Preparing your heart for Urbana 03
Urbana 03—a calling and a community
“Thanks, God, but no thanks!”
Urbana: what’s keeping you from going?
Worship at Urbana
Need Money for Urbana?

Preparing your heart for Urbana 03
by Teresa Buschur

Now that you’ve decided to attend Urbana, how do you prepare for the trip? Just as you make sure you have enough money and warm clothes, you also might consider preparing your heart for what you will receive on your journey. Pray now for what God wants to show you through Urbana 03 and what you can bring back to your campus that will reflect God’s love.

Students attend Urbana hoping to discover God’s purpose for their lives. During quiet time, listen for what God may want you to learn from the Bible studies, worship and speakers throughout the convention. Urbana will be an opportunity for you to consider whether God is calling you into missions work or another vocational path. In selecting which seminars to attend, ask God to lead you to those that will help determine your personal role within God’s global mission.

The Bible study found on Urbana’s web site at http://www.urbana.org/go/prayer/, will help you prepare for Urbana. As you study God’s Word, focus your prayers for the convention around what God is teaching you. Bible study is an excellent way to prepare for Urbana because the character of God is shown through his interaction with people in the Scriptures. Just as you need to know the personality traits of a friend before taking his or her advice, you also need to understand God’s character to allow him to work in your life. As you spend time in God’s Word, you’ll be able to explore and discover the character of God.

Before you go, pray for God to open up or confirm a specific ministry to be involved in, whether worldwide or on campus. Seek God to determine which seminars would be most useful to attend. Be open to how God may want to use you in building his kingdom.

Prayer is a powerful tool in preparing your heart for Urbana. During the convention, you will explore the will of God for your life, both individually and as a part of the student community. He will speak; will you be listening?

Urbana 03—a calling and a community
by Paul Grant

Urbana is almost here! Thousands of students have registered, and thousands of little details are being worked out. As someone on the Urbana 03 staff team, I am delighted to help give the gift of this convention to students. Years of planning, prayer and work culminate on that first day, December 27.

Imagine yourself at the first general session that evening. Thousands of students like you fill the Assembly Hall with joy! And you listen, worship Jesus, and pray for his supremacy in your heart, and finally, much later, you go to bed ready to hear from God.

Then the week proceeds, and you remain joyous, but now you are getting exhausted. You go to this workshop, attend that seminar, have ten deep, soul-searching conversations a day, and you sleep just four hours some nights, all while fighting off a cold.

In its scale and energy, Urbana is like an uncapped fire-hydrant, a tremendous stream that can shoot high into the sky: the water pressure is spectacular, but unless it’s contained in a hose and strategically guided, it won’t do much of anything. In the same way, you might never again see such a beautiful and powerful assembly as Urbana, but unless you strategically plan your time at the convention, it will mean nothing much in the big picture of your life.

It needn’t be this way. Thousands of people’s lives have been changed at an Urbana convention over the past half-century, and many InterVarsity chapters owe their existence to students who went to Urbana and returned looking to share the good news on campus. Not only can Urbana change your individual life, it can also change your chapter. It will take more work, but the benefits are potentially greater.

Here are some pointers for channeling that fire hydrant into a hose you can direct more effectively toward your chapter’s goals.

• Consider yourself sent as part of a team. Urbana is possible because the North American church is committed to sending students: you are part of a larger team, the church, that is investing in you. As expensive as it may seem, Urbana is actually heavily subsidized by the fund raising efforts and the donations of thousands of believers.
• Our faith is always meant to be lived in community. When you go to Urbana, you are called a “delegate.” You are representing a community—your InterVarsity chapter and perhaps your home church. That community exists not for your entertainment or comfort, though those may be real attributes of your chapter. Rather, Christian community is a gift from God—an answer to Jesus’ prayer that we may be united. Go to Urbana as a community, not just a collection of individuals. Throughout the convention, ask yourselves how you will serve the community through what you’re learning.
• As a team of delegates from your chapter, discuss your goals in advance. Pray together and share why you’re going and what you hope to gain. Some students may not have put much thought into their motives and goals for going to Urbana. That’s where you as a leader come in: merely having this conversation will help you increase Urbana’s value to your chapter. Brainstorm about how Urbana can be used to transform your campus. Set some simple and straightforward goals for the convention. Then pray some more.
• Use MSearch in advance. The exhibition halls are big. What initially looks like a trade show, with hundreds of students trudging past booths that all start to look alike, is really a big room full of great people, with incredible experience and passion for seeing God’s name glorified throughout the world. The trick is getting these people to meet each other. MSearch at www.urbana.org/ns.ms.main is one avenue. Fill out an interest and skills inventory, and the software will recommend exhibitors for you to visit at the convention. Go to these agencies’ websites, and get an idea of who they are. Then, when you visit the exhibition halls, you will be able to find the right people for you (not necessarily the exhibitors with the fanciest freebies).
• Pool your resources. Time is precious at Urbana. You can’t do it all. Designate “specialists” from your chapter to attend a set of seminars and workshops on a given topic. For example, if you have a lot of South Asian international students on your campus, designate one person to use Urbana to gain knowledge on reaching these students. Designate others to “study” justice, campus evangelism, how to use science degrees in missions, or other topics. When you return from Urbana, draw on these students’ new insights.
• Debrief as a group afterward. As chapter leaders, you have influence and responsibility extending beyond your logistical assignments in the chapter. Younger students value your opinion. As a leadership team, plan on making post-convention appointments with every student who went to Urbana. Debrief their experience, learn how God was calling them or whether they got what they hoped for out of the convention. Ask them what they learned and how they think the lessons of Urbana can be applied to your campus.
• Talk to your staff worker. InterVarsity staff have a broad understanding of what takes place at these conventions and are an invaluable resource. Include your staff as you make a plan for using Urbana to reach your campus for Christ.

Urbana can be the most significant five days of your entire college years, but it can just as easily devolve into nothing more than a fun time. It depends on your stewardship of this tremendous moment in time. A lot people are praying for you. God bless!

“Thanks, God, but no thanks!”
by Shelley Soceka

Have you ever said no to God? Moses did. Jonah did. I did. I was a graduating senior with a major in sociology and a minor in InterVarsity (you know the type). It was a rather unemployable package. Well, I’m not a very ambitious person, so when people asked me what I was going to do when I graduated, it was easy to answer, “I don’t know!” and mean it. I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do. My dream job was being a church secretary. Go figure. But God had other plans.

You might say I received a direct calling. Actually, it was a phone call. The voice on the other end was a national administrator with InterVarsity in Madison, Wisconsin. He was looking for a secretary. My staff worker told him I’d be a good fit for the job. He was right.

Was I ecstatic at this job offer? No. Was I jumping at the chance to leave my hometown and serve God in a city where anti-war radicals were bombing the campus? No. Instead, I sat on my bed and told God I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave my friends and family and everything comfortable and move to a place where everything was new and strange. Okay, so I’m not very adventurous, either. My spiritual instincts were strong enough to know that God was calling me to go, but that did not change my heart. I just didn’t want to do what God was calling me to do.

So I turned to the Scriptures. I read Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want . . . .” It didn’t help at all. My heart was paralyzed by the thought that God was going to make me do something I didn’t want to do. So I prayed. I said, “Lord, if you really want me to do this, use Psalm 23 in a way that I can truly hear you.”

After a week of turmoil, I went to church on Sunday. Guess what text of the sermon was. Psalm 23. Again I heard those words, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. . . .” I sat in the pew and sobbed. The Lord was reminding me that he is my Shepherd, that he will take care of me, and that I don’t need to be afraid. I was truly sorry that I had doubted him. By hesitating to accept his call, I was putting at risk his greater plan for my life. I knew there was a new community of friends and family awaiting me, and infinite blessings, if I would simply obey and go.

When I was cleaning out my room and packing up, I found a file labeled “Urbana” from the convention I had attended the previous December. Every delegate had received a printout listing job opportunities with mission agencies based on a questionnaire of interests and talents. Right between the not-very-appealing listings for “Youth Worker with Salvation Army” and “Trans-World Radio Office in Swaziland” was an item that caught my attention. It said, “Secretary, IVCF, Madison, Wisconsin.” At Urbana, I had circled it and written “No way!” at the top. I chuckled at the irony of this pre-call of God, and my immediately negative response. Now, a semester later, he had my full attention. This time he also had my willing heart. Like the bride at the altar, I said, “Yes!” with joy, and entrusted my future to the One most worthy of having it.

Urbana: what’s keeping you from going?
by Kristine Whitnable

You’ve just seen the Urbana 03 promotional video. You’re thinking of going to the convention, but there are all sorts of reasons why you really can’t—like the cost, or being with your family for Christmas break. However, if God is expecting you at Urbana, a way can be made for you to get there.

If you are concerned that you just don’t have the money, God understands. He knows how difficult it is for us to make financial decisions. But he does have vast resources available to fulfill his purposes. If it is his purpose that you attend Urbana, the lack of money does not have to be a determining factor. In fact, your faith may be strengthened as you see God supply your fees (see also the side bar on page 21).

“But,” you might say, “the convention is right in the middle of Christmas break.” You don’t really want to take time away from your family, and your parents expect you to spend time with them. Aren’t we supposed to honor our parents? Indeed we are, but the first commandment is to honor the Lord your God. Pray about it! He has been known to change people’s minds.

Well, okay, family issues can be addressed. But perhaps you don’t really want to move overseas and preach the gospel. Maybe you’ve already decided where your life is headed, so you don’t want to take up the seating space of someone who is more open to a call to missions work. But, you know Jesus loves you and wants the best for you. That may mean he wants you to spend five days with thousands of other young people, lifting your voice in joyous praise under the direction of inspiring worship leaders, listening to godly Bible expositors, and getting to know people from all over the world as you listen to the Spirit of God. You might be surprised.

God has called many people to his service through Urbana over the years. Maybe this is the year he will call you. If God is prodding you, take the first step of obedience and register for Urbana 03.

—Teresa Buschur, Paul Grant, Shelley Soceka and Kristine Whitnable all serve at InterVarsity’s National Service Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Worship at Urbana
by Krista-Dawn Kimsey, Urbana 03 worship team

I am excited to partner with the Urbana 03 worship team in creating a multicultural worship experience that gives glory to God through the diverse expressions of a few worship cultures. This team is made up of IVCF staff from all over North America who have been molded by different worship cultures. Our ethnicity, nationality, economic status and church upbringing are only a few of the elements that make this team diverse. Our desire is to honor the gifts God has planted in each culture and lead out of those strengths at Urbana. So far the experience has been rich, joyful and sometimes tiring from its complexity.

God is leading me into greater freedom in worship as I step into the African-American, Asian and Latino worship cultures. The words of the gospel songs are becoming my personal testimony as I learn to offer my intellect and all my emotions in singing the truth over and over again. I have been challenged to surrender more fervently all that I have to God as I worship alongside my Asian friends whose families live daily by the cultural value of sacrifice. I am learning to broaden my understanding of worship from just my personal expression to God; now I recognize that I am in a community that is moving with God. In Spanish, I can celebrate being a part of God’s family and his reign, and even sing with my eyes open as I do it! My brothers and sisters from different cultures have enriched my worship of the one God who is over all. I am indebted to them. As we worship at Urbana, we will enrich each other through our diversity in praising the Lord.

—Krista-Dawn is the worship team leader for Urbana 03. (See the related article on page 27 as well.)

Need Money for Urbana?

1. Pray about it. God answers prayers.
2. Save. Consider living more frugally between now and Urbana.
3. Earn more. Get a part time job or if you already have one, take on a few more hours.
4. Seek support. Contact people who would be willing to support you in prayer and possibly financially as an investment in the kingdom of God.
5. Ask your church. Ask them to support you.
6. Plan chapter activities. Organize some fund raising events as a chapter.
7. Contact your staff member. Scholarships may be available.

These and other ideas are discussed in depth in “Paying for Urbana” at http://www.urbana.org/u2003.payingfor.cfm.