In 1967 at Urbana, Illinois a few professors of mission met together to discuss the need for dialogue, fellowship, and cooperation among evangelicals devoted to researching, publishing and instructing in areas related to the mission of the Church.

On October 3, 1968, at a meeting of the EFMA and IFMA in Winona Lake, Indiana, professors present officially formed the Association of Evangelical Professors of Missions, an organization which effectively served the purposes of mission instructors for over 20 years.

As the 1970s and 1980s progressed there was an upsurge of interest in mission studies, or missiology, as it came to be known.  As it was gaining more visibility and credibility, Christian mission itself was being reviewed and redefined by some scholars in ways that seemed incompatible to biblical mission.  An increasing number of conservative missiologists both inside and outside of the AEPM came to believe that a scholarly society committed to the Great Commission was becoming more and more necessary.  Many felt that an organization composed only of classroom teachers was too restrictive in light of the growing number of mission scholars within the churches and mission organizations.

In 1988, the late esteemed professor Donald A. McGavran wrote:

 I want to lay before you . . . a very important item.  The evangelical professors of  missions have an organization which is not really called missiology.  I think that is a grave mistake. . . .  What is really needed in North America and around the world is a society of missiology that says quite frankly that the purpose of missiology is to carry out the Great Commission.

(Personal letter to David Hesselgrave dated April 7, 1988)

Dr. McGavran's concern being widely shared, the AEPM was reorganized in November, 1990, as the Evangelical Missiological Society.

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