the simple way

i'm very excited over the fact that i'm going to get the chance to go to philadelphia in october and spend some time with the folks at the simple way. the simple way is a church that is based on the concept of community. many of the folks at the simple way live together at the church, work together, and all of them are consciously involved in each other's live during the week. ever since i heard the story of the beginning of their church (it's an incredible story that i will try to link to if i can find it) i've been wanting to spend some time getting to know the folks at the simple way.

so i have my wife's consent (she wouldn't call it "consent" but i do), i have the time on the church calendar, and i think i'll have the money necessary to get to phillie. now all i have to do is actually be able to contact them. i've been calling the simple way for two weeks and a lady named rose has been calling back. we've played "phone tag" the entire time. what i have discovered through the various messages is that it should be no problem for me to go to the simple way.

UPDATE - i finally got through to the simple way and had a great but short conversation with justin. he thinks october should be good but needs to run it past the group. so i'm almost there. he did recommend that i read "schools for conversion: 12 marks of a new monasticism" which is put out by some friends of the simple way.