Eric McEachron

Serving with Operation Mobilization (OM)

OM.org

​​Letter from Eric McEachron to Dair Hileman, Missions Committee Member

Hi Dair,

Thanks so much for the encouraging phone conversation yesterday. I appreciated both your interest in us, and the way you and the Missions Committee are moving forward--with strong vision and thoughtful shepherding of the congregation into that vision.

Thanks also for your willingness to share with the Missions Committee about our move into support-based missions with Operation Mobilization. Here are a few bullet-points that may be helpful:

About us...

• Both Rachel and I had our heart for missions cultivated (and then activated) by a combination of our home churches' influence and international internships through our colleges.
• Our years in Japan serving with the Junkers (nearly 2 for me, 4 for Rachel) defined for us a general "shape" to our calling, that it would involve global missions and education.
• We've lived that calling out for the past eight years in the U.S. through:

1. My job job as Director of Outreach Ministries at Bryan College (Dayton, TN), developing people and leading programs (local and global) to instill a commitment to Christlike service and vision for a lifetime of participation in God's mission.
2. Rachel teaching English online to students from all over the world.
3. Nurturing our family (Micah: 6, Sophie: 4, Emi: 2, Marcie: 5 months) and being active in our local church (kids community  outreach together, Rachel teaching Jr. Church & AWANA, me through occasional preaching, pastor search committee,      worship team).​​
4. Broadening my understanding of missions by visiting missionaries and student interns on-field in a dozen countries and  finishing an M.A. in Intercultural Studies (Columbia International University, Columbia, SC).

• We see our transition to serving with Operation Mobilization as a continuation of that calling because:

1. The role I've accepted, Director of University Connections, leverages our family passion for global missions, our story (college internships moving us toward missions), and my "insider" working experience of how Christian colleges work.
2. The role expands our Kingdom impact by helping multiple colleges around the country (1) understand the changing face of missions and (2) develop new pathways that move more of their students toward a vibrant role in reaching those that have never heard the name of Jesus.
3. Moving to Atlanta (OM USA is headquartered in Tyrone, GA) puts us closer to international communities-- Rachel has already heard of a Japanese community, and several OM workers who teach English and mentor Japanese ladies.

​About Operation Mobilization...
​

• Operation Mobilization (OM) is an international "family" of ministries with 5,000+ workers representing 100 nationalities, operating in 110 countries.
• In the past decade, OM International has taken a hard look at the state of missions around the world and the challenge of reaching those 3 billion people who have almost no access to the gospel, and chosen to painstakingly realign all of their global ministries, personnel, and resources around a new mission statement: "We want to see vibrant communities of Jesus followers among the least reached."

1. ​You can see some highlights of OM's overall vision at: https://www.omusa.org/work
2. You can see OM's doctrinal statement here: https://www.omusa.org/page/beliefs-and-values

• The OM USA team is a mobilizing and sending organization, with a goal of sending 1,000 workers (short and long-term) and $50M annually into least-reached areas by 2024.
• OM USA has heavily invested its team and resources in developing new systems to dramatically bolster the efforts of traditional missionaries and national workers with marketplace workers--believers taking their professions to live and work in places where traditional missionaries can't get in and there are virtually no national believers.

OM USA has developed an affiliate talent company that works with businesses, hospitals, and firms in least-reached areas to match jobs with US professionals.

It's like a scaled-up version of Jon Junker's school contacts in Japan: as far as the contracting company is concerned, they are just getting great workers who will fulfill their contracts, but per OM's agenda, they are sending marketplace missionaries trained for cross-cultural disciple-making and connected to one another through OM.

OM USA has developed its own digital platform, Scatter Global (https://www.scatterglobal.com/), for bringing together training resources and international job postings and building a community of professionals committed to fulfilling the Great Commission among the least reached.
​
OM USA seeks to be a thought-leader among missions organizations with this model, so OM USA's president has written a book, Scatter: Go Therefore and Take Your Job With You, and recently headlined a "Rethink Church + Rethink Missions" event with David Platt and Francis Chan.

• OM USA's University Connections Team brings together partner colleges, OM fields, and Scatter Global affiliates to develop robust vocational internships that combine the resume-strengthening professional experiences that career-minded Generation Z students are seeking with mentors on-field who model and immerse students in the vision and mission. 

You can see some of OM's university internships at: https://www.internships.omusa.org/ (most of the testimonial videos under the "Stories" tab are my Bryan students!)

About our support raising...
​

• My position is support-based, backed by a salary from organizational fundraising to allow us to move in July and start working in August.
• As a director-level employee (and as family of 6 living in Atlanta!), OM has set a support goal for us of $5,000/month to raise by the end of the year.

100% of the funds we raise will go toward offsetting the cost of my salary to OM.

• We will be focusing primarily on personal ministry partners (individuals and families).
• We also want to ask our three home churches (Grace Community Chapel, Rachel's home church in Warsaw, IN, and our church here in Dayton) to partner with us in prayer, finances, and mutual encouragement.

We plan to be in each area (St. Louis, Warsaw, and Dayton) at least one-two times each year visiting family and want to share in church life as much as possible.

I've attached a recent family picture (Marcie's sleeping, but everyone else is actually looking at the camera!). The second picture attached is me at our debriefing last summer for Bryan's international interns (most went through OM) in Bobbio Pellice (near Turin), Italy.

Thanks again for helping us connect with Grace about all this! I'm excited at the prospect of being on this new journey together.

Gratefully,
Eric