Urbana '06 Expected to be the Biggest Ever
More than 200,000 people have already taken the Urbana challenge for world evangelization and this year, the 21st student missions convention is expected to be bigger than ever.
More than 200,000 people have already taken the Urbana challenge for world evangelization and this year, the 21st student missions convention is expected to be bigger than ever.
Registration has officially opened for the Dec. 27-31, 2006 conference and according to InterVarsity's Vice President for Missions and the Director of Urbana, Jim Tebbe. Opening registrant numbers and this year's new venue project the largest participation.
"We moved after [more than] 50 years to St. Louis from Illinois because we've maxed the place out so it took a lot of swallowing," said Intervarsity President Alec Hill. "Urbana is more than a place."
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The growing convention has moved to the Edward Jones Dome where attendance is no longer limited by the capacity of the University of Illinois campus. While some 20,000 people participated in the previous Urbana, organizers hope to generate a new level of interest this year.
"One of the reasons for moving was so that we would have a chance to look at our program and our content in the light of the realities of missions in the world today - 'What is this generation like?' 'What it is that God has for them in the world?’ and then 'How it is that we can respond?'" said Tebbe in a released statement.
Students will gather in the urban setting under the theme "You have a calling," which will challenge the young group to consider what it means to live a life worthy of calling. Larger tracks will be featured at the new venue, covering such global issues as AIDS and specializing in such areas as business. Speakers include Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Ray Bakke, founder of International Urban Associates in Seattle, Wash., and Ajith Fernando, national director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka.
The Urbana Student Mission Convention launched in 1946 and since then, InterVarsity has called every student generation to participate in God's mission. The conference is held triennially with university-educated Christians aged 18 to 30 years old.
