Officers' Christian Fellowship of the United States of America
Building Christian military leaders, families, fellowships ... for a lifetime
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The United States Department of Defense is the largest employer in the nation, with more than 2.9 million employees serving in over 4,800 locations in 160 countries around the globe. This military community represents one of the world’s largest opportunities for expanding God’s Kingdom. Leaders have an undeniable impact on nations for good or bad as evidenced throughout Scripture and history. Today’s military leaders are no different. These individuals face unique challenges, and those who follow Christ even more so. We need leaders who passionately love the Lord and obey His Word. Now is a pivotal time to equip, encourage and embolden Christian leaders within the military community. We aim to engage military leaders in Biblical fellowship and growth to equip them for Christlike service at the intersection of faith, family, and profession, so that the entire military community is positively impacted through these Christian leaders.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
White Sulphur Springs Retreat and Conference Center
White Sulphur Springs retreat center, located in Manns Choice, PA, hosts weekly summer and weekend teaching and retreat programs year-round aimed at ministering to military families and their families. These programs train new OCF members to be leaders in the family, Bible study fellowships, and work settings.
Spring Canyon Retreat and Conference Center
Spring Canyon retreat center, located in Buena Vista, CO, hosts weekly summer and weekend teaching and retreat programs year-round aimed at ministering to military families and their families. These programs train new OCF members to be leaders in the family, Bible study fellowships, and work settings.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Christian Management Association (CMA) 1999
Christian Service Charities 1980
External reviews
Videos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
GOAL 1: GROW\r\nMembers and Families Growing in Christ. Produce mature members and healthy families, connected with others in OCF and growing in their \r\nknowledge and application of biblical truth, integrating faith and profession with excellence, demonstrating a sense of stewardship and ownership \r\nin OCF, and answering the call to serve Christ from within the military.\r\n\r\nGOAL 2: SERVE\r\nMembers Working to Serve Others (Volunteers Leaders and Fellowships). Military leaders with a dynamic ministry of service, outreach, and \r\nexample within the military community. \r\n\r\nGOAL 3: ENABLE AND SUPPORT\r\nCorporate-Level Support of the Membership. Identify, develop, align, communicate, resource, manage and execute OCF programs and activities \r\nthat encourage and equip leaders for broader, more effective ministry.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Objectives for Goal 1: Grow\r\n1.1 PROGRAMS/ACTIVITIES: Establish, implement, and strengthen programs and activities that encourage Christian fellowship, spiritual growth and healing, prayer, and connection to the larger OCF family.\r\n1.2 MATERIALS: Provide appropriate Christian materials to foster growth in Biblical knowledge and the personal and professional application of scriptural truth.\r\n1.3 CALLING: Emphasize the Biblical case for serving Christ within the military as a legitimate, honorable calling for a Christian, and the responsibility of every Christian to serve Him with personal and professional excellence and integrity.\r\n1.4 INTEGRATING FAITH: Train, educate, inform and support members regarding proper ways to integrate faith and profession in different military settings throughout their careers.\r\n\r\nObjectives for Goal 2: Serve\r\n2.1 SERVICE: Foster an attitude of Christ-like compassion and desire to engage our OCF membership with an aim to heal, restore, establish, train and equip, and strengthen leaders and their families.\r\n2.2 FAITH-INTEGRATION: Instruct members on appropriate ways to integrate their faith through word and deed within their sphere of influence in the military workplace and community.\r\n2.3 RETIREE SUPPORT: Mobilize retirees to assist and support OCF in its work of ministry, outreach, spiritual growth, and service.\r\n2.4 COACHING: Show, teach, challenge, and encourage OCF members to image Christ through their professional excellence and personal character.\r\n2.5 SYNCHRONIZE: OCF members develop a synergy among local OCF ministries, chaplains, local churches, and other military para-church ministries.\r\n\r\nObjectives for Goal 3: Enable and Support\r\n3.1 DEVELOPMENT: Maintain a comprehensive development, mentoring and training program to meet the needs of the OCF membership and their families across the continuum of their spiritual, professional, and OCF identities.\r\n3.2 COMMUNICATION: Continuously improve OCF’s use of communication methods and technologies in order to encourage and equip our membership, its families, and the corporate level to connect with each other and those outside the membership in a broad, interactive, and generationally and culturally relevant manner, ensuring usage of the latest social networking tools.\r\n3.3 MEASUREMENTS: Develop realistic, quantifiable, and targeted metrics: linkages between budget and objectives, between revenues and programs that will guide staff ministry and emphasize financial accountability across OCF.\r\n3.4 GROWING AND BUILDING: Complete the OCF Growing and Building Campaign.\r\n3.5 STAFFING PLAN: Maintain an effective staffing plan for deploying OCF field staff representatives based on projected force concentrations and OCF funding capacity.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
CORE COMPETENCIES\r\n\r\nOCF’s core competencies are used to focus the ministry’s energies and resources on actions that promise to bear the greatest harvest for the Kingdom of God. Here are the recognized strengths of the ministry that guide our action priorities:\r\n\r\n1. PRAYER\r\n\r\n2. SMALL GROUP LOCAL FELLOWSHIP AND OUTREACH\r\n\r\n3. LEADERSHIP\r\n\r\n4. CONFERENCE CENTER MINISTRY\r\n\r\n5. PUBLISHING
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
A brief history of OCF\r\nThe need for a ministry like OCF was first recognized in 1851 deep in the isolated Northwest Frontier of India (now Pakistan). It was here in the loneliness of this outpost that Captain John Trotter, a soldier in the British army, had first experienced the hunger of sharing his Christian faith and praying with other like-minded officers and men. Upon returning to his home in England, Trotter sent letters to a number of officers and other ranks, inviting them to join in organizing an "Army Prayer Union for Officers and Men," with the hope of engaging in prayer and building strong fellowship in an informal, lay-led setting. \r\n\r\nThe military ministry sparked by Trotter continued to flourish in Great Britain for decades, but it wasn't until the late 1930s that the seeds of Trotter's prayer union would make it to America. While aboard a ship bound for Palestine, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Hayes A. Kroner, who had been under deep conviction by the Holy Spirit during the voyage, met a British brigadier who was a member of the British Officers' Christian Union (now Armed Forces' Christian Union). Over time, Kroner felt compelled to establish an Officers' Christian Union in the United States, and in 1939, he returned to the States with the encouragement of the British OCU to start an American OCU. Kroner led a small Washington, D.C.-based Bible study for a few years, and in 1943 he and others formally established the American OCU.\r\n\r\nIn 1972, under the direction of Executive Director Paul Pettijohn, the Officers' Christian Union was renamed Officers' Christian Fellowship. However, the purpose of OCF hasn't changed—OCF exists to glorify God by uniting Christian officers for biblical fellowship and outreach, equipping and encouraging them to minister effectively in the military society—and the hunger of Captain John Trotter felt so long ago continues to be satisfied through local OCF fellowship groups and throughout the body of OCF today.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nOCF AT A GLANCE\r\nThe heart of the ministry is the local OCF fellowship.\r\n\r\nFounded in 1943 during World War II\r\n17,500 members and growing\r\nEmboldens service men and women in their faith\r\nEquips them to be the leaders God has called them to be\r\nEncourages them and their families as they run their race in uniform\r\nHelps them engage others through their Christian witness and service\r\nBible study opportunities\r\nSupport and prayer for members and families while deployed\r\nWherever members are assigned, they are never alone—OCF is there.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Officers' Christian Fellowship of the United States of America
Board of directorsas of 06/27/2023
COL Paul Schumacher, USA (Ret.)
LTC Stephen Schmidt, USA
LCDR Gordon A Hood, USCG
COL Robert L Jassey, USA (Ret)
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
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Race & ethnicity
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Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
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