Conference, conference, conference…

With COVID restrictions lifting almost everywhere, in-person conferences have returned in force! I attended 5 this fall: Missio Nexus’s Mission Leaders Conference, the Evangelical Missiological Society Annual Conference (this was a hybrid event, so I attended online), Finishing the Task, the International Partnering Associates Summit, and the ICETE Global Consultation.

These events are important for my work for several reasons:

  1. LEARNING: They help me to stay in-tune with what is happening globally in Christian faith and missions work.
  2. NETWORKING: They help me build relationships with potential sources for consulting clients and EMQ contributors.
  3. ADVOCACY: As I talk with conference attendees, I’m able to actively promote the essential work of missions communicators and missions journalists.
  4. AWARENESS RAISING: They give opportunities for me to raise awareness about EMQ and invite people to subscribe. At two events, I was able to share about EMQ from the front.
  5. TRAINING: I was a workshop presenter at one of these events.

Let me share a few conference highlights.

Mission Leaders Conference 2022

The 2022 Mission Leaders conference in September, with the theme of “Counting the Cost,” took place during hurricane Ian. That was a rather interesting juxtaposition with the theme! I participated in this conference as a workshop presenter. I did a workshop on “How to Tell Dangerous Stories.” I also briefly presented EMQ to participants, and you can see the video of my presentation above.

Finishing the Task

I was invited to the Finishing the Task conference by the leadership of Wycliffe USA. This invitation only event included around 250 people from nearly 50 countries. The FTT network has four main areas of focus: Break-through Prayer, Bodies of Christ, Believers, and Bibles. Each has an important part to play in seeing more people worldwide follow Jesus.

This event took place in Southern California, which gave me time to visit with family and friends. During the conference, some dear former colleagues (Ron and Gloria Ryan – see photo above) came out to have lunch with me one afternoon. It’s been years since I’ve seen them! We had a wonderful visit.

One other highlight which is related to the FTT event was the chance I had to connect with people engaged in global prayer mobilization. It just so happens that I worked with many of them on the issue of EMQ that will come out in January which will have the theme of prayer. When we connected during the summer, I had no idea that we’d meet in-person at this event!

International Partnering Associates Summit

I’ve been involved with IPA since 2019, but many within IPA I’ve known for much longer. IPA is a professional association of people involved in helping the global church missionaly collaborate.

This year IPA planned their first post-COVID gathering. Unfortunately, many people were still not able to come due to COVID-related visa restrictions. That left them scrambling to find a venue that could host a much smaller group.

I asked my church if they’d be willing to host this group, and they said yes! Our group was nearly 20, coming from 5 countries. For a week we met and shared meals together at my local church in Swansea, Massachusetts. I was grateful not to have to travel for this meeting, and to be able to introduce several church members to long-time missionary colleagues.

ICETE’s Global Consultation

In mid-November, I attended the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) Global Consultation along with nearly 400 others from more than 80 nations. I connected with many people I’d never met, as well as several I’ve known for years. I also met for the first time in person with a few people who I’ve been meeting with regularly for 2+ years via Zoom.

The areas of theological education and missions have many overlaps. Many missionaries serve directly in theological education worldwide. Theological training programs and institutions often also have missionary training as a part of their offered courses.

ICETE is one of my consulting clients, so this was a wonderful opportunity to see how they are bringing theological educators together to collaborate. It was also a great opportunity to share about EMQ with so many potential contributors and subscribers.

Thank you!

My participation in these events was made possible by my financial partnership team! Your gifts provided for travel expenses and conference fees. Thank you!