Southeast Region

2027 EMS Conference Theme:

Leading in Missions: Diverse Voices and Practice in Global Witness

Mission leadership profoundly influences the way the gospel is communicated, communities are served, local leaders are developed, and disciples are formed. Yet the leadership models in mission settings are often shaped by cultural assumptions, institutional traditions, and power dynamics. These may not adequately reflect—or effectively serve—the people, places, and communities where mission is carried out, or advance God’s kingdom purposes.

The 2027 Conference theme explores leadership in missions as a practical, theological, historical, intercultural, and organizational concern. The conference welcomes a wide range of perspectives on how leadership can strengthen faithful witness, expand participation in God’s mission, cultivate healthy partnerships, and contribute to lasting gospel impact. It honors all leaders who labor quietly and consistently for the extension of God’s kingdom in local contexts and beyond.

We particularly invite reflection on leaders and communities whose contributions have been overlooked, underrepresented, or insufficiently recognized in mission history and contemporary practice. We also welcome examination of leadership approaches that emerge from, are shaped by, or are accountable to local and Majority World contexts. We are interested not only in how leaders are developed and how they lead, but also in the impact of leadership (or lack of leadership) on world evangelism.

Rather than centering the conference on debates concerning church offices, titles, or roles, the conference seeks to examine the broad sphere of missions and parachurch leadership: the people, practices, relationships, structures, and cultural assumptions that influence evangelization and the flourishing of mission leaders and the communities they serve.

Possible Paper Topics

• The influence of missions leadership on the credibility, sustainability, and local reception of Christian witness.
• Historical studies of overlooked missions leaders, including women, indigenous leaders, minorities, diaspora leaders, and non-Western missionaries.
• Women’s leadership in missions, missionary agencies, theological education, humanitarian work, missions mobilization, and parachurch ministries.
• Bias, unequal access, and institutional barriers to leadership paths within missions organizations, and in churches planted by missionaries.
• The strengths and challenges of diverse leadership teams in missions contexts.
• Leadership models emerging from Majority World mission contexts, mission agencies and networks.
• Alternative paradigms for biblical leadership as it affects world evangelization
• Leadership development, mentoring, succession planning, and care for mission leaders
• The meaning and nature of leadership in missiological scholarship

 Conference Organizers: 

Evelyn Hibbert, Geoff Hartt, Michelle Raven