Tom Lin was welcomed to his new office at InterVarsity’s National Service Center this week, and InterVarsity’s journey to Urbana 12 is now officially underway. Tom is InterVarsity’s new Vice President for Missions and Director of Urbana. Urbana 12 will be InterVarsity’s 23rd Student Missions Conference, and held in St. Louis, MO, December 27-31, 2012.
“I’m excited about Urbana 2012,” Tom said. Rob Knight, Urbana 09 Operations Director, and Nikki Toyama-Szeto, Urbana 09 Program Director, are on board for Urbana 12. Other key Urbana manager positions are being filled. Only one major role remains open, recruitment director. “We’re building a strong team for 2012,” he said.
The scripture that will guide planning for Urbana 12 will be announced soon. “That strongly shapes Urbana,” Tom said. Urbana 12 will also be shaped by the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, held last October in Cape Town, South Africa.
“We’re still in a discernment period,” Tom said. “Part of our preparation is discerning what God is doing around the world and in InterVarsity USA. Lausanne is one of those pieces, along with conversations that are happening among other global missions agencies and networks that we are a part of.”
Bringing Campus Experience to Missions
Tom is the first missions department director in several decades to have field experience as an InterVarsity staff member. “My call was to student ministry at Urbana 93,” he said. Between 1994 and 2001 Tom helped plant new InterVarsity chapters at Harvard University and Boston University. More recently he served as Regional Director for InterVarsity’s Central Region. “With that experience I believe I am a little closer to what North American students are going through and what their challenges are.”
Tom has also been a missionary, helping to establish an evangelical student movement in Mongolia between 2002 and 2006, when he served as the country director for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Mongolia. “That experience helps me understand what we’re calling students to,” he said.
Students are Committing to Missions
Results of a survey of Urbana 06 and Urbana 09 participants were released at InterVarsity’s national staff conference in January, tracking Urbana participants expectations and attitudes before and after both events. The study indicated a higher level of engagement, concern and intention for Urbana 09 participants, as the graph below indicates.
“Our hope is that God is doing something and that there really is a harvest that’s plentiful,” Tom said. “We hope the next few Urbanas will continue to see that.”
Tom often tells people that he sees InterVarsity as a missions organization. He’s excited about the challenges and opportunities available in his new job. “There’s a tremendous amount of synergy between what we do in collegiate ministries, in the field where I used to work, and all of the work we try to do globally, in terms of impacting student movements and impacting cities around the world. I’m excited about that synergy and the opportunity for integration,” he said.
top photo: Tom Lin (left) is welcomed to his new office by Chuck Hohnbaum. Chuck served as interim Vice President and Director of Missions in the time between last summer’s departure of Jim Tebbe and Tom’s arrival on February 1st.
