Our Values

What motivates your work? For us (and chances are, for you too), it’s not just the work itself. We love what we do, but we believe it’s the values behind our work that matter most. Our values serve to guide the work we do, give meaning and purpose to our days, and keep us accountable to contribute to the good of our community.

Live Adventurously

Life isn’t easy, but we embrace the challenge. We believe the journey matters as much as the destination. We seek change and growth, show up to the hard stuff, and take chances for the sake of the common good.

Empower Others

We strive to encourage and support and know those around us. We journey together and stand alongside one another in success and failure. We’re all in this together and want the best for each other.

Pursue Growth & Learning

We’re on a continuous journey. We seek ways to grow our skills and character (even when it’s uncomfortable) so we can, in turn, do more for others.

Create Beauty

We take time to notice and celebrate the good and the beautiful around us, and we’re moved to create more of it.

Restore the Broken

We are not paralyzed by the brokenness in our communities, cities, and world. We seek big and small opportunities to serve and stand with those who are suffering and those who are in the trenches. We value the unique and important role we all play in improving our broken world and work together to restore it.

Rest and Celebrate

We can’t produce good work if work is all we do. We make space to step back from the task list, have fun, and celebrate our achievements and the achievements of others. We also make time for cornhole and ice cream when possible (it’s always possible).

Be Generous

We joyfully share of our time, skills, and resources; and over-deliver as much and as often as we can. We’re committed to giving the best of who we are and what we have.

What in the world is the common good?

The phrase “the common good” can be interpreted in a variety of different ways.

The definition of the common good that resonates most with us is: the most good for all people and the flourishing of the most vulnerable in a society. This is different than the public interest which is often described as the most good for the most people.

Why is the common good important?

Our life choices and every day decisions affect more than just us or those with whom we have close relationships. When we consider the common good in our career paths and everyday decisions, we have the ability to actively participate in restoring systems of injustice, creating change where it is needed, and contribute to a more beautiful world where people flourish and the vulnerable thrive. A lofty goal? Yes. A worthy one? Absolutely.

We resonate strongly with the article “What’s So Great About the Common Good?” by Andy Crouch. Here are a few excerpts that can provide clarity and inspiration:

Seeking the common good in its deepest sense means continually insisting that persons are of infinite worth—worth more than any system, any institution, or any cause. Societies are graded on a curve, with the fate of the most vulnerable given the most weight, because the fate of the most vulnerable tells us whether a society truly values persons as ends or just as means to an end.

And the common good continually reminds us that persons flourish in the small societies that best recognize them as persons—in family and the face-to-face associations of healthy workplaces, schools, teams, and of course churches. Though it is a big phrase, “the common good” reminds us that the right scale for human flourishing is small and specific, and that the larger institutions of culture make their greatest contribution to flourishing when they resist absorbing all smaller allegiances.

The common good is a matter of choices, not just ideas. And those choices are often local, not grand social schemes. My decisions about where to live and what to eat and buy, as well as what to grow and create, whom to befriend and where to volunteer, whom to employ and how much to pay, aren’t just about my private fulfillment. They will also either contribute to others’ flourishing or undermine it. Indeed, all things that are truly good are common goods, meant to be shared and enjoyed together. And if the return of “the common good” reminds us of that truth and that hope, and shapes the way we live among our neighbors, it will have done a world of good.

Andy Crouch, “What’s So Great About the Common Good?”