A theme verse for the Evangelical Covenant Church, the sponsor of North Park University and the seminary, is Psalm 119:63:
I am a companion to all who fear you,
to all who follow your precepts.
The psalmist had friends; his friends were those who feared God and who followed God’s ways.
To be a “companion” or a “friend” (Hebrew chaber) is to be joined to another, to be clasped to them — the way the wings touched one another in Ezekiel’s visions, the way curtains were clasped to one another in the tabernacle, the way tribes made a league with one another.
There is no hint here of separatism, but there is a strong smell of fellowship — and the psalmist’s fellowship was focused on anyone who feared God and whose fear of God was shaped by following Torah.