January 16, 1977, my nineteen-year-old self joined Jesus People USA. To celebrate my “fortieth anniversary” as a communard Jesus Freak, I offer forty quite random ideas about community. Some are general. Some are specific. Some are a sentence. Others take a fairly beefy paragraph. So…. Forty Random Thoughts on Community from a Forty-year member of Jesus People USA 1. Love […]

  [This article, with a photo gallery at article’s end, is part II of a Planned III part series; Part I deals with Chelsea Hotel’s construction in the 1920s and what happened next.] Through the 1930s into the first two-thirds of the 1960s Chelsea Hotel, despite its small studio apartments, was not just home to single adults but entire families. […]

Click photo to enlarge. (From 1939-) Chelsea Hotel, – 920 Wilson Avenue, Chicago.- 356 Rooms, each with private bath and shower or shower. Located convenient to theater, churches, and the famous Wilson Ave. bathing beach, in the heart of the great Uptown District. Garage in Connection. Excellent Dining Room Service at reasonable prices.- Elevated, surface car and bus transportation, outer […]

[This interview includes a list of classes which may no longer completely represent our schedule. They do, however, offer a flavor of what Project 12 offers. — jon] *Curt, the name… what in the world does “Project 12″ mean? The word “Project” means centered on goals and the number 12 evokes the twelve disciples. The goals of Project 12 are: […]

[Cornerstone Archives, Issue #44 – 1978] [Wilson Station editor note: This article is a snapshot in time more than most… the communal movement has gone through a very lean time since then — the “me” decade of the 80s saw communes fade — but more recently a resurgence seems to be happening. Perhaps for economic reasons, and perhaps in the […]

Arguably, the Jesus movement as an American 60s counter-cultural event began in 1967 or so and ended by 1973. Arguably, because of course many of us continued on – “beneath the radar” so to speak. We hope to offer some snips from various aspects of the national Jesus Movement as it occured in those early years, and interact with others […]

Sometimes we resist traditions outside our own branch of the Christian faith, and do so for reasons we don’t totally comprehend ourselves. Today I received in my email a post from Vic Williams, one of our Jesus People USA pastors, about just such a tradition: Ash Wednesday. Today, in case anyone hadn’t noticed… JPUSA is having an Ash Wednesday service […]

Jesus People USA is a community… and a ministry. We live together so that we can minister more effectively, yet our lives together are about more than ministry. Sometimes, I’m nervous when people talk about our shared lives as if we do this only for pragmatic reasons. There is more than pragmatism involved for me. I find community to be […]

Marie James, long-time friend of JPUSA; member Jane Hertenstein would later write a book about Marie’s life called Orphan Girl. Photo copyright 2011 Jesus People USA. All rights reserved. It’s 3:30 p.m., time to prepare for dinner. Some of the brothers are getting the food and the utensils together. Others are setting the tables or separating plates, readying them to […]

[Historical note to this 1979 article: It details JPUSA surviving the infamous Chicago blizzard of ’79 and using it as a witnessing opportunity, and it also details our purchase of the 4707 N. Malden building (JPUSA was at this time living at 4431-33 North Paulina Street in a converted six flat).] JPUSA WINTER At first it was simply a lot […]