CORE IDEOLOGY, as well as its implications, is reflected within any organization in:

Learning the "ropes" of an organization is becoming familiar with these more or less implicit, undefined understandings of the way a community or group thinks and acts. It's "just the way we do things." EVERY group, association, community, church, and organization has its own distinct culture. What matters and what doesn’t matter, what is appropriate or inappropriate, are reflections of organizational culture.

The culture in Mission: North America is something we call SANCTUARY.

A sanctuary is a safe place of refuge and personal protection, where inhabitants are free to live and grow without fear of threat from the outside world.

SANCTUARY is our way of mission and ministry both for those within the organization and those we reach. It is our pattern of life, the expression of our Christian identity, the way we think and act and interact. SANCTUARY is our culture.

The stories we celebrate are those that reflect our core values and beliefs. Stories that stir our hearts with compassion and/or anger are those that violate our core values and beliefs. These are all “SANCTUARY Stories”.

SANCTUARY is admittedly a paradox. It is protection from the threat of the outside world – a safe haven, a sheltered harbor. In this way it is fundamentally exclusive. Yet it is the outside, unchurched world TO which and IN which SANCTUARY is offered and happens.
SANCTUARY is not a program. It is a culture. SANCTUARY isn’t a place but a presence. SANCTUARY is both verb and noun. It is both human construction and the activity of God in human relationships. It is both formed and always reforming. SANCTUARY IS. SANCTUARY HAPPENS.

In SANCTUARY we provide personal and emotional safety and presence in mission to others – unchurched and churched – since this is simply who we are and what we are. SANCTUARY adapts to context and is therefore dynamic.

SANCTUARY for one person is encouragement and affirmation of worth. For another it is touch, a handshake, or a smile of personal validation. For still another SANCTUARY is listening with unconditional acceptance and non-judgment, demonstrating the unmerited favor of Jesus Christ. And under the right circumstances, SANCTUARY is sharing our faith and understanding of the gospel. SANCTUARY is the love of Jesus Christ.

SANCTUARY is our ministry and mission. SANCTUARY is what we seek to more effectively penetrate and permeate North America with. More SANCTUARY in individuals, in relationships (including marriage), in organizations and in society as a whole.