIN 2:
Q: What is the hardest part about living in community for people who first come to live with you?
MIN 4:
Q: How does the “common purse’ work? Can you make your own money and keep it for things you want to do or must everything you make go into the common purse?
MIN 8:
Q: How are conflicts dealt with?
MIN 10:
Q: How do shared meals, food, and cleaning work?
MIN 13:
Q: Personally, what is the hardest part about living in community and what’s the best part?
MIN 15:
Q: What are the main challenges and needs within the communal setting?
MIN 39: The power of confession to create breakthroughs.
“Confession is discipleship.”
Creating trust and community.
Depression and sin dissipate when exposed to community and life together.
MIN 44:
Tammy’s final thoughts on community. Being, not just doing.
MIN 48:
The invitation to those of us not living in communal situations.
PHOTO COLLAGE from TAMMY:
Jesus People USA is a self-sustaining , tent-making community. We support our home, church, and ministries through businesses we have created.
Jesus People USA: A church & an intentional community, living together, creating a place to discover who you are and to be challenged to live an authentic life in Christ.
Wilson Abbey: Community. Faith. Art. Concert venue, theater, art gallery, conference center in Uptown, Chicago.
JPUSA Internships: 3-12 month internships in specific businesses and ministries.
Group Missions: Bring your small group, church, youth group, family!
Deeply Rooted: A Gathering. A one-day faith and creativity gathering in Chicago for women, taking place in May and November.
Photos:
#1 Worship
#2 Fellowship
#3 Work
#4 Social Justice
#5 Art
#6 Music
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Dear listener,
What did you think about this episode?
• Have you too been guilty of ditching situations, relationships, and people when things get messy, uncomfortable, or inconvenient?
• What has helped you live a more authenticity community-minded life?
• You can share your thoughts at the Spark My Muse group page here.
If this topic interests you, listen to the episode with activist Shane Claiborne who started the intentional inner city community in Philadelphia called The Simple Way. HEAR that here.
Welcome to Spark My Muse! I love that you’re here.
Friday episodes are longer conversational ones with guests. Find the full list here.
Wednesday episodes are shorter, potent ones called “Soul School”. Find the full list here.
SPARK- LIVE: I also do live discussions with friends and guests on interesting topics about 3 times per month and feature the Replays here at the website. Sign up for those HERE; and follow me on Twitter for links and info. (Because some discussions are listed elsewhere.)
Scroll down for detailed show notes labeled by the minute,and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast. If you feel so moved, get the 2-3 times monthly newsletter here that comes to you with love from me with insider info and extras.
Could you live with others communally and share everything in common? Money. Food. Living Space. Possessions. Goals. Identity. Your Future. Many of us may extoll the virtues of community but have minimal exposure with a lived-out experience. Tammy Perlmutter lives in a commune with her daughter and husband and you’ll learn her story today.
The longing for tight social bonds is so primal that even when the people we trust most betray us, we will seek out other opportunities for the solace of those connections until we find them.
Tammy Perlmutter is a talented creator who lives with the intentional community of Jesus People USA, a commune of Christians that dates back over 40 years.
From Tammy’s website:
I’m an East Coast girl at heart, born and raised in Philadelphia, but (for the second time!) called to Chicago for ministry. I live and work with Jesus People USA, an intentional Christian community of 200 members, living together in the historic 10-story Chelsea Hotel. We are rooted in the Uptown neighborhood, described as “Twenties Charm Meets Psych Ward with No Walls,” to love and serve the homeless, disciple believers, and be a presence for Christ in Chicago. I have lived communally for 15 years, and even with all its challenges and hardships, I consider myself beyond blessed to experience authentic, organic community in all its crazy, chaotic richness.
ministries of JPUSA (coffee shop, skate shop, gallery)
The group’s long-term existence and historic roots in the 1960s make it, according to sociologist Shawn Young, one of the most contemporary significant groups from the Jesus Movement era:
Founded in 1972, this community is one of the most significant surviving expressions of the original Jesus Movement of the sixties and seventies and represents a radical expression of contemporary countercultural evangelicalism. JPUSA’s blend of Christian Socialism, theological orthodoxy, postmodern theory and ethos of edgy artistic expression (as demonstrated at their annual music festival) prove what some scholars have longed suspected: evangelicalism is a diverse, complex movement, which simply does not yield to any attempt at categorization. [
The building where Tammy lives:
MIN 1:
INTRO
MIN 3:00
Tammy’s upbringing: living for 13 years in foster care around inner city Philadelphia and then a residential facility and being a lost girl.
MIN 10:00
How does Tammy think cycles of instability, abuse and addiction get broken and redeemed?
How hope happens?
11:00
Mentoring
Humiliation and despair.
12:00
A turning point when her case was turned over to Bethana social workers.
Being seen and heard for the first time.
13:00
Escaping into books and starting to write using the bookend papers.
15:30
Finding an intentional community (commune) JesusPeopleUSA
16:00
Cornerstone Festival and the rigged drawing
17:30
Being suicidal and living a dangerous lifestyle.
20:00
Keeping her promise about answering any question.
Finding a home instead of rejection.
22:30
Choosing a new life and the spiritual warfare battles she experienced at that point.
24:30
Being attracted to a Jewish East Coaster who she eventually married.
25:30
The Jews for Jesus experience that took them away from the community.
27:30
The deal to move back to Chicago and things feeling hopeless.
31:00
Being made for community and belonging.
33:30
Businesses that support the community and the ministries.
If this topic interests you, listen to the episode with activist Shane Claiborne who started the intentional inner city community in Philadelphia called The Simple Way. HEAR that here.
INTRO to EPS 27 Andi Cumbo-Floyd found that farm life taught her about the divine whispers that ignite creativity. Now, she invites writers for workshops full of rest and fellowship. She welcomes and nurtures weary pilgrims to her beautiful rural retreat space so they can create in a safe and life-giving way.
Monks don’t withdraw from the world to hide. They withdraw to pray and prayer is action. (Thomas Merton)
11:30
Storing up our reserves to be more powerful in the world as an agent for healing and change.
12:00
On Andi’s writing retreat space called God Whisper Farms. Building the farm and fixing it up. Meeting her husband and getting goats and chickens and then relocating the farm to a place with 15 acres.
13:30
Mennonite Tradition. Pastor Jesse Johnson…God whispered (a.k.a. “still small voice”)
18:00
Upcoming residency for writers and artists to have a refuge and respite.
The Coal Regions of the East and Yuengling Brewery
48:30
Breeding Goats and making soap and gathering eggs.
49:40
Nature will not be rushed.
50:00
You can’t squeeze chickens to get eggs when you want them. They are the boss.
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