This past week, over 1000 Christian leaders — in both mission agencies and churches — gathered in Orlando at the fall Missio Nexus fall conference. With the theme of “Echo” (echoing the Gospel across the ages and continents, I (Doug) suppose?), a half-dozen plenary speakers and a myriad of workshop leaders shared a wealth of best practices and resources in multiple tracks and topics. (Click “Read More” to see our entire review *and* pick up on their free bonus – that’s available to you as a member *or* non-member, by the way.) Like most conferences, many of us enjoyed the networking most of all – but Missio Nexus is aware of that. So they provided a ton of formats and functions to facilitate that process. But I’ll also be honest: The sessions all seemed top-notch at this gathering. I can honestly say that I came away from two workshops with *major* changes I can’t wait to implement. If you’re not taking part in Missio Nexus — what are you thinking? (haha – I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.) Ted Esler, the Director, is wildly successful at thinking outside the box — and seeing through the fog of *today* to help us all see a more effective *tomorrow*. But in a way, it’s not fair. You see, he cheats. He has a secret weapon: His wife. Annette Esler is the Event Coordinator for their fall conference and you can see her handiwork throughout. Every meal (and most of them come with the conference registration, by the way) was downright delicious. The setup just *invites* meeting new people – because it’s all done in the same giant ballroom. The sound system is always perfect. The worship leaders were beyond great. And there was even a Broadway actor who performed the entire book of Philippians word-for-word! I’m telling you – There’s no way I’d waste money on Disneyworld when I could go to *this*. My suggestion is – *run* (don’t walk) to learn more about the 2026 conference at https://missionexus.org/event/the-2026-mission-leaders-conference/ today.
By the way — free bonus — on top of all that, Missio Nexus has developed a free, 5-minute Church Missions Assessment to help churches understand how their staff and congregation view global missions. Get insights into knowledge, perspectives, and priorities—and receive a practical guide with next steps to grow missions engagement. We contacted Missio Nexus, in case you’re interested, to see what happens with this information. And guess what – they don’t sell your information or pass it on to *anyone*. The Church Relations guy will contact your church *once*, to see if you’d like any assistance in understanding the information – and that’s it. The survey is awesome – just 14 questions. And because the survey starts by asking whether the responder is staff or constituent, you can also use the survey as a great reading on your *staff’s* missions temperature as well. And best of all, at the end, the survey asks the responder if there is any interest in *serving* as a missionary. If the responder answers yes, the church missions leader is informed – and no one else. (We’ve encouraged Missio Nexus to state these disclaimers in a privacy statement on the Questionnaire screen just to reassure participants.) The wild thing is – Missio Nexus is providing this service completely free of charge to members *and* non-members — which is wild! (Thank you Missio Nexus!) This is an *awesome* service. Check it out: https://missionexus.org/church-missions-assessment/.
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