From Risky Experiment to Great Success

OC International & Outreach Canada

One Challenge (OC) International, Inc. was founded in 1952 as an American non-profit mission.  Its purpose was to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ and missionary teams were eventually present on five continents. 

Outreach Canada was originally started, in 1977, as a board was formed to receive Canadian donations for American missionaries. A few years later, in 1984, the first Canadian team was developed with a focus on ministry in Canada. 

The Birth of the OC Global Alliance

For many years OC International received missionaries who were from other countries but processed them through the U. S. Home Office. 

A meeting was convened in Manila in the spring of 2008 to discuss how to address the growing international component of OC International.  This international component was creating new opportunities for mobilization and recruiting along with new challenges of funding structures and member care.  A new model was needed which would liberate national teams to do their own recruiting, funding and member care for their own people. 

By the end of the Manila meeting, a new alliance model was designed and it was ratified and implemented in 2009 and the OC Global Alliance was born.

A Risky Venture

The birth of the new Alliance was risky. 

The US based mission released eight of their largest national fields to become fully independent mobilization centres. The OC Global Alliance worked with them to develop their own boards and provided guidelines for handling finance, personnel, and partnerships. These eight mobilization centres, together with Outreach Canada and the US, joined together to form the OC Global Alliance.  

The new alliance was held together by its Unifying Essentials: A statement of faith accompanied by a shared vision, mission, strategy, and values.  Strong relationships and mutual trust would be the glue to hold the alliance together.  Many of our peers watched with eager anticipation as we charted new waters which they too would have to navigate. The new model was launched  with a lot of prayer and dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Stronger Together

Today, ten years later, we have concluded that the experiment has been a great success.  Not only are we still together, but the OC Global Alliance has added four more teams to our alliance.  Research over the past decade demonstrates a significant acceleration of progress in all the areas we measure.  We owe this growth and success to great leaders who are led by the Holy Spirit, and to increased responsiveness and collaboration between our many fields. 

Representatives of our OC Global Alliance meet together every two years to share reports and work together on strategic initiatives.  We have shared resources and thematic teams who work together to build cooperation and collaboration.  Our leadership is flat.  We do not have a president or chairman but rather a guidance team which helps to facilitate the decisions and directions of the alliance.  We are mutually accountable to each other and to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Together we share the vision to see healthy churches working together to reach all nations.

Key indicators comparing the decade before the formation of the OC Global Alliance to the decade following the formation of the OC Global Alliance.