ELLERSLIE (GA)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
December 4, 2023
By Josh Shepherd
Dalton Thomas Lifsey, founder and president of Frontier Alliance International (FAI), an evangelical-charismatic missions and media ministry, has resigned, FAI’s board has announced. Lifsey, married since 2006, reportedly confessed to sexual infidelity with a woman who is not a ministry team member.
FAI is a disciple-making ministry that sends mission teams primarily “to the Middle East and 10/40 window among unreached people groups” and provides relief to the suffering in several regions, according to its website. On Sunday, FAI’s board announced that Lifsey had “tendered his unconditional resignation” two weeks prior, on Nov. 20. The statement continued: “This resignation was effective upon its submission with no possibility of Dalton being restored to a leadership or ministry role within FAI.”
The board statement also mentioned an earlier “adulterous relationship with a team member of FAI,” which Lifsey engaged in “a decade ago.” The statement added that the board of directors has “initiated contact with a qualified and neutral third-party organization to conduct a thorough investigation.”
FAI board chairman Joel Richardson stated on X, formerly Twitter, that the board has reached out to Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE), but “we just didn’t want to announce it until the contract is signed,” he said.
According to social media posts, Lifsey and his wife, Anna, have been married for 17 years. The couple have five children.
FAI, a registered nonprofit in Georgia since 2014, brought in $5.8 million in revenue in 2022, according to its most recent IRS Form 990. which FAI provided to The Roys Report (TRR).
The ministry’s media division, FAI Studios, has produced more than a dozen documentaries and dramatic films. Those productions include Sheep Among Wolves—a two-part film on Christian persecution with over 1.5 million views—and Better Friends Than Mountains, about the plight of the Kurdish people in Iraq and the surrounding region.
It also was involved in the widely reported “Operation Good Neighbor” on Israel’s northern border with Syria, which concluded in fall 2018. Reportedly, the Israeli Defense Forces allowed FAI team members to enter Syria and provide medical assistance and humanitarian aid to Muslim people victimized by bombing during the Syrian civil war.
FAI team members were invited by Trump administration officials in 2017 to host a fundraising banquet on behalf of their humanitarian work at then-President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Mike Reynolds, an FAI missionary and head of the ministry’s Iraq relief program from 2014 to 2017, was involved in the production of those past films. He left FAI in February 2017, due to a breach in relationship with Lifsey and a perceived lack of accountability from FAI’s board.
At the time, Reynolds also confessed he had engaged in sexual misconduct with Lifsey’s wife, Anna Lifsey.
Reynolds wrote in February 2020 that he considered himself disqualified from ministry and also believed that Dalton Lifsey was disqualified for his past misconduct. Reynolds urged FAI at that time to be fully transparent regarding Dalston Lifsey’s “disqualifying sins” but the ministry instead dealt with the issue internally and made no public statement.
In a statement to TRR, Reynolds said the recent FAI statement appears to be a positive step.
“While the board was aware of the previous issues for a long time, I am grateful to see them turn a corner and pursue a third party to investigate,” said Reynolds. “I think that’s the only way there will be clarity on the various issues within FAI over the past decade.”
Stephanie Quick, a founding member of FAI and the ministry’s director of communications, shared the board letter online and wrote seemingly in reference to Lifsey: “No one likes getting lied to, manipulated, or exploited. Certainly, we don’t appreciate it in a serial pattern. We have a lot of honest people doing hard work in hard places who just got laid out on the altar of one man’s self-gratification and ego—for a second time. They are my focus and priority.”
Richardson confirmed in a statement to TRR that FAI is in the process of beginning an investigation with a third-party group.
“We expect that through this process we will be able to determine any mistakes we made along the way and also take full responsibility for any of these things,” said Richardson. “Our hope is that when this process is done, all parties involved will feel a genuine sense of justice, resolve, and closure.”
Past allegations against FAI founder
In an account he published online in February 2020, Reynolds documented that Lifsey confessed in 2013 to “an emotional affair” with an FAI team member that Lifsey said occurred several months prior. Lifsey more commonly goes by Thomas, ostensibly to protect his missions work in foreign countries.
Lifsey sent an email to Reynolds on Dec. 22, 2013, which Reynolds subsequently published. Lifsey wrote: “By the Lord’s grace it was not a sexual relationship. But affections were stirred and there was a gross and sinful emotional connection . . . “
In early 2013, Lifsey was reportedly leading a team of 20 people in Turkey. Upon the illicit relationship being revealed, Lifsey’s team went home “prematurely after they had corporately raised hundreds of thousands of dollars,” wrote Reynolds.
According to Reynolds, Lifsey did not accurately describe the illicit relationship with the 20-something woman, whom Lifsey had authority over as the head of FAI where she served.
“We later heard through first-person testimony––verified by the other involved parties––that his account was not the truth,” wrote Reynolds. “Dalton had been involved in an emotional and sexual relationship with her that began several months before their team moved to Turkey.”
That email from Lifsey in December 2013 also notes that prominent minister Mike Bickle was one of three men who offered counsel to Lifsey on his restoration process. Bickle, the founder of the International House of Prayer Kansas City (IHOPKC), is currently facing allegations that he sexually abused multiple women over several decades.
According to Lifsey’s email, Bickle and two other men discouraged Lifsey from “writing a public statement in full disclosure . . . (and) handing off FAI with agreement that I would join a small local church somewhere in the US and get a career.”
Lifsey wrote: “When we told Mike Bickle, Aaron Walsh in NZ, and our pastor Keith (Cowart) in GA what had been suggested, they opposed them and said that such a decision would severely damage our recovery . . .”
In a statement to TRR, Richardson noted that FAI had an entirely different board at the time of the incidents described by Reynolds. “When (Reynold’s post) was published, we did attempt to do proper due diligence by reviewing his allegations, including interviewing numerous parties relevant to the charges or who are mentioned in the letter,” said Richardson.
He added: “While we do not dispute that it contains many things that are true, as with any personal disagreement there will always be varying perspectives. Our position now is to give them the dignity of sharing their story without publicly disputing anything.”
Bickle’s role in these events underlines the close ties FAI has had with IHOPKC and the larger house of prayer movement.
FAI was founded in December 2011 by Lifsey and several friends affiliated with the International House of Prayer in Tauranga, New Zealand. That ministry is now known as Furnace Prayer Room and is operated by a local Youth With A Mission-affiliated ministry.
Also, in a video update in April, Lifsey described Bickle as a “close, personal friend” and invited FAI supporters to join an IHOPKC fast related to Israel. And several IHOPKC team members have been involved with FAI’s film production and mission trips.
FAI staff member Stephanie Quick said in her post that, considering the ministry’s past decade, there are “some things I would do very differently.”
She added: “There are some things I wouldn’t do at all. As the Board said, we are committed to a full audit of past events. This process has my full support and cooperation.”
For his part, whistleblower Reynolds said he awaits details of the announced third-party investigation.
“I have a lot of hope for an investigation to bring hidden things to light,” he said. “But the board following through is the next milestone we are waiting for.”
This article has been corrected to accurately state when Mr. Lifsey and his wife were married. We regret the error.