Update on the 2023 Mission Leaders Conference
This year’s Missio Nexus Mission Leader’s Conference took place in Orlando, Florida from September 27-29, 2023. Thankfully, there wasn’t a hurricane during it like we encountered last year! The theme was “Shift – Rapid Social Transformation and the Gospel.”
One of the plenary speakers, Sam George, spoke on migration and how it is changing the nature of global mission. More people are moving from their historical place of origin than ever before, and this is creating unprecedented opportunities to share the gospel with people who come from otherwise closed nations. If you want to learn more, you can watch Sam’s plenary talk here. It’s 30 minutes long and worth every minute of your time!
It was a very busy conference for me! This year, I coordinated around 10 communications workshops geared for mission agency staff serving in communications. While four of the workshops were presented in a small pre-conference program, the ones taking place during the main event were all packed out – more than 200 people attended them.
I also presented two workshops myself. One wasn’t even connected to communications! In collaboration with James Covey, a counselor serving with Wycliffe, I co-presented a workshop on trauma-informed HR.
At this event, Geoff Whiteman and I were finally able to hold copies of a book we co-edited: “Essentials for People Care and Development” (an anthology on missionary care). I announced the launch of book to the around 2000 people at the conference. The copies available for sale there sold out quickly.
I also did my annual plug for EMQ during the conference. I jokingly called it my “2 minutes of fame!” EMQ has been around for a long time, but awareness of its availability has waned. Each time I do an EMQ schpeel, I see interest in EMQ increase.
Whew! This was a super busy conference. Next year I’ll be giving myself more breathing room. But I was grateful for all the opportunities.
Gifts given to my ministry helped cover costs for my participation in this event. Thank you for making this possible!
