going to mission conferences, but they
target conferences where they have seen
the most success. In 2011, the team began going to the International Conference
on Missions (ICOM), and several critical
positions have been filled through contacts
made there.
Mobilization Adapts
to a Changing World
By Andrea Fisher, Mobilization Department,
One Mission Society
Before the 1960s, One Mission Society did
not have a Recruitment Department. To bring
in new missionaries, OMS relied on ads in
The Missionary Standard and on its missionaries, who shared in churches and on college
campuses. According to Valetta Crumley,
who has served with OMS since 1959, that
changed in the 1960s when OMS began a
dedicated Recruitment Department.
Under former recruitment directors,
people came to One Mission Society
through college and seminary campuses,
referrals from other missionaries and Men
for Missions trips. Today, many of those
avenues have evolved, and new avenues
have sprung up.
“We’ve tried to take more of a social
media approach,” said Paul Cox, director
of Mobilization. In 2013, 14 percent of new
long-term missionaries found out about
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OMS through the website. Team members
now take iPads to career fairs and college
campuses so people can fill out their contact information through an app called GoFormz.
While recruiting college students is still
a key focus, the team is more selective
about which college campuses they visit,
targeting local colleges and emphasizing
deeper partnerships instead of traveling
across the country.
“We’re continuing to move from a college recruitment model to a college ministry
model,” Paul said. OMS missionaries live at
Houghton College and Asbury University,
where they mentor and minister to students. They also promote short-term trips
and encourage students who are interested
in missions.
Mobilization representatives continue
missionaries’) calling journeys, not only until their acceptance but until their ministry
assignment begins, which is an unbelievable privilege,” Paul said.
Over the next five years, he hopes to
develop greater partnerships with pastors to help them encourage and support
missionaries in their church as they move
through the process.
While Mobilization has evolved over the
years, Paul is quick to give credit to the directors before him. OneWeekend, a popular
OMS event that more than 250 people
interested in missions have attended, is
based, in part, on a college weekend that
Jim Hogrefe pioneered when he served as
director in the early 2000s. Other directors
developed college partnerships that are
still bearing fruit today.
“I stand on incredible shoulders,” Paul
said of his predecessors.
In addition to shifts in the team’s focus,
Paul has seen changes in missionaries
coming through the doors. A n ew passion
for human trafficking prevention is present
in many people who inquire through the
website. Potential missionaries are also
becoming more diverse.
“In a few short years, second- and thirdgeneration Hispanics are going to be the
largest missionary force in the United States,”
Paul explained. Mobilization is moving
toward a “from anywhere, to anywhere”
model, meaning that people will be sent
from outside traditional sending countries
like the United States, Canada, the United
States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
Australia, and New Zealand. The Mobilization
Department will be a recipient of this trend
toward globalization when a South Korean
missionary joins the team this year.
The team is seeing other major changes
as well. In the past, Mobilization’s role
stopped when the applicant was accepted. Under the new model, applicants will
be assigned an advocate who will continue to shepherd them as they receive training, raise support, and prepare to leave,
which the team refers to as the “pew to
plane” process.
“We get the opportunity to steward (new
photo page 30, inset: A recruitment ad in a 1962 issue of The
Missionary Standard photos page 30-31: Today, OMS relies
heavily on our missionaries to promote the work of OMS.
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