Urbana 09 News Release #8
For Immediate Release
(Madison, WI) — College students from across the country and around the globe will be traveling to St. Louis in December for Urbana 09, InterVarsity’s twenty-second Student Missions Conference. Many participants will be inspired to dedicate their lives to God’s service. Some will answer the call to the mission field. And some will earn college credits.
Like previous Urbana conferences, Urbana 09 will pack nearly a semester’s worth of information and experience into one five-day week. Professors at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, and Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, will use Urbana 09 as a formal educational experience.
The Trinity class is Global Christianity in the 20th and 21st Century. It can be taken for graduate or undergraduate credit. According to professor Richard Cook, who will be teaching the course, “The class will provide a broad overview of the significant shift of the center of Christianity from the West to Asia, Africa, and Latin America.”
The Carthage class is offered as part of J-term—three weeks of intensive focus on a single topic during the month of January. Carthage students who attend Urbana 09 and sign up for Urbana09 – Religion in America will receive four credits. They will keep a journal during the conference and reflect on what they have learned.
“Urbana is a catalytic event and somewhat entertaining, but it is also highly educational,” said Urbana director Jim Tebbe. “Attendees see the gospel woven into arts and culture. They worship with people from more than 100 countries and study Scripture together. They have a chance to meet the authors of books they’ve read, ask mission agency representatives what’s happening on the frontlines, and learn to pray in fresh ways.”
“Anyone who would like to give an educational gift to a college student will find an Urbana 09 registration a truly unique idea,” Tebbe added.
Urbana 09 will be held at the Edward Jones Dome and the America’s Center in St. Louis, December 27-31, 2009. Registration information and additional details can be found online at www.urbana09.org.
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is an interdenominational ministry to university students in the United States, with over 32,000 students involved on 550 campuses nationwide. InterVarsity is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, which is advancing Christian student work in 150 countries. The first InterVarsity student missions conference was held in Toronto in 1946.
For more information contact:
Christy Chappell
Urbana Communications Director
608/443-3671
