Madison, WI, October 20, 2004 — Jim Tebbe, InterVarsity Vice-President and Director of Missions, will plan an innovative program for Urbana 06 at its new location in downtown St. Louis, Missouri in December 2006. He said that changing Urbana is an exciting opportunity to further the convention’s unique legacy in North America and around the world.
“I believe a new location gives Urbana a different lens through which to see God’s heart for the world,” Tebbe said. “A new venue helps us explore new possibilities and redesign the event with fresh vision and energy.” InterVarsity will continue encouraging students and faculty to grow in love for God, God’s Word, God’s people of every ethnicity and culture, and God’s purposes in the world.
The reasons that drove the change include: greater program efficiency and creativity, increased potential for growth, and the desire to offer a better student mission convention!
The first InterVarsity Student Mission Convention was held in Toronto in 1946. All subsequent InterVarsity student mission conventions have been held on the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana campus. Urbana 06 general sessions will be held in the Edward Jones Dome, a sports arena which has also hosted such religious groups as the ELCA Youth and Joyce Meyer Ministries as well as separate events featuring Pope John Paul II and evangelist Billy Graham.
Urbana 06 hopes to include a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Haystack Prayer Meeting, a student gathering that marked the beginning of the modern missions movement in North America. Tebbe is confident that the emphases of the Word, the world, and prayer, will continue to be the hallmarks of future Urbana conventions.
The four objectives of Urbana will remain the same. They are to:
• Declare the biblical basis of missions.
• Call students to God’s mission (exemplified by the Latin term missio Dei).
• Inform students on the current state of global missions.
• Motivate students to participate in global and cross-cultural missions.
InterVarsity employs 880 field staff working with 832 student chapters on 564 campuses across the United States. Additional staff work at InterVarsity’s National Service Center in Madison, Wisconsin, InterVarsity camps, and at InterVarsity Press in Downers Grove, Illinois. InterVarsity is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in 150 countries.
For local contacts, or more information contact Media Coordinator Gordon Govier by phone at 608/274-9001, ext. 499; or by email
