2025 NORTHEAST REGIONAL CONFERENCE

University of Valley Forge
1401 Charlestown Road
Phoenixville, PA 19460
Saturday, March 29
9am to 3pm.
Registeration is now open!
Our plenary speaker is Dr. Ed Smither
John Stott’s Legacy for Ecclesiology and Global Mission
John Stott (1921-2011) is remembered as a preacher, author, and mission network leader, especially through his leadership in the Lausanne Movement and as a speaker at gatherings like Urbana. Few individuals influenced twentieth-century global evangelicalism more than Stott. A committed evangelical, Stott was also a priest in the Church of England—a church with bishops, creeds, canons, and liturgy. In this paper, I show how Stott navigated being what he called an “Anglican evangelical.” How did Stott serve in these ecclesial structures while also contributing to global evangelicalism? What was his guiding theology of mission about ecclesiology and mission and what can be recovered for mission today?
Dr. Ed Smither serves as Professor of Intercultural Studies and History of Global Christianity and Dean of the School of Missions and Intercultural Ministry at Columbia International University. Before entering the world of higher education, he served for 14 years in intercultural ministry in North Africa, France, and the USA. Since, 1999, he’s been married to his wife Shawn and they have three kids: Brennan, Emma, and Eve. He enjoy cycling the backroads of northwest Columbia, drinking bold coffee, and listening to modern rock and old hymns.

Submitting a Proposal
Proposals for the Northeast Region must be submitted to the Northeast Vice President Dr. Alan Totire at northeast@emsweb.org, by Friday, January 24, 2025 and should include the following:
- Title of proposal showing connection to annual theme
- 200-300 word abstract summarizing paper to be presented
- Name, email, and institution/mission/group you represent
You will be notified about whether or not your proposal has been accepted by Feb 1, 2025.
Accepted proposals are to be developed into papers of 4500-7000 words in length and use Chicago Turabian author-date citation format. Some papers presented at the EMS regional meetings will be
invited to be presented at the annual EMS meeting to be held in Dallas in the Fall of 2025, leading to the possibility of being published as a chapter in the EMS Annual Compendium for 2026.
Our regional meeting is planned to be held on the campus of the University of Valley Forge
on Saturday, March 29th.
We will also provide a Zoom link for those who present or attend virtually.
Rev. Alan Totire, PhD
University of Valley Forge
northeast@emsweb.org
atotire86@gmail.com
The Northeast Region covers the following states:
Connecticut
Delaware
Maine
Massachusetts
Maryland
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont