Fellowship International Mission
"Flexibility in Ministy with Integrity and Accountability"

The Fellowship International Mission operational motto, "Flexibility in Ministry with Integrity and Accountability," contains three essential guidelines for the ministry of the Mission.

• Flexibility
• Integrity
• Accountability

FIM offers the opportunity for missionaries to do what God called them to do in an environment characterized by flexibility. How is the FIM approach unique?
Flexibility
Flexibility has been the cornerstone of Fellowship International Mission since its founding in 1950. FIM believes that flexibility has served as a key to strategic outreach throughout the history of missions. Wherever missionary work has prospered, missionaries have been free to move quickly and decisively to seize opportunities for the cause of Christ.
Flexibility helps to guarantee that missionaries have room to move obediently, speedily, and efficiently in response to openings for the Gospel. They know that they can do this with a minimum of restrictive policy or administrative red tape.
Integrity
Integrity assumes that the Lord of the Harvest speaks clearly as He makes His will known to individuals and churches. Integrity also assumes that spiritually attuned men and women can recognize His voice. It believes that missionaries can be trusted to report His leading to the church as well as to act responsibly upon it themselves. Integrity further means that churches must also find this quality in the mission agencies with which they partner and trust them to act in the best interest of the cause of Christ.

The FIM application process looks for integrity in its candidates. However, since the church ultimately sends the missionary, it is there that tests of integrity ought to begin. Church leaders should be certain that they send people to mission agencies whose lives and ministries are governed by biblical principles in every respect.

Churches should be confident that when their missionary speaks of "the Lord’s leading," it has been discerned on a biblical basis and in a spiritual way. All of this is vital to effective missionary ministry.
Accountability
Accountability stands in critical relationship to flexibility and integrity. The Bible does not allow, nor do true missionaries desire, absolute freedom or unquestioned trust. Accountability provides the means for defining and evaluating both flexibility and integrity.

The Bible indicates that God holds all Christians accountable. We know that a day will come when our works will be tested. In principle at least, accountability is a given.

The early church set an example of accountability that was essential to the early days of missionary outreach and is still appropriate. FIM desires to partner with churches that follow the New Testament example, sending missionaries and accepting a major share of responsibility for their effectiveness.

FIM also supports the principle of the sending church as the missionary’s first point of reference when ministry questions arise. However, to the extent that churches delegate much of this responsibility to mission agencies, FIM provides suitable accountability structures and procedures.