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Urbana^® 2000
—Why I Was Never Recruited
to Urbana
Mark Kramer, writer
Madison, WI

As I search for the right words to describe how awesome Urbana® 2000 will be, to tell you how we’ll worship God in response to his sacrificial love, I’m at a loss. As I try to convey to you that we’ll explore radical avenues to participating in God’s mission, that it’s about more than “food, folks, and fun,” but rather it’s about real fellowship, healing, and spiritual nourishment; and as I encourage you to recruit friends and chapter members, I hope to somehow find the right words to depict Urbana® 2000.

Oh. Maybe I just did.

Anyway, here I sit sipping hazelnut coffee from my Urbana mug, gazing at the Urbana® 2000 sticker plastered across my lamp, and rifling through the Urbana® 2000 registration brochure filed next to my phone, and I feel a great sense of irony.

I have a confession to make. I, who would love to see you and dozens of your closest friends make a road trip to Urbana, Illinois, next December, have in fact never been to an Urbana Missions Convention. Yet I do not doubt the influence and importance of this missions gathering. The exuberant testimonies of thousands of admirable Urbana alumni are enough to convince me.

Why didn’t I go to Urbana as a student? Because I was a campus fellowship “floater,” with one campus ministry one week, another the next. Some weeks I’d attend several different worship gatherings or small groups, other weeks I’d join none. Perhaps you know students like this in your chapter—a lot of connections, but not connected. So of course I didn’t go to Urbana, I didn’t have students or staff deeply involved in my life to challenge me to consider such a thing and I didn’t have my nose in the right spots in Scripture to know Jesus’ desire to reach his lost sheep. I wasn’t aware of Urbana, much less informed about what God was doing around the world through missions. And, in all honesty, during this period of my life I probably didn’t feel very worthy of serving God in the mission field. Maybe you know students like that, too. In short, first and foremost, I didn’t go to Urbana because I wasn’t connected, but at a deeper level my life wasn’t under the discipleship of Jesus enough to prompt me to go. Without this sacrificial commitment to Jesus, no one would venture to Urbana. And that wouldn’t make for a very fun convention.

Here’s a news flash: the usual, interpersonal Urbana recruitment shtick—the initial, subtle suggestions and fliers “absent-mindedly” yet strategically left upon someone’s pile of text books, the heartfelt conversations and challenges, the prayer, the follow-up conversations—it all actually works. Repeatedly, the top reason most Urbana delegates cite for attending the convention is that someone they know personally and respect was involved in their life and encouraged them to go. Tried and true, recruitment through relationship is the key.

Specific to Urbana, then, how should you recruit? Make Urbana® 2000 integral to your entire discipleship strategy, and not just an add-on. Use the convention as a means, not an end. Though certainly many Urbana delegates are already mature followers of Christ, students all across the discipleship spectrum attend and benefit from the Convention. Count no one out. Seize this opportunity to be deliberate in discipleship, to get others connected both within the fellowship as well as to God’s heart for all people.

Present Bible studies that describe the basis for missions and stress God’s intentional love for the entirety of the world. Studies will be available before the convention to help prepare. Invite a missionary to speak at your weekly meeting. Pray for specific missionaries. Start a reading group to discuss Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions by John Piper, a book that helped inspire the theme for Urbana: “Because God First Loved Us.” Encourage students who’ve been on short-term mission trips to share their tales over an ethnic meal from the country they visited. Even “floaters” like food. Challenge a student to commit his or her own leadership toward missions awareness and Urbana planning. After campus outreaches, convene with participating chapter members and share anecdotes or testimonials about missions and Urbana. You’ll help students see the “big picture” of their evangelistic activities.

Building up your chapter and chapter members should be a simultaneous activity to recruiting for Urbana. When it comes down to it, it’s all about centering your life more on Jesus. Do this, and he’ll direct you and others as to how you should go. If that includes Urbana, and I feel it could for many, great.

Okay, then what? You’ve helped some folks grow more in Christ, gain vision for missions and understand the golden opportunity they have in Urbana® 2000. Now comes the big hairy, perpetual issue: money. For many students who want to attend Urbana® 2000, money will stand as the single greatest obstacle. As a case in point, after graduating from college but before I came on staff with InterVarsity®, I looked into attending Urbana 96. But then I let my penniless financial state hinder me.

Tackle this one head-on. Use fund raising as an opportunity to bond, be creative, and serve the chapter. Raise the funds to help send anyone who deeply desires to go. Start early, start now. Pray and then think through every possible avenue to save, earn and raise the funds to go. Save money by eating out less. Have a massive pizza making party and sell the pizzas at local churches. Conduct a silent auction of artwork donated by students. Share the vision of Urbana with friends at church and ask them to pray about supporting chapter members. We have tons of other great ideas and tips for paying for Urbana on the web.

Integrate Urbana® 2000 into your discipleship strategy and make it financially feasible for students to go, and you may just find yourselves sledding to snowy Urbana next winter en masse. And, because we serve a merciful God, you may just get penniless chapter vagabonds like myself to connect more with others, with God, and, be it as a student or as a fledgling writer, with Urbana.