The Emerging Christian Scholars (ECS) Conference and Journal was co-founded by Obadiah Mariona and Dr. Matt Stanton. In 2025, they began discussing the need students had in growing in their academic journey. One of these felt needs was the ability to not only write, but present and publish an academic paper. While most papers are submitted to a professor for a grade, excellent papers should be shared with the wider community of scholarship. Such an avenue does not currently exist in Canada for post-secondary students in Christian education. Thus, ECS was born. ECS provides students of all levels the ability to grow on their academic journey by providing them the opportunity to present and publish their academic work across a variety of disciplines. This is for BA, MA/ MDIV, and PHD level students. Students can join ECS and present their papers to their peers thereby furthering the scholarship being done in their field. Then, their papers can be submitted for publication with an academic journal so that they can be shared with a wider international audience. ESC isn't simply an organization, it's a movement: a movement created by and developed for the emerging Christian scholar. Join the movement by attending the conference in September for ECS 2026!