Rev. Dr. Stephen James Higgins serves as Vice President of Academics at Aidan Theological Seminary and as Global Executive Director of Missio Christus. Missio Christus works in four countries across three hemispheres, serving children through seniors in broken regions of the world. He is also Archdeacon of Reach Global, an Anglican Communion missionary society, and a Lutheran pastor. These current callings gather a lifetime of teaching, pastoral care, and mission leadership: forming leaders for the Church and serving people where the need is greatest.
His vocation now spans fifty-one years of ministry and business. From his first pastoral years after sensing a call in 1975 and being ordained in 1976, he has taught, preached, trained, and equipped people of every age—from children and confirmation students to university and seminary leaders. He has served within Anglican, Lutheran, Christian Church, and other Christian communities, and has worked evangelistically in non-Christian settings as well. He is known for building lasting teams and stakeholder relationships that sustain ministry over time.
Parish and missionary service have marked that whole path. He was ordained in the Christian Church in 1976, licensed as a Lutheran teaching pastor with Lutherans in Mission for Christ, and served on staff as a missionary at St. Luke’s Anglican Church under Bishop Roger Ames during his years with the International Bible Society, now Biblica. In 2023 he was ordained Anglican deacon and priest. At Bethel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs, he taught adults and rebuilt the confirmation for Junior High kids, and he continues to preach and serve as opportunity allows.
That teaching work has also been academic. He earned a B.A. from Hope International University in 1978 and a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Theology in 1987, with later postgraduate PHD in Theology/Missions. He has taught online and in person for Colorado Christian University in business and organizational leadership, Project Management, Ethics, Humanities, Worldview, and Biblical Studies, and was been approved to teach over fifty of university courses. As President of Williamson Christian College in Franklin, Tennessee, he helped the college grow its student body, renew accreditation, and strengthen its online program, added B.S. and M.A. in Organizational Leadership. He has written curriculum for Christian universities and now oversees academics at Aidan Theological Seminary.
Mission service has taken him worldwide since 1998. He has taught pastors and church leaders in Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, and the Congo; served in Haiti to rebuild a neonatal intensive care unit and orphanage and to strengthen their funding and management; taught in Switzerland and Germany on theology, worldview, faith, and business leadership; and worked in Israel and taught with Christ Church in Jerusalem, as a model for teaching the biblical story in its cultural context. Through Missio Christus and Reach Global he continues that same work among children through seniors in places the world often overlooks.
He is married to Laurie. They were married in 2022 at Bethel Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs and again at Christ Church Anglican in Jerusalem, and they share a common call to full-time ministry. Laurie travels with him nationally and overseas, including recent service in Uganda and Honduras. Together they have eight adult children and many grandchildren.