Westmont, IL—It’s only open for five days, but with over 900 unique titles and 30,000 square feet, the largest Christian missions-focused bookstore in the world will soon be open for business. The venue is Urbana 09, InterVarsity’s twenty-second student missions conference held December 27–31, 2009, at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri. The triennial conference includes the InterVarsity Press–sponsored Urbana Bookstore, which features IVP titles as well as books from other publishers.
IVP authors Shane Claiborne (Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers) and Brenda Salter McNeil (A Credible Witness) will be keynote speakers for the conference, while books by James Choung (True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In) and Kent Annan (Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle) will be featured as “Books of the Day” and sold at deep discounts. Seminar speakers include Ben Lowe (Green Revolution), Andrew Marin (Love Is an Orientation), Julie Clawson (Everyday Justice) and John Perkins (Welcoming Justice). Several authors will be doing book signings in the store.
Since InterVarsity’s first student missions conference in 1946, more than 240,000 people have been challenged to participate in missions work. Many who are on the mission field today are there because they first attended an Urbana. This year, over 18,000 delegates are expected to take part in what Billy Graham has called “one of the most powerful, stimulating forces in missions for nearly 50 years.”
Founded in 1947 as an extension of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, InterVarsity Press serves those in the university, the church and the world by publishing thoughtful Christian books that equip and encourage people to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord in all of life. Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, InterVarsity Press is made up of three lines of books: IVP Academic, which includes texts, commentaries and dictionaries by leading Christian scholars; IVP Books, made up of general titles on a wide variety of topics such as Christian living, prayer and evangelism, and also the Likewise and Formatio imprints; and IVP Connect, comprising over 150 unique Bible study guides, as well as resources for group leaders. InterVarsity Press resources are sold worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages. Visit InterVarsity Press online at www.ivpress.com.
