After a long period of prayer and participation in community life, many members of the People of Praise choose to make a lifelong commitment to the community—a covenant. This covenant is a pledge of love and service to fellow community members and to God, resembling the permanent commitments made in Christian religious orders and in many other covenant and intentional communities around the world. We cherish individual initiative and personal freedom. Community members make this pledge freely, after a formation and instruction period that lasts three to six years. The covenant is a permanent commitment, and yet we are also open to the possibility that God may call a person to another way of life.

People of Praise members agree to contribute five percent of their gross income to the community, creating a fund that supports community outreaches, staff and charitable service to the poor. Our community life is always evolving, with changes often fueled by the ideas and insights of community members. The highest authority in the community is its board of governors. When making decisions about especially important matters, the board of governors seeks input and opinions from all community members through a direct consultation.

Community life provides a natural support for marriages and families. Many community children grow up as close friends, and their mothers and fathers find friendship, encouragement and insight from other community members. Marriages in the community have a very low divorce rate.

Community members agree to serve one another wholeheartedly, no matter the type of need: spiritual, material or financial. We work together, pray for one another, visit one another, share meals and offer one another gifts of money, goods and time in situations of need. Through daily acts of kindness and by constantly forgiving one another's faults, we hope to live up to the simple call of the Lord Jesus, "Love one another."