The leadership in your church should be concerned about some of the unfortunate trends of compromise and inconsistency in mission agencies these days. Take a look at FOM's official statement on separation. But do more than file it as an example of a position paper on the subject--put it into practice, at home and abroad.

To the Fellowship of Missions, the principles of personal and ecclesiastical separation are positive in nature. Being committed to the Christ presented by a Bible that is fully and verbally inspired and inerrant in its entirety, infallible, and authoritative, it is impossible and undesirable to offer to or to receive fellowship from individuals, agencies, schools, missions, or movements that do not share that commitment. Loyalty to Christ and to the Word of God cannot be sacrificed or compromised at any time or for any reason.

This position is in keeping with the spirit and the statements of Scripture. Christians are commanded to separate themselves from immoral believers (1 Cor 5:10,11), from those who walk in disregard to the teachings of the apostles (2 Thess 3:6), from those who cause divisions by their doctrinal deviation (Rom 16:17-18), from those who practice or tolerate carnal behavior, and from those who espouse an inclusive policy that seeks to unite belief with unbelief, light with darkness, and the things of God with the things of Satan (2 Cor 6:14-15). Departure from professing Christians who would require a limited obedience to the Word of God or a traitorous disloyalty to Christ as the price of their fellowship is a necessary and positive action.

The Word of God states that true believers are to take the following position in regard to disobedient Christians and apostates: to try them (1 Jn 4:1), to mark them (Rom 16:17), to rebuke them (Tit 1:13), to have no fellowship with them (Eph 5:11), to withdraw from them (2 Thes 3:6), to receive them not (2 Jn 10-11), to have no company with them (2 Thes 3:14), to reject them (Tit 3:10), and to be separate from them (2 Cor 6:14-18). The Fellowship of Missions views apostasy and infidelity as tragic departures from the original position the Bible established for all Christians. The total rejection of the Word of God or only a partial obedience to it shows that a person or a group has left "the mainstream" of Christianity and has forfeited the right to fellowship with those who still hold to their New Testament stand of total submission to Christ and to the Word of God.

It is pointless to attack truth by means of comparisons. There are billions of unbelievers in the world, but this does not disprove the Deity of Jesus Christ. There are millions in the ecumenical movement (the World Council of Churches, its national councils, and its local councils), but their willingness to accommodate truth in order to achieve unity does not change the Word of God. There are multitudes in the World Evangelical Fellowship, its national fellowships and its local agencies, but that does not mean that God has an allowable level of unbelief, disobedience, or compromise which He overlooks in regard to "the faith once and for all" committed unto the saints (Jude 3). Truth is true, regardless of how it is treated, and falsehood cannot become truth, even if everyone believes it.

For those mission agencies that are totally committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Bible as the very Word of God, the Fellowship of Missions offers the possibility of cooperation without compromise. It is possible as ever for "two [to] walk together" when they are agreed (Amos 3:3).There are vital implications, among them: FOM missions do not engage in cooperative efforts with liberals, cults, Roman Catholics, or charismatics--nor with those who do.