American Society of Missiology
2024 ASM Call for Papers
“Mission with Children, Youth, and Young Adults”
“…the reign of God as a children's world, where children are the measure…”
The American Society of Missiology will gather at St. Mary’s College, South Bend, Indiana, from June 14 – 16, 2024. The theme for this year’s annual conference is: Mission with Children, Youth, and Young Adults. Please consider joining us!
We will convene IN PERSON. We will use the WHOVA app once again, and we look forward to the networking and ease of scheduling that this app encourages.
Registration for the Annual Meeting will open in early 2024 along with rate and housing information. We anticipate cutting-edge discussion at plenaries and organized panels, with specific opportunities for new attendee engagement. See below for the Call for Papers and types of panels and papers accepted this year.
BECOME A MEMBER BY DECEMBER 15 TO QUALIFY FOR THE TRAVEL POOL! We recognize the costs of travel are continually on the rise while professional support funds have decreased or disappeared. To encourage your participation at the ASM Annual Meeting, we offer our Travel Pool which is underutilized! You MUST BE A MEMBER for 6 months immediately prior to the Annual Meeting in order to take advantage of the Travel Pool funds. Become a member by December 15 by CLICKING HERE.
If you have questions regarding the Annual Meeting, please contact the American Society of Missiology Conference Coordinator at [email protected].
CALL FOR PAPERS
"Mission with Children, Youth, and Young Adults"
In her reflection on the Gospel stories of Jesus inviting children into the midst of his disciples (Matt 18: 1-11; Mark 9: 33-37; Luke 9: 46-48), Judith Gundry observes that the “Gospels teach the reign of God as a children's world, where children are the measure…where the small are great and the great must become small. That is, the Gospel teaching calls the adult world radically into question.”[1] The 2024 ASM conference seeks to explore this radical teaching for its missiological implications in multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary ways. Scholars and practitioners alike have a great deal to offer this conference.
Biblical studies of Christian mission might explore the historical, literary, and cultural contexts of children, youth, and young adults; the meaning of childhood and youth in the Bible; the use of childhood metaphors in the Bible; and how these could be interpreted in a variety of missiological contexts today. Presentations can also draw attention to children, youth, and young adults as potentially central to biblical and theological reflection for Christian mission. Ways the Bible has been used with children, youth, and young adults through different translation or interpretive frameworks is also a rich area for missiological reflection.
Historians of Christian mission may consider centuries-long practices of establishing colleges, mission schools, boarding schools, and orphanages, and how such institutions have been both destructive and beneficial to human flourishing. Historians may also explore the ways youth organizations have mobilized young people as missionaries in creative ways. The YMCA/YWCA, the Student Volunteer Movement, the World’s Student Christian Federation, Youth With a Mission, International World Youth Days, and campus ministries of Newman Centers or Intervarsity are just a sampling of the kinds of organizations to be explored in panels and papers.
Social Scientific analyses of Christian mission, including disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and others, could explore the diversity of cultural views of childhood and young adulthood and the missiological implications of this diversity for the church around the world. The recent development of the “anthropology of childhood” is an opportunity for missiological engagement as well. How, for example, might initiatives in Christian mission and contextualization be perceived differently when children or youth are carefully incorporated as active informants in ethnographic studies? What are the implications of world youth and young adult demographics for the future of Christian mission? What are we learning from the experience of immigrant congregations as leadership transitions to younger generations? The subfield of “digital anthropology” is also a potential area for missiological reflection that is important when youth and young adults are the focus of attention.
Theologians of Christian mission could explore contextualization efforts in diverse cultures – including the ways children, youth, and young adults are theologians. The Child-attentive Theology Movement is just one example of a global movement to promote theological reflection “with a child in the midst” with Jesus. Theologies of mission which animate young adult movements to address evangelism, peacebuilding, climate change, interfaith dialogue, short-term missions, and ecumenism would all be valuable papers or panels for this conference. Theological reflections on international development could focus on changing “child sponsorship” practices and the ways children, youth, and young adults are often victims of abuse, disease, human trafficking, and exploitation stemming from situations of impoverishment.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2024
*NEW FOR 2024*
You must be an ASM Member in order to present at the Annual Conference.
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[1] Judith M Gundry-Volf, “‘To Such as These Belongs the Reign of God’: Jesus and the Children,” Theology Today 56, no. 4 (January 2000): 480.
ASM 2024 Types of Proposals
Please direct any questions regarding the Annual Meeting to the ASM Annual Meeting Coordinator at [email protected].
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