Preparing for Urbana 15: Part One

By September 22, 2015
(Photo courtesy Urbana via Facebook)

(Photo courtesy Urbana via Facebook)

USA (MNN) — For most students, college life is full of difficult questions.

What do I major in? Should I transfer schools, or finish here? What will I do after graduation?

Even in a flurry of unknowns, one constant rings true for a majority of college kids: they want their lives to make a difference.

But, how could college kids possibly change the world? InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is directing students to the answers they need.

“If we challenge them to enter into the historic mission of God, [we are] tapping into who they were made to be and what God’s story is all about,” says InterVarsity’s York Moore.

Over the next few days, we’ll be sharing more about how Moore and InterVarsity are engaging the Next Generation in global missions.

Today’s focus is where mission-minded students can take their next steps: Urbana 15.

Urbana 15

urbana 15 blockgraphic

(Graphic courtesy InterVarsity)

As stated here, Urbana 15 is InterVarsity’s 24th Student Missions Conference co-hosted by InterVarsity/USA, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, and Groupes Bibliques Universitaires et Collégiaux du Canada.

The end goal of Urbana 15 is getting college students plugged into missions. But, Urbana 15 and global missions in general are about something even higher.

“When we think about missions, [it’s] more than a conference, it’s more than an event. It’s more than, even, what we do with our lives,” says Moore.

“Missions revolves around the story of God.”

Find your role in God’s story at Urbana15.

God’s story is not always an easy one to hear.

“The Church has always been persecuted,” Moore shares. “For the last 2,000 years, we [Christians] have largely been the minority, the marginalized, [and] the oppressed.

“I think we’re coming into a time in Western civilization where that’s likely to be the case.”

Each tri-annual Urbana conference has a theme, and Urbana 15’s focus is the Persecuted Church.

Urbana 15 great commission

(Graphic courtesy Urbana via Facebook)

“Learning from the Persecuted Church is part of our way of challenging students–to say, ‘Look, this is the way forward. As the darkness grows in the United States and around the world, this is the way forward,’” says Moore.

“We are entering an era in the United States where Christianity is no longer the dominant voice of culture…. That’s kind of where we [are] already, and I think it’s going to accelerate.”

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