home » about » Frequently Asked Questions

Share |

Frequently Asked Questions

This list is compiled by Shane. The answers do not necessarily reflect those of every member of tsw, but Shane has done his best to represent us here, and the things he's heard others say... so don't think he's this smart on his own!

Is The Simple Way a non-profit?
Yes, we are a 501c3 non-profit organization (sometimes we joke about being a 501c3 ANTI-profit organization). All donations are tax-exempt. We started the non-profit because we thought it could help us function better as a community (and because a friend flipped the tab for all the legal fees). However, we have also said from the onset that we are a community first and a non-profit second, and if the non-profit organization ever gets in the way of the community we will abandon it. It is simply a tool to help us function as a community.

Do you recommend other communities becoming a non-profit organization?
We don’t necessarily recommend (or discourage) other communities from establishing themselves as a non-profit. There are lots of pros and cons either way, and plenty of communities like the Catholic Workers reject official non-profit status on principle (in that it means lots of beaurocracy and regulation). Others umbrella themselves under a congregation or establish a fund within the congregation – that’s a great model (church within the Church). For us, we like the accountability and transparency that being a non-profit and having an official “Board of Directors” demands on us (by the way our financial records are public documents that we are proud of, and we view our budget as a moral document… which we invite you to look at). Nonprofit status means that we don’t have to pay taxes, which is attractive to us as Christians since nearly half of every tax-dollar goes towards weapons. Non-profit status also allows us some privileges that bear fruit for neighbors, such as having access to local food banks and other resources (like free tickets to the circus!) that might be difficult to come-by otherwise. Finally, being an incorporation allows us to function as a single entity rather than a bunch of individuals. Homes, bank accounts, vehicles, and personal property can be held in common. But there are plenty of other ways to do this such as a “doing business as” account, a 501d3 (non-tax-exempt) apostolic order (this is what many of the Anabaptist communities do, and you can certainly incorporate without all the hoorah of setting up a nonprofit, which can allow for much of the stuff above without all the work… of course on tax day you’ll have to give some of your coins to Caesar (or at least pull them out of a fish’s mouth).

Are you ever scared?
There are certainly times we are scared, but they aren’t always where we expected to be scared. One of the scariest moments in our community was when the police raided our house (on “accident”) and the SWAT team threw everyone on the floor and ripped one of the women’s shirts. Those are moments where you think, “Who do we call now?!” And there have been times where drug dealers have protected our homes and cars from theft or vandalism. We’ve certainly had scary things happen. Folks have been mugged, jumped, even beat up… sometimes that has happened in our neighborhood and sometimes not (some of us have had bikes and cars stolen in the fancy neighborhoods here in Philly). One of our mom’s said, “I used to pray that you would be safe… but now I pray that you would be careful – and those are not the same.” That’s a beautiful distinction. Just because we are not called to be “safe” does not mean that we should not be wise. We have created many important guidelines for life here in the neighborhood. Some have come from mistakes. Others have come from Jesus, like always going out in pairs. That’s wise no matter where you are. At the end of the day, the best security is knowing your neighbors. And we are proud to be a part of a tight-knit neighborhood where we have dozens of families that are always looking out for us (and we for them). The Gospel does not promise us safety, but only that God will be with us in the danger. That doesn’t mean that nothing bad will happen (look what happened to the disciples… and Jesus… and Christians throughout history!) When Jesus speaks of fear he talks about how we can fear those things that can destroy our bodies (like guns and knives), but he says we should fear all the more those things that can endanger our souls… and those are the more subtle dangers, and the suburban demons – like insulating ourselves from suffering or cluttering our lives with possessions while others live in poverty. These are the things that can destroy our souls. We are more scared of the suburbs than of the ghetto.

Should I give money to homeless folks or beggars?
Jesus said give to everyone who asks. That’s a tough command. Sometimes we wonder what Jesus would do in the Calcutta slums or in these heroine-haunted streets where folks ask for change on every corner. What we can say with confidence is that we are to give something to everyone who asks – dignity, attention, time, a listening ear. Sometimes we may give money, sometimes not. But we can always give love. And there are times when giving money can even be a way to insulate ourselves from friendship or the messiness a real relationship might demand. So you can toss a few coins to a beggar or write a check to charity precisely as a way of insulating ourselves from relationships (and still appease our consciences)… but at the end of the day Christ’s call is to relationship and compassion. When Jesus speaks in Matthew 25 about caring for “the least of these”, the action he speaks of is not about distant acts of charity but personal actions of compassion – visiting the prisoners, caring for the sick, welcoming the strangers, sharing food with the hungry. Better than sharing money is sharing life, a meal, a home. Having said that, most Christians need to get taken advantage of more. And we can usually spare some change. Sometimes folks say this question about giving to beggars and panhandlers with suspicion, speculating that homeless folks will just use their money for drugs or alcohol… which happens sometimes. But we don’t always ask what CEOs are doing with our money when we give it to their companies (and the recent events on Wall Street raise some flags about how responsible they are!). In the end, if we cannot take someone to dinner or give them a ride when they ask for money, we might as well give some money. It’s better to err on the side of grace than on the side of suspicion. And we doubt that Jesus is going to reprimand us for giving too much money to addicts… more likely, we will discover we could have been a bit more generous than we were.

Are you a cult?
We have discussed all changing our last name to “Simple” but I’m not sure that makes us a cult. And there are lots of communities that still sacrifice animals. Just kidding (about both of those). The word “cult” actually comes from the same root from which we get “culture” or “cultivate”. So while we are not waiting for a UFO landing, preparing for a mass suicide, or stockpiling weapons… we are forming an alternative culture, a culture where it is easier to be good and where the fruits of the Spirit are cultivated. We have seen many communities come and go, and many that have developed unhealthy foundations and theology because they lack accountability and support from the larger Church. This is also why we do not try to stand as “churches” on our own but join the rest of the Church.

What do you believe? Are you all orthodox Christians?
As a community, we know that the things we believe are very important. That’s why you’ll find “Our Commitments” posted here. However, we also know that Christianity is not just a set of beliefs but a way of living, that we are not simply sent into the world to make believers but to make disciples. And that means creating disciplines and practices modeled after Jesus and the way of the Gospel. So you can find some of our Foundations and Functionality that articulate what our beliefs look like as they flesh out each day. Orthodoxy, meaning right belief, and orthopraxis, meaning right practice” must always go together. And to often we have only seen Christianity as a set of doctrines or beliefs. So congregations end up with a “statement of faith” but without a “statement of practices”. We must have both or else we get sloppy with our theology or we get sloppy with how we live and lose the distinctiveness of what it means to live the way of the Gospel. Just as it is important not to compromise core doctrines of our faith like the bodily resurrection of Jesus, it is also important not to compromise the core practices of our faith like non-violence and enemy love. Several years ago there was a gathering to try and identify some of the marks of the contemporary renewal we see in the church, and out of that gathering came the 12 Marks of a New Monasticism.

How many people are part of the community?
Another trick question. That number is either really small (6-8)… or it’s enormous. Over the years, our intentional community house(s) have averaged about 6-8 people at any given time. That number seems to work pretty well as we seek to function like a little family. But there have been hundreds of folks live at in the intentional community for a day or a month or a year over the past decade. And there are hundreds of neighbors who we consider a core part of The Simple Way and who help lead everything we do here in the neighborhood. Just as Jesus had a fairly small (and ragtag) core in his community, he also had crowds of folks who were participating in the work along the way (and a fair amount of spectators who stood by and watched). Not much is has changed.

Can I visit?
The simple answer: Attend one of our Schools for Conversion. This question is tricky, because on the one hand our entire life is about community, hospitality, and opening our homes to others. On the other hand, we have felt a tension at times between providing quality hospitality for folks inside our neighborhood and providing quality hospitality for folks outside our neighborhood who want to visit. Making community life accessible has always been an important value of ours, And we are thankful for all the folks over the years who have invited us to “come and see” their communities and to learn from them. In order to ensure a quality immersion into our communities, we decided to formalize these visits in the form of four-day experiential schools, living and learning in the context of an intentional community -- in order to try and do the kind of spiritual formation that produces fruit that lasts and relationships that have strong roots.  Over the next year we will have Schools for Conversion hosted every other month by a different community.  Giving exposure to the many beautiful expressions of community that are out there is one of the most important things we can do.  We encourage you to carefully consider the gifts, locality, and charism of each of the other communities hosting the Schools for Conversion as you prayerfully consider a visit. – newmonasticism.org/visit.php

What about a youth group or spring break trip to visit?
Short-term trips can be important catalysts for long-term change, and for lots of us that is where it all started, where we developed “new eyes” and begin to rethink how we live. Over the years we’ve hosted hundreds, even thousands of visitors and groups. For the time being we are taking a break from hosting groups, and are only allowing cameras in on special occasions (if you are a journalist, shoot us an email and we’ll get back to you. We began to see something emerge that we call the “fishbowl phenomena” – the danger of turning our neighborhood into a fishbowl or zoo that folks look in on, take pictures, and leave. There are some friends of ours who do short-term trips well, and who are good stewards of the money they generate from these trips, giving large amounts back to grassroots organizations working everyday in the neighborhoods. When it comes to bringing a group, we encourage you to explore folks like Faithworks and Center for Student Missions who do great work. Keep doing those trips that get us outside the gates and walls of insulation and challenge us to live a little closer to the margins. And also consider eventually choosing a neighborhood or village to grow roots in and live among. That’s radical… after all, commitment is not a cultural value.

What if we just show up?
We’d rather you not. Feel free to keep an eye out on the site and our calendar for public events, work days, celebrations and gatherings… but we’d rather you not show up on our doorstep as we cannot promise to be available (or even home)… you may experience homelessness first hand ; )

Who are some of your heroes and teachers?
We are grateful to be surrounded by a great cloud of saints (and sinners) who have formed us as a community. Mother Teresa, Francis and Claire in Assisi, Dr.King, Gandhi, Henri Nouwen, Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day are a few of the heroes and sheroes whose words are written on our walls and flow from our lips. Other contemporary friends who have visited us here on Potter street and mentored us over the years are folks like Tony Campolo, John Perkins, Sr. Margaret McKenna, Ruth and Alex Orantes, Jim Wallis, Ched Myers, Tom and Christine Sine, and Ron Sider. And of course there are local heroes like our neighbor Ms.Sunshine, and all the folks who drop by the house and teach us courage and hope every single day.

Do you all have a worship service
We have chosen not to “start a church” but to join the Church in our neighborhood. We saw that what most inner cities need is not more churches, but a Church. Rather than do our own worship services we join local congregations in this area – that may mean joining the pentecostals around the corner or going to Mass down the street. Many of us here at The Simple Way are connected to Circle of Hope and you are always welcome to join us for public meetings there – circleofhope.net. We also host periodic “Nights of Celebration” where we gather folks together to sing, share stories, share some good grub, pray and have communion… those are posted on the site here. (and if you are looking for some fine biblical study and are in the Philly area, make sure you check out The Alternative Seminary.

What do you all do about health care?
We are challenged by our vision and Gospel mandate to “love our neighbors as ourselves”, especially when millions of people in the US don’t have adequate healthcare (48 million to be exact), one of them was a five-year-old on our block that died of asthma a few years back. 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. We are excited by the creative initiatives to create structures of mutual care, ways of bearing each others burdens like the early Church…. One of those is called Christian Healthcare Ministries. 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. And this is not an ad for CHM, but more for the idea of CHM and so many others… see it as an invitation to join a Christian medical collective that is already out there, or to start one… 48 million folks are waiting.

Do you do mailings or newsletters?
Pretty much from the get-go we started sending out newsletters with updates and stories, and you can find them in our newsletter archive. Now the newsletter has evolved into projects likeConspire! magazine, where we add some new voices to the choir. Check it out, we think that you will find it true to our vision of “dreaming big and living small” and that you will find the same ideas, imagination and holy stunts that have marked our community… and you will also find some folks even wiser and more creative than we are. And we will keep the website updated so that you can follow the news, needs, and stories here at TSW.

How can I join the community? Do you have internships?
We are currently developing a new Apprenticeship house which we hope to start in the next year. Keep an eye out for that and for the application process (coming soon). For now we encourage you to check out some of the other communities that have structured internships. And if you are on the youthful side (18-30 years), we invite you to check out Mission Year (missionyear.org), which is designed for folks ready to dive into community for a year, spending the year living in an urban neighborhood, hanging out with neighbors, pouring into local congregations and volunteering in grassroots organizations – loving God and people.

Do you know of a community in _______________________?
This is a great question. Once we had a couple fly in from Oakland, California to visit and they were asking all sorts of questions about raising their kids in intentional community and in a tough area, and all that. We told them about three communities within a half-hour from them out there in California (that had families who have been raising kids together for decades). We realized one of the most important things we can do is begin to create resources that link people up with communities near them, connecting the dots of beautiful little holy experiments happening all over the place. So check out our directory of communities -- www.communityofcommunities.info. You’ll see all sorts of communities that have been around for a while and some just getting going, and you can see ways that people share money and life, and create covenants that allow goodness to flourish.

Do you think everyone needs to live like you all?
There are certain things we can say are clear Gospel mandates – like caring for the poor and sharing the salvific love of Jesus with others. But Jesus doesn’t tell everyone the same thing when he invites them to follow. One person he says, “be born again.” Another he tells to sell all they have and give it to the poor. There is an unmistakable call in Scripture to “not conform to the patterns of the world”…. But just because we are called to be radical non-conformists doesn’t mean that we all end up doing the same thing. Nonconformity doesn’t mean uniformity. We are all called to carry a cross, but that doesn’t mean all the crosses look alike. Consider the two tax-collectors who follow Jesus, Matthew and Zacchaeus. Even though they are both tax-collectors their responses to Jesus are not identical. Matthew leaves everything and follows Jesus, barefoot on the streets. Zacchaeus doesn’t. He sells half of everything and gives it to the poor, and then he begins paying people back four times what was owed them. He is a different kind of tax-collector, doing Jubilee economics and spinning debt on its head. Neither of them are conforming any longer to the patterns of their world and the oppressive systems of taxation they found themselves in. But they responded in different ways. As we “seek first the Kingdom of God,” some of us may lose our jobs. Some of us may redifine them. Others may turn the systems on their head as we pursue the upside-down Kingdom of Jesus. What we can say is that can be assured that an encounter with Jesus will mess us up and transform not only what we believe but who we are – our economics, our politics, our families, even our very lives. So don’t follow us. Follow Jesus, and follow us in as much as our footsteps lead closer to Him.

What’s an average day look like at The Simple Way?
It’s a little easier to describe an “average” week. We have prayer each morning (at 8am). Then we dive into days that are filled with things like hanging with friends in the neighborhood or folks living on the streets, helping kids with homework, and helping folks get to appointments. We’ve got some lovely gardens and a little neighborhood thrift store. Most of us work jobs part-time and that frees us up to do other stuff we don’t get paid to do, but love. Activities and programs change from time to time, but we share food with lots of families, and try to be good neighbors. We have dinners together each week, and we have a Sabbath one day each week where everything rests. There are times where we have other things that grab our attention around some of the systemic injustices around us. Right now we are working hard to end gun violence on our streets, and to create some local jobs and more stable housing for folks. It’s not always sexy. In fact, we had some visitors that lived here for a week, and at the end of it we asked them what they learned. They said, “We learned it’s not that spectacular, and that we can do this right where we are.” That’s a good word.