Office of the President
Reaching Sons and Daughters
One Mission Society cofounder Charles Cowman discovered an important principle that
lives in our hearts to this day:
The most important thing a missionary can do
is devote himself to the training of nationals.
Put another way, the best way to reach a nation for Christ is to train the sons and daughters
of that nation to reach their own people. This has been part of our DNA in OMS from day one.
For this reason, OMS works with 36 seminaries and Bible institutes around the world.
This is why our OMS Theological Leadership Education and Discipleship team (TLEAD) ex-
ists. These deeply dedicated leaders (most at the doctoral level) give themselves relentlessly
to this ministry. It’s also why OMS’ Every Community for Christ ministry strongly emphasizes
equipping lay pastors to lead new worshiping groups. Conservatively speaking, more than
32,000 people around the world provide ECC training today. And this is why OMS works
hard to offer scholarships to hundreds of students every year as they prepare for ministry.
In 2019, OMS still devotes itself to training national leaders.
We emphasize the importance of “being” first and foremost, and then the “doing,” which
flows out of who we are as persons in Christ into effective ministry. We desire biblically-
based, servant leaders. Our spectrum of training is broad. We train many leaders, from the
non-paid, lay minister’s role to a smaller number of ordained, Ph.D.-level leaders who do
careful, scholarly exegesis, followed by wise application. We need the whole spectrum of
leaders trained deeply and in adequate numbers to help assure a strong expression of the
church of Jesus Christ.
A local church is only as strong as its leadership, and healthy leaders make for healthy
churches. Enjoy this issue of Outreach Online, focusing on the training of healthy leaders
in the Global South!
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Bob Fetherlin