"Where the Rubber Meets the Road"

Mike Tesdahl

Each year, the September issue of COMMAND presents the work done by OCF leaders in the home office, at the conference centers, and by staff and their co-workers in the field.

How many readers, however, realize that this is only the tip of the iceberg? The rest of the story is that the lion's share of OCF ministry is done by literally hundreds of volunteers in military units and communities around the world!

Membership includes privileges and responsibilities. Our Statement of Participation confirms that OCF expects its members to lead most of its ministry activities worldwide.

Members promise to do the following: I will, by God's grace, participate actively and prayerfully in the ministry of OCF with my time, talents, spiritual gifts, and financial resources.

OCF has always been a "lay-indigenous" ministry: lay-led in that the ministry is primarily run by other than clergy, and indigenous in that the ministry is primarily led by serving military leaders at the unit, installation, and community levels.

This philosophy works because our members want to spend their lives on something bigger than themselves; they understand that such service is worship (Romans 12:1). The result has been the development of an extraordinary serving culture characterized by personal engagement, in which a small staff coaches and serves the ministering membership by do the following:

• Communicating a compelling vision
• Recruiting participants and giving them ownership of ministry experiences
• Training, equipping, and commissioning spiritual leaders
• Mentoring and collaborating with these leaders

Worship is "Divine service" (latreia)

This approach to ministry requires two distinct categories of member-ministers-project workers and program-level workers:

1. Project Work: "Volunteer" is an appropriate description for the hundreds of OCF colleagues who complete projects-short-term initiatives with immediately identifiable results.

Those who prepare the periodic mass mailings from the OCF Home Office, those who perform seasonal maintenance at the conference centers, and others who assist with one-time events offer just a few indispensable examples of OCF volunteers.

2. Program-level work: On the other hand, programs are ongoing initiatives with long-term objectives. They require constant leadership by volunteers, with some support by staff.

While enjoying an extraordinary freedom of action, these leaders require a different level of management as "associate staff. A few examples include OCF Area Coordinators, committee leaders, and our Wives of Warriors team.

In case I've understated the need for the personal engagement of all OCFers, consider what we're trying to accomplish in the near term on the road toward a spiritually-transformed military. Transformation depends largely on the power of authentic biblical relationships, so we will always emphasize the "Fellowship" in OCF!

We will match our strong reputation for neighborhood Bible studies with significantly increased emphasis on workplace ministries and ministering to all ranks of military personnel.

Military families, who suffer most under the strain of the current expeditionary operational environment, will experience greater care and stability because of expanded conference center opportunities; partnerships among OCF, military chapels and neighborhood churches; and the ministry continuity that our vast army of seasoned retirees can provide.

OCF will continue to reproduce itself across the generations by empowering retirees to come alongside, mentor, and encourage the current generation in the "trenches."

All of this will take… all of us! It will take an extraordinary rising up our members. We have an ongoing need for OCF Area Coordinators and Local Representatives to minister at installations and aboard ships around the world. But we will need more members to step forward and take responsibility for the following:

Campaign committee members. OCF is kicking off an ambitious "Growing and Building Campaign" to position our conference centers for the expanded ministry needs of the future.

Campaign leadership is in place, but they need committee workers. We need public relations people, prayer warriors, relational people who can support donor relations, and experienced corporation/foundation/church relations workers.

E-Volunteers

Supporting this Campaign, and in other areas throughout the ministry, we need web-friendly people who can do everything from web maintenance, to editing and proofing, to making and responding to email inquiries, to managing a prayer web, to scheduling meetings and use of facilities.

Retirees

These are OCF's Jedi masters; they're experienced and they know how to get things done; they help others and show them how. These mentors impart deep spiritual truth and organizational vision, purpose, and mission from one generation of OCFers to the next.

We also need retirees to partner with active-duty Area Coordinators who must divide their attention among the demands of military leadership, family and ministry, and who have limited time to organize activities and to invest personally in others. ROTC.

We have many retirees who reside near schools with ROTC programs. We have some active duty OCF members in ROTC leadership and others pursuing graduate degrees.

We have sons and daughters from OCF families involved in ROTC programs. At the same time, many of our ROTC programs don't have an OCF ministry. Elsewhere the cadets themselves struggle to achieve campus legitimacy, to lead and to teach themselves without adequate experience or direction. You can fill the gap!

Chapel and Church leadership

OCF members have historically set the standard for leadership in chapel programs, and that must continue and increase. Now, however, the demographics of our military and of OCF are changing.

A greater proportion of our member families live in civilian communities and participate in churches composed mostly of civilians. OCF wants to partner with churches that have high OCF membership and share our passion for the military society.

Central to that partnering is the training of OCF military ministry leaders who can assist pastors in ministering to the unique needs of their military members and who can exhort and equip military church members to minister in their military workplaces.

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Matthew 9:37, NIV) Don't wait! Get in on the ground floor! Step up to the challenge right now by calling me (800-424-1984) or emailing me (miket@ocfusa.org).

Better yet, if you already know where your gifts and talents can touch a nerve of need and you don't require a point of contact-then pray, wade in, make something happen, and tell me how it turns out!