The People of Praise is a Christian community. We admire the first Christians who were led by the Holy Spirit to form a community. Those early believers put their lives and their possessions in common, and “there were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4:32-35).

Our community life is characterized by deep and lasting friendships. We share our lives together in small groups and in larger prayer meetings. We read Scripture together. We share meals together. We attend one another's baptisms, weddings, and funerals. We support one another financially, materially, and spiritually. We strive to live our daily lives in our families, workplaces, and cities in harmony with God and with all people.

Our community life is grounded in a lifelong promise of love and service to fellow community members. This covenant commitment, which establishes our relationships as members of the People of Praise community, is made freely and only after several years of discernment. Our covenant is neither an oath nor a vow, but it is an important personal commitment. Our members are taught to follow their consciences, formed by the light of reason and by the experience and teachings of their own churches.

Like hundreds of millions of other Christians in the Pentecostal movement, People of Praise members have experienced the blessings of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and receiving the charismatic gifts as described in the New Testament. This is a great source of joy for us and an important aspect of what God is doing in our world today.

Jesus desires unity for all people, for the Holy Spirit is unity. We choose to be an ecumenical people as a gift to the church and a sign of hope to the world, reflecting the unity God longs to share with all humanity. We live out this unity as best we can, despite the divisions within Christianity. We are Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, and other denominational and nondenominational Christians. We are bound together in Christ through baptism, for there is much that we share in common. While remaining faithful members of our own churches, we have found a way to pray and live together in our daily lives.