October 4-7, 2011
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
South Hamilton, MA

All Conference events are free and open to the public.  Please note that meals are not provided (except for preregistered missions organization representatives).

Keynote Speakers

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4 AT 9:40AM, KAISER CHAPEL

DOUG BIRDSALL

Executive Chair, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
Director, J Christy Wilson, Jr. Center for World Missions

Doug Birdsall is a graduate of Wheaton College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Harvard University.  He is a research scholar at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. During his final year as an M.Div. student at Gordon-Conwell, Doug and his wife, Jeanie, sensed God re-directing them to cross-cultural ministry.  Following graduation they moved to Tokyo, Japan, where they lived and worked for 20 years with Asian Access in the areas of student evangelism, church planting and leadership development.  Doug and Jeanie returned to Gordon-Conwell in the fall of 1999 to help establish the J Christy Wilson, Jr. Center for World Missions.

In 2004, Doug was appointed to serve as the Executive Chairman of the Lausanne Movement. Doug and Jeanie are re-settling on the Gordon-Conwell campus after providing leadership for the Third Lausanne Congress: Cape Town 2010. The Congress, referred to by Christianity Today as the most representative gathering of Christian leaders in history, brought together 4200 participants from 198 countries, including representatives from the World Council of Churches, the Orthodox Patriarchs, and the Vatican.  Church unity, world evangelization and global partnerships constitute the primary elements of the Birdsall’s cross-cultural ministry over the course of the last 30 years. Doug and Jeanie have three children and two grandchildren.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5 AT 9:40AM, KAISER CHAPEL

TODD AHREND

International Director, The Traveling Team

Todd Ahrend graduated from Northeastern State University, has a Masters from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Doctorate from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  He is the founder and international Director of The Traveling Team, a national missions mobilization movement.  He and his wife, Jessica, have spent over a decade traveling both nation-wide and abroad, speaking to thousands of people about involvement in world evangelization.  Todd has exposure in over sixty countries and has lived in the Middle East.  He is the author of The Abrahamic Revolution: God’s Mission in Motion and In This Generation: Looking to the Past to Reach the Present.  Todd and Jessica have three children.

THURSDAY & FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 & 7 AT 9:40AM, KAISER CHAPEL

TOM LIN

Vice President of Missions, InterVarsity
Director, Urbana Student Missions Conference

A graduate of Harvard University, Tom Lin loves planting ministries nationwide and internationally — including campus ministries on the East Coast (Boston), a Christian Foundation and high-tech start-ups on the West Coast (Silicon Valley), a “church” planting movement in the Midwest, and an indigenously-led movement overseas (Mongolia). A 2nd-generation Taiwanese American, Tom authored the first Asian American ministry book published by IVP, Losing Face, Finding Grace (1997), also published in Mandarin Chinese (2008).  Tom is also a frequent conference speaker in the U.S. and East Asia, consultant and retreat speaker for missions executives, and Vice-Chair of the Board of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Currently, Tom serves as Vice President of Missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Director of the Urbana Student Missions Conference.  He leads a world-class team which oversees short-term urban projects, long-term collaborative partnerships, recruitment and training of students and staff in missions, new global initiatives, and Urbana. He has recently been appointed Lausanne International Deputy Director for North America. Tom is married to his wife of 11 years, Nancy, and they have two daughters, Abby (6) and Olivia (4).

For more information, please contact Kristin Gelinas, Global Programs Administrator.