Soul School – Lesson 55: Quicksand of Cynicism (and a Homage to Maria Popova)

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Congratulations to Maria Popova for 10 amazing years doing Brain Pickings–a fantastic contribution to our common life.

SHOWNOTES:

Maria Popova of Brain Pickings
Maria Popova– founder and curator of Brain Pickings

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Lesson # 10–What Maria has learned in ten years of doing Brain Pickings:

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Soul School – Lesson 41: Self-Impersonation

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We all live lives of self-impersonation–trying to be what we think is best or acting in ways we think others want us to be in the world.

Here’s what can be done instead. Wisdom from Parker J. Palmer and other luminaries on today’s Soul School lesson.

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SHOW NOTES:

To hear the episode I reference, (The One You Feed podcast with guest Parker J. Palmer) click HERE.

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parkerjpalmer• Parker Palmer’s website

A Hidden Wholeness – Parker J Palmer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Life Together – Dietrich Bonhoeffer


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EPS 46: Community Life and The Power of Confession (part 2)

As promised this is the part 2 with Tammy Perlmutter about Communal Life. Below are photos from Tammy.

To hear PART 1, click HERE.

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.

tammy

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 17:
Our Lady of the Mississippi Abby, Dubuque, Iowa.

Being an oblate near Chicago.

ladyofMissi

MIN 21:
On being downwardly mobile and simplifying things, and considering the essentials in our lives and relationships.

MIN 26:
On why Tammy started writing.

MIN 30:
Cornerstone Magazine 

MIN 32:30
Explaining “the gift of going first”

MIN 37:30
“Confession feels like a fever breaking.” (Lisa)

Jean Vanier

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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!

Cornerstone Community Outreach: Homeless shelter

The Rummage Room: A re-sale boutique whose proceeds go entirely towards Cornerstone Community Outreach.

Uptown Tent City: Providing protection, support, and material needs for homeless living under the viaducts in Uptown.

Zeppelin Design Labs: Avant-Garde Audio and Electronic Products.

Grrr Records:The home of Glenn Kaiser, GKB, The Crossing, Leper, Aracely, Exegesis, Resurrection Band (aka Rez), Anti-World System, and many others.

Everybody’s Coffee: Professionally-trained baristas devoted to making delicious, soul-warming, fresh brewed fair-trade coffee and urban artisan baked goods.

 

Nine3Nine CreativeA web and graphic design business doing top quality, cutting edge work. 

Belly Acres Designs: High-quality screen printing.
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

1.JPWorshipCollage

2.

JPFellowshipCollage

3.JPFellowshipCollage

4.JPJusticeCollage

5.

JPArtCollage

6. JPMusicCollage


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. 

EPS 44: What is Communal Living Like? (guest Tammy Perlmutter)

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.

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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.


 

TO HEAR PART 2 -recorded as a followup- CLICK HERE


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.

tammyTammy 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.

100_0870
ministries of JPUSA (coffee shop, skate shop, gallery)

From wikipedia:
Jesus People USA
 (JPUSA) is a Christian intentional community of 250 [this number is Lisa’s edit] people [1] in Uptown, on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1972,[2] coming out of Jesus People Milwaukee in the Jesus Movement, it is the largest of the few remaining communes from that movement. In 1989, JPUSA joined the Evangelical Covenant Church[3] as a member congregation, and currently has three pastors credentialed with the ECC. The community organized the former annual Cornerstone Festival.[4]  (Click for wikipedia entry for JPUSA),

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:

920_W_Wilson

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.

JPUSA.org

38:00

The History of Uptown Chicago

• Green Mill Lounge

• Al Cappone

Being a voice for the poor.

The only family shelter in the city.

The tent community nearby.

43:00

Vocation as a theme

Building community and being downwardly mobile as vocation.

46:00

A calling on our lives.

The gift of going first.

The Mudroom

Raggle Tangle: Invest in the Mess.

49:00

Making room for the mess


If you liked the episode please share it!

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. 

EPS 27: No Squeezing Chickens–A rhythm for creating your best work

 

 

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We got to talk about her work with race relations and it was fascinating.

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SHOWNOTES

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.
AndiCumboFloyd

 

SHOWNOTES with links:

MNIUTE – 1:00-11:00 (intro)

Note-worthy links:

• The Contemplative Writer Facebook group

• The Slaves Have Names (Andi’s book about race relations and growing up on a former plantation.)

• Andi’s book about writing.

MNIUTE – 10:30

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.

12:00God's Whisper Farm

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.

Andisgoats

19:00

Soul care

19:30

God’s Whisper Manifesto lays out the 10 principles for the farm.

20:40

Working with new writers. Goal-setting, the craft of writing, and connect with other writers.

22:00

Her advice for those who are stuck creatively:

Building silence into the day.

(Art comes from a stiller place.)

Kicking starting the process with poetry or lectio divinia.

Listening for your true voice and practicing the hearing needed for when that voice speaks.

24:00

Expectations and other things that block us from our true artistic voice.

Quieting the other voices that haven’t been helpful.

Not “shoulding” and thinking of “oughts”.

26:00

Henri Nouwen “What if God takes delight in the things that you take delight in?”

27:00

Anxiety-producing questions that make us feeling like we aren’t where we should be.

There is no writer’s block, only fear stops us.

28:00

The Wounded Healer – Henri Nouwen

28:30

Privacy and a nurturing environment to create.

30:30

Knowing we are good and we are loved.

31:00

The universality in creation that finds a home in others.

32:00

Andy’s background in faith and spirituality.

Her parents’ advise for attending a church, “Go where the community is the best.”

34:00

A winding spiritual journey: 3 Baptisms and ending up Anabaptist.

36:30

The breakdown of denominational labels.

38:00

Social Justice (apart from government solutions) and the Peace Tradition in the Anabaptist sphere.

Old order Mennonite

39:30

The Love Feast (and some churches do foot washing as a sacrament.)

40:30

(Lisa) Assembly church background.

41:30

Sabbath Rest and visiting friends and family.

43:00

How we stop knowing people at church. The rebellious potluck.

44:00

No assumption of guaranteed entertainment and 2 hours to relax and eat.

45:00

House churches and nurturing environments.

45:30

Her website: andilit.com

Quilt of Souls

47:10

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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