Ministers Fellowship International has a strong conviction regarding the autonomy of the Local Church. This foundational conviction effects everything that MFI does and it serves as a guide to every policy that MFI establishes. MFI constantly seeks to balance a loving and caring responsibility that we have to all believers in Christ with a recognition of the special place that God has set everyone in their own local churches. MFI's belief can be seen in three ways.

Ministers Touching Ministers

MFI is not a fellowship of churches, it is a fellowship of ministers. This means that ministers of like vision and doctrine voluntarily associate themselves with other ministries for the purpose of fellowship, encouragement, vision expansion, equipping and strength.

This also means that the members of the fellowship themselves need to be aware that when they become a part of MFI, they are not only asking for resources and strength, but they are also indicating that they desire to be that for others within the fellowship.

MFI provides a structure and a context where these meaningful relationships can be cultivated, but it is up to each member along with the MFI leadership to sense a personal responsibility for one another as "our brother's keeper".

Autonomy with Accountability

One of the strong doctrinal foundations of MFI is its conviction that every local church is an autonomous organization. That means that each local church is to be self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. It is because of this teaching that even forming such a fellowship was a sensitive task.

On the one hand, there was a desire to be a catalyst to bring pastors and church leaders together for the purpose of fellowship, relationship and strength. But on the other hand, there was an equally strong desire to not violate the structural integrity and authority of the local assembly.

Many groups have begun as a fellowship, but soon became a denomination where the central headquarters began to exert a growing measure of control on the local scene. MFI has taken strong measures to avoid this pitfall. By organizing the Fellowship in such a way that the things that give denominations control cannot become a part of the Fellowship without a vote of the MFI membership, MFI has safeguarded itself. The four things that MFI does not do are:

1. MFI does not credential ministries.

The local church is to be the place where ministries are birthed, raised up, trained, equipped, licensed and ordained. If an organization has the power to ordain someone, it also has the power to decommission them and thus control that ministry. MFI holds the view that ordination is the specific function of the local church and must be administered on that level.

2. MFI does not own local church properties.

Often local churches do not own their church properties, but their properties are held by an outside organization. This can easily become another issue of control. Even though it has been the people's money that built and established the church facility, an organization can easily impose its will on a congregation because its name is on the legal documents.

3. MFI does not control local church missions.

Again, the local church is to be the sending body for missionaries. Certainly local churches may voluntarily cooperate with each other on missionaries and missions projects, but no outside organization should demand that the mission money of a the local church be spent in a prescribed way. This again takes away authority and resources from the local church for the development of their own central missions strategy.

In addition to these three restrictions on MFI as a fellowship, there is another way to ensure that this fellowship will not become a denomination in the traditional sense.

4. MFI does not maintain a central Bible School.

While it is critical that each local church provides a way to train future leaders for the work of the Kingdom, it is not the function of a central school run by the covering organization to train, ordain and sanction all bona fide ministries. There are many ways that ministries may be trained that do not necessarily require them to leave their local churches to attend a central Bible School. Should ministries choose to be trained in a Bible School setting, it should be the choice of the person involved in conjunction with the counsel of their local church leadership.

In spite of the fact that MFI does not subscribe to organizational control, it does recognize the need that pastors have for a sense of spiritual family and identity. There is a need to belong to something greater than oneself. There is a need for committed relationships with like-minded ministries who can be a source of strength and a resource to them in time of need. There is a need for accountability to someone you can trust.

MFI is just that for many pastors and leaders. When they come into MFI, they find new friends. They find spiritual brothers and sisters, and, at the same time, they find spiritual fathers and mothers who can provide wisdom and counsel in times of need. They enter into a relationship where they can watch over one another in a loving and caring way.

Covering without Control

MFI is a covering body only in so far as it provides a context for spiritual relationship and oversight in a balanced fashion without having any official or legal control over any pastor or church.

As a fellowship of ministers, MFI provides a context for ministers to find strengthening and supportive relationships with other "peer" and "fatherly" ministries. However, these relationships are voluntary and unofficial and are not intended to replace the legal and official authority of the local church.

All ministries including the senior pastor should be under the legal authority of and accountable to their own church elder board. If a pastor has no elder board, then he should be submitted to the accountability of another "mother" church while that elder board is in the process of forming.

In the event that a senior pastor member of MFI was to be disqualified from ministry it would not be the place of MFI to officially discipline him. It is the responsibility of that local church and/or its covering "mother" church to judge and administer discipline officially. However, the local church may call upon MFI leaders or members to assist in these matters. In doing so, MFI leaders would not be acting on behalf of MFI as much as they would be acting as individuals at the request of the local elder board.

In the event that a church elder board was to call MFI for help in any such matter, their participation would be in a purely advisory role to the local elder board. MFI would not be involved directly in any pastoral discipline in the church setting, that is the function of the local church itself. MFI's only official disciplinary action could be the removal of a disqualified minister from membership in MFI.