ARTICLE I: Name

The name of this organization shall be FELLOWSHIP OF MISSIONS

ARTICLE II: Purpose

The mission of FOM is:

• To provide identity: for accreditation of fundamental, separatist mission agencies;
• To facilitate interaction: as a forum for the sharing of resources and services; and
• To disseminate information: strategic, missiological, theological, and ecclesiastical issues.

ARTICLE III: Doctrinal Statement

We believe:

1. The plenary, verbal, divine inspiration of the Scriptures, consisting of the 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility and—as the Word of God—the supreme and final authority in faith and life;
2. The Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Sovereign Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of the universe;
3. The essential absolute, eternal deity and the real and proper—but sinless—humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ;
4. His birth of the Virgin Mary;
5. His substitutionary, expiatory death;
6. His resurrection from among the dead in the same body in which He was crucified and the bodily return of this same Jesus to the earth in power and great glory to judge the earth and establish His millennial kingdom;
7. That the “blessed hope” of the Christian is the personal, premillennial, pretribulational, and imminent coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to gather the Church—“which is His body”—unto Him;
8. That the Holy Spirit enters, seals, and baptizes one the moment he is born into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ and that He endues, guides, teaches, sanctifies, and empowers the believer;
9. Salvation, the effect of regeneration by the Spirit and the Word, not by works but by grace through faith in the shed blood of Christ;
10. The abiding presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit in each regenerate life;
11. The everlasting bliss of the saved in heaven and the everlasting suffering of the lost in the lake of fire;
12. The real, spiritual unity in Christ of all who are redeemed by His precious blood;
13. The necessity of maintaining—according to the Word of God—purity of the Church in doctrine and life;
14. The obligation of obedience to the command of Christ to evangelize the world and to establish local churches.

ARTICLE IV: Participation

1. Members. Voting power in this organization shall be held by each missionary board and agency which has accepted the constitution, has signed the doctrinal statement of Fellowship of Missions, has applied for and been received in membership, and meets the following standards:
1. Every mission agency shall give assurance that it sustains no relation to any organization whose principles are contrary to those declared in our constitution.
2. Every mission agency admitted shall be a legally constituted organization with at least five missionaries.
3. Every mission agency shall notify FOM immediately of any changes to its doctrinal statement and/or constitution.
4. Every member mission shall submit to the FOM office a copy of its most recent annual financial statement.
5. Every mission agency shall furnish annually a complete list of its missionaries and their fields of labor.
6. Every mission agency shall send at least one delegate to the annual meeting.
7. Every member agency shall contribute to the financial support of the Fellowship of Missions.
2. Affiliate Members (without vote)
1. Mission agencies whose ministry does not require full-time missionaries on the field may be received as affiliate members.
2. Mission agencies, which come to have less than five active missionaries, will be given affiliate member status.
3. Mission agencies, which come to have five or more active missionaries, will automatically receive full voting membership.
4. Inter-mission organizations—such as language schools or similar cooperative enterprises—whose missionary staff is already included in Fellowship of Missions’ statistics, may apply as affiliates.
5. Sending churches of independent missionaries, which meet the standards of personal and ecclesiastical separation of Fellowship of Missions and which are in complete agreement with its doctrinal statement, may apply as affiliate members.
6. Every mission agency shall send at least one delegate to the annual meeting.
7. Every member agency shall contribute to the financial support of the Fellowship of Missions.


3. Applications

Official application forms and other required documents shall be reviewed by the Executive Committee, which shall present qualified applicants to an annual meeting. Final acceptance shall be by a three-fourths majority of those present.

4. Termination

Termination of membership by agencies or affiliates may be effected in the following ways:

1. By voluntary withdrawal, upon receipt of written notice.
2. By recommendation of the Executive Committee to an annual meeting, should an agency fail to comply with the regular requirements of membership for two consecutive years. Final removal shall be by a three-fourths majority of those present.
3. By recommendation of the Executive Committee to an annual meeting, for any proved action or position which is contrary to the principles and doctrines of Fellowship of Missions. Reasonable notice and opportunity for defense shall be furnished to the affected agency. Final removal shall be by a three-fourths majority of those present.

ARTICLE V: Organization

1. The Officers

Officers shall be chairman, vice-chairman, president, recording secretary, and treasurer. Each officer shall be from a member mission. Duties of these officers shall be those usually incumbent upon their respective offices.

2. The Executive Committee

The executive committee shall consist of the elected officers of the Fellowship. This committee shall have full power to act for the Fellowship between regular meetings. Its decisions are subject to approval at the next annual meeting.

3. The President

The president—who must be related to and recommended by a member agency—may be employed as a chief executive officer for an indeterminate term until retirement, resignation, or removal. He shall serve as a member of the Executive Committee, to which he shall be directly responsible. He shall be an ex-officio member of all committees.

4. Additional Personnel

The Executive Committee may secure such additional personnel as deemed necessary.

ARTICLE VI: Meetings

The organization shall convene an annual meeting at a time and place set by the Executive Committee. Special meetings may be called by the Executive Committee as needed.

ARTICLE VII: Voting Representation

Each member body is entitled to one voting representative. Bodies having more than one hundred missionaries are entitled to one vote for each one hundred missionaries or fraction thereof. No agency shall have more than five votes.

ARTICLE VIII: Election of Officers and Committees

1. Officers shall be elected at the annual meeting. Vacancies may be filled by the Executive Committee. Committees shall be appointed by the chairman
2. The terms of officers (except the president) and committees shall be for one year.
3. Nominating Committee—At the annual meeting, a nominating committee of three shall be appointed.

ARTICLE IX: Limitation of Personal Liability of Directors, Indemnification of Directors, Officers, and Authorized Representatives

(The following is quoted from official Pennsylvania law regarding nonprofit corporations, Article V, Sections 5.01-5.10.) ¹

Section 5.01. Limitation of Personal Liability of Directors. A director of the corporation shall not be personally liable for monetary damages as such for any action taken, or any failure to take any action, unless:

(a) the director has breached or failed to perform the duties of his or her office as defined in Section 5.02 below; and
(b) the breach of failure to perform constitutes self-dealing, willful misconduct or recklessness.

The provision of this Section shall not apply to:

(a) the responsibility or liability of a director pursuant to any criminal statute; or
(b) the liability of a director for the payment of taxes pursuant to local, state, or federal law.

ARTICLE X: Dissolution of the Fellowship

Upon the dissolution of the corporation, assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code. Its property and assets shall be applied first to its just debts and expenses and the expenses involved in closing its affairs, and, secondly, the residue of the property and assets shall be divided among the Fellowship’s qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations.

Article XI: Amendments

This constitution may be amended at any annual meeting by a two-thirds vote of those present and voting. Four months’ notice of any proposed amendment shall be given in writing to enable each mission to consider the proposed amendment.

1. The executive committee shall serve as the credentials committee.
2. The executive committee shall submit a budget for action at the annual meeting.

¹ Fellowship of Missions is an organization incorporated under the Nonprofit Corporation Law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for “Religious, Missionary, Benevolent, Charitable, Educational and any lawful business to be conducted on a not-for-profit basis.”

WHY was it necessary to establish the Fellowship of Missions? FOM offers this clear statement of its rationale for existing, derived from its original formative documents of 1969.

It is the duty of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to give a clear testimony of their faith in Him in these darkening days of apostasy in many professing churches, by which entire denominations, associations, local churches, and agencies for missionary and social ministry have been swept into a paganizing stream of modernism under various names and in varying degrees.

The 20th century witnessed notable growth of autocratic domination on the part of ecumenical leaders by whom the rightful powers of sound missions agencies have been usurped.

The biblical commands of God to His people to be separate from all unbelief and corruption are clear and positive.

We believe the times demand the formation of a world-wide missions organization for fellowship and cooperation on the part of fundamentalist mission agencies for the proclamation and defense of the Gospel for the maintenance of a pure testimony, steadfast and world-wide, to the great facts and revealed truths of historic Christianity, for the accomplishment of tasks that can better be done in cooperation than separately, and to facilitate the discharge of the obligations inherent in the commission of Christ to His Church to make known the Gospel of Christ to every kindred and tongue and tribe and nation.

Global ecumenism affects the whole missionary enterprise and makes it imperative that fundamentalist mission agencies and missionaries stand together for the historic Christian faith, thus safeguarding and preserving their freedom and liberty to propagate it, in the world-wide battle against unbelief, modernism, and apostasy

The purpose of this organization is:

To encourage and to coordinate the strength of such mission boards and agencies as are committed to the propagation and defense of the pure Gospel to the ends of the earth.

To further the testimony of separation from all apostasy and perversion of the Truth as revealed in God’s Word, the Bible.

To aid and encourage the formation of Bible-believing missionary or church fellowships in as many countries as possible.

To take whatever steps are necessary to assure the availability of reliable Bible translations in every language area and to cooperate with such Bible societies, publishers, or other agencies as are committed to this purpose.

To serve the interest of our fellowshipping bodies in all possible ways, including the following:

1. To act as an accrediting agency for our constituents and to serve their interests—when needed—in matters pertaining to the relation of missions to governments; and when requested—to serve also in the same capacity for individual missionaries or groups whom we may be in a position to help;
2. To furnish information as to where supplies and transportation can be secured and—as possible and desirable—to provide direct aid in these areas;
3. To arrange mission seminars, special study groups, linguistic or language institutes and similar services as needed;
4. To furnish to our constituency periodic bulletins or information pertinent to our missionary interests.

THEREFORE, the mission agencies who form the FELLOWSHIP OF MISSIONS dedicate themselves faithfully to fulfill their task in the light of the faith and separatist principles delineated in the Constitution of FOM.

140 Jacqueline Drive
Berea, OH 44017-2730

Phone: 440-243-0156
Http://www.fellowshipofmissions.org
Email: ladamsfom@earthlink.net

September 2001