Urbana 2000 turned a sharp corner as InterVarsity walked into the new millennium. And with it walked 20,000 students, staff, missionaries, pastors and volunteers. I was one of the staff. My daughter, a freshman this year, was one of the students.

This Urbana was my tenth. I wasn’t sure what to expect this time, other than a few new twists, par for the course in campus ministry as we seek to understand and keep up with the moving target of campus culture. But a week prior to Urbana, somewhat tired and already a little winter-weary, I finally faced a harsh truth I was hiding from: I didn’t really expect God to meet me there. Oh, I was happy to show up, maybe ride along with everybody else to turn some new corners with the Urbana 2000 program. What I didn’t expect was, on turning the corner, to run—smack!—into God. But that’s what happened. And I wasn’t alone. It happened to a lot of us.

In many ways this Urbana convention was like no other. Take worship for example. Granted, we’ve always had good singing—zesty singing, powerful singing. We’ve been led in solid prayer from the podium. Every convention has offered time for thinking and reflection. But somehow worship seemed more integral to the whole reason we were there at Urbana 2000. We started singing in the worship gatherings well before everyone had arrived. We worshiped for extended times in between platform speakers. I was a little surprised at my own willingness to join in. I was even more surprised to find myself thirsting for those times, hungering for God, willing to worship with an openness I had lost earlier in the fall. But I needn’t have been surprised; this was one of the corners God had urged us to turn. I asked Barney Ford, Director of Urbana 2000, along with Moyra Stiles, Urbana Assistant, why worship played such a key role.

“When I came into this role,” says Barney, “I heard God asking me, ‘Would you be willing to do Urbana in a way that would call the nations to worship?’ You see, I was learning that the way God is most often meeting this generation of students is when they are in worship and community together. God had been speaking to me about worship in my own life and about using Urbana to call the nations to worship, so seeing that the Holy Spirit was gifting this student generation with worship helped me understand a little more what God was doing with this ‘worship leads to mission’ idea.

“Being part of an older generation, at first I wasn’t sure why students were so easily able to meet God in worship, particularly singing, but it was very evident that they were,” says Barney. “I thought, well, maybe that’s when their ears are open, or when God chooses to speak to them, I don’t know.” But one day, as Barney and Moyra were driving to Trinity Divinity School, Barney told Moyra his observations. Moyra (still well within the age that brackets this student generation), was able to help Barney see the reason: “When students are worshiping,” she said, “that’s when they feel God loves them.” That was eye-opening for Barney, and in fact helped him to hook together the theme of Urbana—“Because God first loved us”—and his understanding that worship leads to mission as we call the nations to worship.

Barney adds, “That’s why in my initial comments the opening night I said, ‘Worship is a gift God has given your generation. You experience God’s presence and his love when you worship! And that is good. The neat thing is that there is more to it, to learn to draw your own story into his global story, to step out in risk to love the nations and to call them to worship with you.’”

Chapter leaders turned a corner at Urbana too. I got to live with a bunch of students and staff crammed into a couple of dorms for the Missions Integration Track. From chapter presidents to small-group leaders, we were four hundred strong, together for a fresh purpose: to discuss ways to take Urbana home to campus. Again, the word integral popped up. Rich Henderson, InterVarsity’s National Missions Team Leader and one of the Missions Integration Track directors at Urbana, puts it like this:

“Missions integration means more than mere participation or even influencing others. It means thinking about the mission aspect of everything we do, no matter how we slice it. In one seminar, we took every facet of chapter life—large groups, small groups, prayer meetings, retreats, social times, and we brainstormed together some practical ideas for integrating mission into every structure and aspect of life in our fellowships. And all of a sudden it became very real and tangible. The students said, ‘This is exactly what we need!’ And we’re doing this in a way that’s not just additive, but integrative. It’s not presenting missions as something new or giving a little time for a ‘missions moment’ in the large group; it’s asking how our whole large group reflects God’s heart for the nations.” Definitely a sharp corner to turn for most chapters!

The Urbana staff team has already received hundreds of letters from students. Whether describing life at home over break, sharing aspirations for their chapter or relating hopes for their own cross-cultural ministries, it’s obvious that one thing is clear to Urbana delegates: the convention was not merely an event. For many it was the start of a whole new perspective. I asked Barney, after he’d read so many letters, what he might say to students now that they’re back on campus. He responded, “I would say, your decision, whatever it was, at Urbana is not static, but dynamic. Urbana was only feeding like a tributary into what God is already doing in your life. How is God trying to love you by giving you Urbana? No matter what, God’s there and he loves you; just watch. And when I say no matter what, I mean that if you haven’t even thought about the Lord since you’ve left the ‘high’ of Urbana, or if you’ve been very faithful and yet something’s not working, or even if you’ve had a string of blessings since Urbana—no matter what your experience, God’s love doesn’t change. Look around and ask how God is trying to love you in your situation. It’s not about holding on to your Urbana experience as a past thing, it’s about responding to God’s love today.”

So the next time you’re walking to class, and you turn a corner, well, don’t be surprised if you run—smack!—into God.

Jeff Yourison is the editor for Student Leadership journal and lives in Wisconsin. He majored in astronomy at the U. of Illinois–Urbana/Champaign before joining InterVarsity staff in 1977.