EMS Regional Meeting 2025 

 

Greetings! Next year’s EMS SW Regional Meeting will be held at Gateway Seminary on Friday, 4 April 2025 from 8am to 4pm. The topic is Ecclesiology and Mission. Jeff Mooney, professor of Old Testament at California Baptist University and elder at Redeemer Baptist Church in Riverside, California, will be our keynote speaker.

Lunch, which will be Persian, is provided. Vegetarian options are available with advanced notice. 

Please see the below information regarding the call for papers. Send your 250 word abstract to Phil Hopkins at philhopkins@gs.edu by February 2, 2025.

Upon acceptance of your abstract, there is a $30 registration fee. Registration information will be sent in an email.

Call for Papers – Ecclesiology and Mission

The church is the Body of Christ in the world. It is the embodiment of the gospel and commissioned to reproduce itself among all nations. Its expression is diverse and continually evolving as it interfaces with the changing world it is sent into. The church came into being as the community of Jesus’ witnesses who were commanded to go out to their neighbors, towns, cities, and the ends of the earth. It is dynamic, creative, reproducing, and courageous as its members seek to nurture life in locally reproducing ways, wherever they find themselves. 

The church is a mission community dedicated to proclaiming and teaching God’s word. It cares for and extends God’s family. Demonstrating the power of the Holy Spirit, the church brings God’s light to dark places, being a relevant societal example of holy living. It pursues God’s concerns for the world it inhabits and the communities its members are a part of. The church honors God as it affirms and encourages the diversity of all he has created. However, churches also often become institutions which struggle to retain their life-giving mission orientation.

Papers are invited on any aspect of ecclesiology and mission.