7,000 Are Called to Mission at Urbana 25 Conference in Phoenix

January 1, 2026

Phoenix, Arizona –– 7,000 students, mission organization and church leaders, and InterVarsity alumni and staff gathered for the 2025 Urbana missions conference, held in Phoenix for the first time, December 28 through 31, 2025. 

“How do we live into the imagination God has given us to take the gospel into the world?” Executive Director, Mark Matlock, asked the audience on the first night of the conference.

Filling the Phoenix Convention Center, Gen Z students came to the conference excited to learn how they might be part of God’s global mission just as previous generations have since 1946. While the core of Urbana’s decades-long vision remained, recently appointed Christianity Today CEO Dr. Nicole Martin called it an “inflection point,” a refrain repeated throughout the conference.

On the last night, as attendees welcomed in a new year, 42% signed their commitment to surrender their will for their lives to explore how God might use them to accomplish his global mission. Almost half defined a tangible next step toward living into God's mission. Additionally, 800 made decisions to follow Jesus for the first time or recommitted their lives to Jesus. 

Other Urbana 25 speakers included Dr. Ed Stetzer, Soong-Chan Rah, and Lisa Pak. Jon Tyson, Australian pastor who now leads Church of the City New York, walked attendees through expositions of the Book of Jonah, while Egyptian professor Dr. Anne Zaki led “spiritual formation moments” each morning. 

A topical theme that emerged at Urbana 25 was holistic evangelism, one that focuses on both demonstration and proclamation. 

“The great commission and the grand commandments aren’t two separate entities but constitute the whole gospel,” prayed Bread for the World CEO Eugene Cho.

As in previous Urbanas, missions agencies, seminaries, and nonprofit organizations met students in the Mobilization Hub, an opportunity for attendees to connect their passions, academics, and skills with potential future vocational pursuits. Afternoon seminars gave attendees the chance to learn more about topics such as Bible translation, medical missions, and discerning one's vocational calling.

"Coming to a place that is packed full of people that are on fire and love God and want to do his work in the world is really exciting,” said Jonah, student at Wesleyan University. “It’s motivating to continue to do that work and to dream bigger –– to imagine larger things than I had before." 

For more information, visit Urbana.org.

For Immediate Release
Contact Christy Chappell Belkin at 608.443.3671 or via email.