Our Guiding Principles

We are immersed in the life of the church—we seek new ways to serve God and the church:

• We are committed to creating learning communities in the church—communities in which people can learn, grow, encounter the risen Christ and be transformed by him
• We are a praying community; we offer daily prayers—we ask others to pray for us and we for pray others and their petitions

We are committed to the concept of learning communities and therefore we attempt to live and model our lives by this concept

• We believe that everyone has gifts to contribute to the collective effort; we seek to value everyone’s contribution
• We believe that working together will produce a better result than any one of us can produce alone
• We regard mistakes as teaching and learning experiences
• We believe that organizations and groups as well as individuals can learn
• We try to avoid presenting ourselves as “experts” who know more or are superior to others but rather join others in sharing our gifts and valuing theirs; we actively encourage others to avoid the “expert” role and participate as equals
• We explain or seek to understand the process that shapes the end result; we believe that the process is as important as the content
• We value transparency: we are open and honest about our feelings, needs, goals, abilities, resources, limitations, concerns, etc.; we ask that others be transparent in their relationship with us and each other

We value all members of our team (customers, employees, consultants/trainers and vendors)

• We seek to arrange work so people “work to their strengths;” we encourage staff to take the initiative in learning new skills and knowledge,suggesting improvements, identifying new technologies, etc.
• We care about people, their lives and their concerns—we communicate our caring in ways that are appropriate and consistent with who we are

We value wellness; we maintain a healthy balance between work and re-creation:

• We understand that we do not do brain surgery—what could not get done today can get done tomorrow
• Our resources (and our lives) are works in progress; we invite and incorporate additions and improvements into our resources (which is why they are known as “evolutionary resources.”)

Our resources are only as good as our customers/clients say they are:

• We actively seek ideas for new programs/resources that have been successful for individuals, congregations and dioceses
• We value writers, authors, and other creators for their contributions; when they entrust works to us, we respect and honor these offerings

We use the model of licenses and memberships as way to encourage participation in the development and ongoing support of a program rather than selling a “product.” We believe that this model will result in funds that can be used for future resource development

• We encourage members to participate in improving existing programs and developing new ones
• We encourage members to be advocates for programs they value; we use this as our primary marketing methodology

• We do not accept grant funds; if grant monies are needed for resource development we will help congregations, dioceses and group apply for grants which will be given to them
• We will partner with congregations and dioceses to develop the program that meets their needs and then encourage them to share the their program with the larger church; we establish a plan to move the resulting program to self-sufficiency