North Central Regional Meeting 2026
NEW LOCATION!!
Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College
Saturday, March 14, 2026; 8am to 4pm
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN!!
Over 40 papers to be presented!
One plenary session featuring Rochelle Scheuermann!
Special anthropology track featuring:
Bob Priest, Steven Ybarrola, Kersten Priest, Mike Rynkiewich, Sue Russell, and Manuel Rauchholz!
Seven break-out rooms!
Lunch and coffee included in the registration fee!
Registration begins at 8am; Welcome and Plenary Session starts promptly at 8:30am.
Free parking available right next to the Billy Graham Center; enter through the “Barrows Auditorium Entrance”
If you wish to stay overnight in a hotel near the Wheaton College/Billy Graham Center campus, using the preferred Wheaton College rates, please use the Wheaton College Travel Portal here: https://campustravel.com/university/wheaton-portal/
Theme:
Theological Anthropology
for Missional Engagement
Theological anthropology is central to missiological reflection and practice, since acts of gospel witness, service, and cultural engagement all rest on assumptions about human identity, dignity, and destiny. In a rapidly changing world—marked by shifting views of spirituality, ethnicity, gender, technology, and ecology—the church must embrace a biblically faithful and missionally engaged understanding of the imago Dei. This year’s Evangelical Missiological Society Conference invites reflection on the meaning of being human and on how the doctrine of the imago Dei shapes evangelism, discipleship, community, and global mission. Together we will ask: How do theological anthropology and Christian responses to debates about personhood and identity inform the theory and practice of mission?
Plenary Speaker:
Rochelle Scheuermann, PhD
“Disability, Imago Dei, and the Mission of the Church”
Larry W. Caldwell
lcaldwell@kairos.edu
605.951.2020
The North Central Region covers the following states:
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- South Dakota
- Wisconsin
Rochelle Scheuermann (PhD Intercultural Studies, TEDS), is Assistant Dean of Ministry & Evangelism for the Litfin Divinity School at Wheaton College where she also serves as Doctor of Ministry Program Director and Associate Professor of Evangelism & Leadership. Rochelle has been active in EMS since 2008, serving in a variety of roles from North Central Regional Vice President, to more recently as EMS President (2022-2024) and JEMS editor (2024-2025). She is a global co-catalyst for the Lausanne Movement’s Disability Concerns Network, is an advisory editor for Koinonia Journal and on the advisory boards for Koinonia Inclusion Network and Can Do Kids International. Her areas of research interest include disability and the church and the intersection of preaching and culture. She is author of Disability and Evangelism: The Good News of the Fullness of God’s Kingdom (Forthcoming in April 2026, IVP Academic), co-author of the textbook, Preaching in the Contemporary World (2006, Global University); and is co-editor of Not Forgotten: Women Amid Global Crisis (2025, FirstFruits), Communication in Mission: Global Opportunities and Challenges (2022, William Carey Library), and Controversies in Mission: Theology, People, and Practice of Mission in the 21st Century (2016, William Carey Library). In 2022 she received a Knox Fellowship Award for Research in Evangelism for her article “Apologetics and Disability: Reframing Our Response to the Question of Suffering.”