Participants in Urbana 09, InterVarsity’s Student Missions Conference being held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, were encouraged to think small by Urbana director Jim Tebbe.
“God’s mission is tiny, it’s your neighborhood, it’s where you live,” he said, to open the conference on Sunday evening, December 27th.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Jim said that he wanted to communicate the message that “mission begins now.” He hopes that many of the participants will decide to lead an evangelistic Bible study with the inductive Bible study methods that they’re learning at Urbana 09.
But he also urged participants to remember the global picture. “God’s mission is bigger than you can possibly imagine; it’s gigantic,” he said.
“At this Urbana we will be inviting you to say Yes to God. Don’t take that decision lightly,” he cautioned. “Let go of your expectations and let God be God in your life, here at Urbana.”
In introducing the theme of Urbana, “He came and dwelt among us,” from John 1:14, Ramez Atallah, the general secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt, emphasized the incarnational nature of Jesus Christ. “He is God, moving into our neighborhood.”
He suggested that Christian ministry falls short when it doesn’t follow God’s incarnational example from the gospels.
“God calls us to go to others, in their context, on their terms, and regardless of their response. In the Middle East, where I live, you honor people not by inviting them but by visiting them.”
Just over 16,000 participants pre-registered for Urbana 09. At the Sunday afternoon news conference, Jim Tebbe said that the number of students attending Urbana 09 was up from previous Urbanas but other categories of participants, such as pastors and exhibitors, are down.
Urbana 09 continued in St. Louis through New Years Eve. To watch videos of the general session speakers, go to www.urbana09.org.
