October Commissional Corner: EMS Conference

As part of a Special Topics course for the Fall 4 term, Dr. Mark Alexander took his class to the Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS) annual conference. EMS is an academic society whose focus is world evangelism. The topic for this year's annual conference was Educating for Contemporary Mission. MA in Global Leadership student Cody Conroy and Intercultural Studies student Haley Mathews attended the conference and agreed to share their experiences.

Cody Conroy expressed, "The EMS conference at Dallas Theological Seminary was a fantastic gathering. With so many great minds in one place, many missiologists and missionaries were able to share new developments in the field and how to integrate new teaching styles into missiological education. My biggest takeaway was witnessing the ZEAL each member of the conference had for equipping students and people groups of many different cultures to carry the gospel in their own cultural context. In this, many of the speakers and representatives carried a biblical humility that recognized the need for new approaches within theological education."

Cody continued, "Some of the biggest highlights came from the main speakers and their presentations on what God is doing outside of Western theology constructs. Many experts in the room warmly received this, as they were thankful for the conference's ability to provide a fresh encouragement to many challenges often seen in the cultural disparity of theological teaching approaches. The conference carried a very Christ-centered mantra that declared all approaches and systems of theological teaching to be subject to Christ and His reign first."

"A final promotion to the conference was its impeccable structural order. With so many fields of thought to be considered at the conference, the breakout sessions were well organized to promote excellent learning and discussion tracts for each participating member to follow according to their greatest area of interest and inquiry. I recommend the conference for any theologically hungry member of Christ's family, that they too might encounter an even broader vision to Christ's working in the nations," Cody concluded.

Haley Mathews noted, "My biggest takeaway from the conference was seeing the various fields in which missiology is utilized. I was amazed to see how these scholars, doctors, and researchers used missiology in their field of research. It was encouraging to me as an Intercultural Studies major to see how many career opportunities there are."

Haley shared, "The highlights of the conference were the breakout sessions. I loved attending each presentation to receive a new perspective, perhaps on a topic I knew nothing about. The speakers were passionate, experienced, and academic, which made them easy to listen to. My horizon of missiology was broadened due to the EMS conference, and I am thankful for it."

Haley concluded, "The conference was full of extremely experienced people, and it was a blessing to hear their perspectives. It was a great experience simply to soak up information."

Thank you, Cody and Haley, for your insight into the EMS Conference.