Urbana

Mark Matlock to Lead Urbana Student Missions Conference

AD-2503 — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 18:11:31 +0000

Mark Matlock to Lead Urbana Student Missions Conference

(Madison, WI) — Strengthening its commitment to call the next generation into global mission, ��ñ��/USA is pleased to announce Mark Matlock will serve as Executive Director of the Urbana Student Missions Conference, effective January 2, 2024.

“Mark has dedicated his life to seeing each generation of young people connect deeply with Jesus and to providing every people group with a Bible in their heart language. He’s been both a researcher and a practitioner. I'm excited to see how his unique gifting will shape his leadership of Urbana in the coming years, as we invite the next generation of women and men to gain a bigger vision of the world and experience God’s heart for the nations.” said Tom Lin, ��ñ��’s president.

“As I travel, it is obvious that Gen Z, post-pandemic, is a ‘bright line’ representing change globally across generations. I’m excited to see how God calls this generation into his global mission. My hope is that Urbana 2025 will be part of this unique moment like it has been for generations past, including my own generation. I attended Urbana 1990 and I returned to Biola more passionate and more engaged with global missions as a result” said Matlock.

Throughout his career Matlock has provided strategic leadership aimed at helping churches be more effective at discipling teenagers and young adults. He founded WisdomWorks Ministries to provide strategic event consulting and production support to help churches and ministries effectively reach young people. He also created PlanetWisdom, a discipleship conference for teens, that eventually became part of Zondervan’s Youth Specialties vertical, where he became the Vice President of Event Content, and eventually Executive Director. Matlock has authored 20 books, including Faith for Exiles, a Barna research project co-authored with David Kinnaman. His new book with Barna, Faith for the Curious, comes out this fall.

Most recently, he was interim CEO of Movement.org, a ministry which catalyzes gospel movements in cities around the world. He has served on the board of Seed Company and American Bible Society, and he will be a delegate to the fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Seoul this fall. He speaks regularly to church leaders and young people and is an ordained minister and former lay teaching pastor at Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas.

Since ��ñ�� hosted the first student missions conference in 1946, more than 300,000 people have been challenged with their responsibility and privilege in global missions. The next Urbana conference will take place in December 2025. Learn more about the impact of Urbana through the decades at www.urbana.org

��ñ�� is an interdenominational ministry reaching students and faculty on over 700 U.S. college and university campuses nationwide. ��ñ��, founded in 1941, is a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, advancing Christian student work in 164 countries.

For Immediate Release
Contact Christy Chappell Belkin at 608.443.3671 or via email.

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Urbana 22 Calls Gen Z to Rise Up as Whole-Life, Whole-World Disciples

AD-18513 — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 17:41:38 +0000

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Urbana 22 Calls Gen Z to Rise Up as Whole-Life, Whole-World Disciples

��ñ�� hosted its 26th Urbana Student Missions Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, December 28-31, 2022, inviting almost 6,000 participants to see themselves as God has created and called them — as witnesses of his glory to the ends of the earth.

Through onstage testimonies of people living out their faith across vocations and nations each morning and Bible expositions from the book of Acts each evening, Urbana created a space for participants to see the Holy Spirit empowered witness of a global Church.

Students also had time to dig into God’s Word for themselves — through student-led Bible studies. In the months leading up to Urbana, ��ñ�� equipped over 620 student leaders from chapters across the country to lead their peers through three morning Bible studies. “I really loved my group,” one student leader said. “I felt like we were all learning from each other, and it wasn’t just me leading. It was a group discussion we were all contributing to.”

A major highlight of the conference came when these student leaders gave an invitation to faith in response to the story of the Ethiopian and Philip (Acts 8:26-40). “These student leaders took a risky step of faith, and they saw their peers say yes to the good news of Jesus! They saw God work through their obedience,” said Greg Jao, Executive Vice President of Communications and Mobilization. “They are going back to their campuses excited and eager to invite more friends and classmates to know Jesus too.”

Students also got to hear from fellow students, like Naomi, during general sessions about the ways God has called them to say yes. Naomi shared about how much God has grown her faith since she started college from leading an ��ñ�� small group, even though she was an introvert, to ultimately planting a Black Campus Ministries chapter during the pandemic. “When it comes to my faith journey, there has been this theme of trusting God, even when it feels like there is no way some things could happen,” she said.

In the afternoons, participants had a broad range of opportunities to explore how messages from Scripture and general session testimonies applied to their own lives, including prayer ministry and next steps coaching, a Connections Hall with 190-plus missions organizations and seminaries, and over 150 seminars on topics ranging from business as mission to local outreach.

Participants came to Urbana from all across the U.S. and even the globe, weathering storms and significant travel delays. For example, after their flight was cancelled, two students in California decided to drive 30-plus hours to Indianapolis — and even picked up another stranded student in Oklahoma. “Seeing God working in so many cool ways was something I didn’t want to miss,” one of them said.

On the final day of Urbana, participants were called to consider their next step following Urbana, including making a commitment to regularly praying for the global Church, inviting a friend to study Scripture, or cross-cultural or global missions.

“A next step of obedience the Lord is inviting me to is building relationships with people that I have in my circle, to be bold about my faith,” one student said.

“Urbana has invigorated that passion for missions in my heart,” another reflected. “I’m excited to see where the Lord takes me.”

For more information, visit urbana.org/conference for general session and summary videos, seminar recordings, and more.

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Registration Opens For Urbana 22

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Mon, 16 May 2022 21:38:07 +0000

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Registration Opens For Urbana 22

(Madison, WI) – Registration for Urbana 22, ��ñ��’s 26th triennial student missions conference to be held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana December 28-31, is now open at urbana.org/registration.

Since the first Urbana in 1946, God has used the gathering to invite more than 300,000 people to join him in his global mission. Urbana 22 will invite students to Rise Up as empowered, surrendered, and courageous whole-world, whole-life disciples of Jesus.

Some of the speakers who will challenge the more than 10,000 participants to do this include:

Bishop Claude Alexander, The Park Church
Alexia Salvatierra, Centro Latino/Fuller Seminary
And more to be announced

Throughout the four-day conference, Urbana participants will study passages from the book of Acts in both student-led small group Bible study and Scripture exposition. They will learn from first century disciples who lived out their newfound identity and purpose as the first Christians.

At Urbana 22, participants will also hear stories of 21st century disciples whose lives demonstrate whole-life, whole-world discipleship.

“The way of Jesus in this world—the way God creates and calls his followers to be with him and for others—is marked by an empowered witness, a surrendered generosity, a courageous love,” says Ruth Hubbard, VP with ��ñ�� who leads Urbana. “We see this in Acts. We’ll also see it in the diverse gathering of the Church at Urbana 22.”

In the afternoons of the conference, Urbana participants will have opportunities to explore where their gifts, skills, and passions fit into God’s global mission through connecting with others in the Gathering Hall––including coaches, seminar speakers from around the world, and a trained team of prayer ministers. They will also have the opportunity to meet with missionaries and leaders from over 200 missions organizations and seminaries exhibiting at Urbana in the Connections Hall.

While the conference is designed specifically for current undergraduate and graduate students, more than a third of conference participants—including ��ñ�� staff—are from other generations.

Watch the video below for a preview of what participants will experience at Urbana 22. For more information, please visit urbana.org.

About ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship:

One of the largest campus ministries in the United States, ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship ministers to students and faculty on over 700 campuses and has over 1,000 chapters across the nation, from Ivy League schools to community colleges. For over 80 years, ��ñ�� has partnered with hundreds of college campuses to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed, and world changers developed. ��ñ�� is dedicated to establishing and advancing witnessing communities of students and faculty on college and university campuses.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Jeff Bunch, Urbana

jeffrey.bunch@intervarsity.org

(509) 270-0119

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��ñ�� Remembers David Howard

drew.larson@intervarsity.org — Tue, 10 May 2022 20:10:25 +0000

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Drew Larson

��ñ�� Remembers David Howard

With David Howard’s passing yesterday, ��ñ�� remembers his lasting impact mobilizing students and campuses for God’s global mission. As Director of multiple Urbana conferences, President of Latin American Mission, and International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance, David’s humble and servant-hearted leadership in missions spanned nearly six decades.

“��ñ�� owes a great debt to Dave and to his leadership in missions,” said ��ñ�� President and CEO Tom Lin. “[He kept] us focused globally and on the importance of mobilizing students to share the gospel around the world. His legacy includes hundreds of thousands of college students who had their lives transformed and received God’s calling to global missions through an Urbana Student Missions Conference. ��ñ�� is forever grateful.”

A Legacy of Global Missions Begins

David attended the very first Urbana in 1946 with his good friend, Wheaton College roommate, and future brother-in-law, the missionary/martyr Jim Elliot. David attended, spoke at, or directed nearly every Urbana for the next five decades. For his entire life, he kept his signed World Evangelism Decision card from Urbana 46. (Urbana participants use these cards to mark their commitment to God’s global mission.)

After graduating from Wheaton College in 1949, C. Stacey Woods (��ñ��’s first president) recruited David to ��ñ�� staff for a year as an appointed ‘missionary staff member,’ visiting 120 campuses across the U.S. and Canada to challenge students to give their lives to missions. He then served Northwestern University as a part-time campus minister while attending graduate school at Wheaton and preparing for the mission field.

“My years with ��ñ�� were a very significant part of my life,” he said in a 2006 interview with ��ñ��. “They were a time when God taught me many things and gave me many opportunities. I didn’t know much about missions in those days, except what I’d learned second or thirdhand. But I learned to trust God, and not myself, for any results.”

After 15 years as a missionary in Colombia, God stirred David’s heart again about calling and equipping college students to give their lives to God’s global mission. The stirring, David remembered, was gradual — John Alexander, ��ñ��’s President at the time, offered him the job of Missions Director three times before David accepted!

During his tenure as Urbana Director (Urbana 73 and 76; he also served as Assistant Director of Urbana 51 and 70) attendance grew from 12,000 to 18,000 students, and commitments to missions grew from 8 percent to nearly 50 percent. He also helped design a summer follow-up program for those commitments that eventually grew into the Perspectives Program, which is a cornerstone of missions training in churches, seminaries, and ��ñ�� chapters to this day.

David also helped steer Urbana through the turbulent 1970s, a time when social unrest, campus violence, and the Vietnam War all pushed national anxiety to the brink. Leighton Ford, a leader in both the Lausanne Movement and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — as well as a lifelong friend of David’s — remembered David’s example at Urbana 70. Leighton had been asked to deliver the keynote evangelistic message at a time when those tensions at the conference were especially high.

“That message was one of the most difficult of my life. I labored in prayer and heart searching as I prepared … [and] I felt little peace as I spoke,” he said. “But I knew that David was nearby, praying, standing by me, encouraging me.

“His fortitude, his steady calm in a testing time, left a lasting impression of Christlike grace and strength. His ability to listen and discern, his concern for helping others to flourish, his ongoing passion to know Christ and make him known — these traits always come to mind when I think of David Howard. I am grateful to have known and served with him.”

In that same 2006 interview, David reflected on the impact of Urbana for global missions: “I’ve been to probably 80 countries, and almost everywhere I go, invariably I run into people who tell me they’re serving today on the mission field because God used Urbana to call them.”

“David’s friendship was such a blessing to me,” said Tom Lin. “When I began as Urbana Director, he told me, ‘I will be praying for you every day.’ And that’s exactly what he did. Over those five years, in the most difficult days of leadership, I was always encouraged to know that each day David was praying for me.

“I’m deeply saddened and grieving Dave’s passing. Many throughout the missions world will miss Dave and celebrate him — in many ways he was a ‘giant’ in global missions. But I, most of all, will miss his smile, his joy, and his passion for students and for Christ.”

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Living Intentionally No Matter What

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:25:16 +0000

Gordon Govier

Living Intentionally No Matter What

When MBA student Liz Dong was asked to help plan and moderate a Believers in Business conference panel on dealing with disappointments, she had plenty of experience to draw from.

After immigrating from China to the US in fourth grade, Liz studied hard and excelled in school. But her hopes for future success were devastated when she and her mother discovered paperwork mistakes by their immigration attorney left them without proper documentation. Liz and her mother trusted in God though and, as she explained in a Christianity Today testimony, God miraculously opened the doors at Northwestern University, where she graduated in 2011.

Finding work was difficult because of her immigration status, even with a college degree. As soon as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was implemented in 2012, which provided Liz and many other immigrants a temporary work authorization, Liz took a marketing job with a small eCommerce company. Then, as she took the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course through her church, she began to discover ways to apply her faith and use her own immigrant background to help other immigrants.

She moved into an apartment complex in suburban Chicago and joined a small intentional Christian community that was living among and serving their many immigrant and refugee neighbors. On nights and weekends, Liz gave rides, worked with children, and offered other practical support. “We were neighbors and friends,” she said. “I helped them, but I was also blessed by my immigrant neighbors.”

Then she changed jobs to work with World Relief and the Evangelical Immigration Table, advocating for immigration issues from a Christian perspective and drawing from her rich background of experience.

Back in School Again

Liz dreamed of going to graduate school to study management. Chances did not look promising as she tried to make ends meet on her non-profit salary. But she reconnected with the same foundation that had supported her as an undergrad at Northwestern, applied at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, and found herself admitted.

Her focus on management could have led her to stay in the nonprofit world or to a job in business. Either way, she knew she wanted to integrate her faith with her vocation. After a conversation with a missionary who was visiting her church she decided to learn more about that integration by attending Urbana 15, ��ñ��’s Student Missions Conference in St. Louis.

At Urbana, Liz discovered other business students who shared her conviction. “The Business as Mission track was highly applicable and practical for understanding the theology of work and that all work is ordained by God when it's done in a way that honors God,” she said. That was also where she met Mark Washington, who directs ��ñ��’s MBA Ministry.

Mark urged her to join Christians in Business, ��ñ��’s fellowship at Booth, where she eventually became one of the leaders. He also recommended the annual Believers in Business (BiB) conference that’s held in New York City each winter (This year’s dates are February 21-22).

Believers in Business

The first time she went to BiB, Liz found it refreshing and challenging to hear from business leaders who shared about their work experience and how they integrated faith into their workplace. The second year she went as a finalist in a Business as Mission competition. Her team helped a Christian company grow its profitability, invest in the communities where it employed workers, and advance other objectives that supported God’s kingdom. She described it as an enriching experience. Her team placed third.

Although the Booth MBA program normally lasts two years, Liz worked full time and went to school part time, stretching it to three years and allowing her an additional opportunity to attend BiB. For her third year, Liz served as a planner and moderator of the panel on dealing with disappointment.

“That topic was important to me,” she said. “It’s good to showcase more than just the successes. In our failures and disappointments, we discover God sees success differently than how we see it.”

Today, Liz no longer lives in the midst of an immigrant community. She also has a new job, working with a financial advising service. But she still advocates for immigrants and refugees in her spare time.

Liz is thankful for the path that God has led her on, particularly through the challenges of graduate school.

“I knew that everywhere I went, whatever I did, I wanted to somehow integrate my faith with the thing that I did, in the place where I was at,” she said. “Christians in Business, the campus fellowship at Booth, provided me a means to do that.”

Looking back at the seemingly insurmountable challenges she faced before both her undergrad and graduate school experiences, she sees God’s faithfulness.

“Each step of the way that God has led me, God has opened doors. Sometimes even unbeknownst to me at the time, God has prepared me for the next step. But I also know that God has used and is using all of my experiences in the past to prepare me for what he will have me doing next.”

Support ��ñ��’s MBA Ministry

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Prayers and Planting at Pembroke

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:21:40 +0000

Gordon Govier

Prayers and Planting at Pembroke

When Meg Sikes moved from Urbana, Illinois, to Fayetteville, North Carolina, she saw two options for campus ministry: Fayetteville State University (FSU), the local campus, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP), about an hour away.

She prayer walked both campuses with her supervisor.

Meg’s church encouraged her to plant at FSU, but the doors weren’t opening there. “At Pembroke, doors were flinging open,” she said. “I was meeting just the right person, who would introduce me to another person, and I was meeting students easily. It was abundantly clear that the Lord was making a way for me to start something.”

The chapter was launched and officially recognized in the spring of 2017. A small Bible study was planted, and four students went to chapter camp at the end of the semester. Two of them were trained in Bible study leadership, and led Bible studies in the fall. The next year, more students received leadership training, and there were four Bible studies launched for the fall 2018 semester. This past fall, there were three small groups and the strongest group of leaders yet.

Riding the prayer wave

Meg did not see herself as a planter. During her early years on staff at the University of Illinois, she was part of a team and was very team oriented. Yet, lacking team support didn’t seem to matter at Pembroke.

“I stopped and asked myself, Why does it seem like everything is working now? These are the same tricks I’ve always used as a staff worker. I realized that the Holy Spirit was creating momentum. I’m just going to ride this wave.”

As Meg investigated further, she discovered that people had been praying for a campus ministry at Pembroke for over a decade. She herself had spent her first two summers in Fayetteville, when planting was slow work, praying an hour each day. “I’m walking on a campus that’s been saturated in prayer and I could tell,” she said.

The Army prayer

Meg had seen the impact of prayer before as a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). As a freshman she joined a small chapter of about a dozen students. “We spent a ton of time in prayer, and our chapter just exploded,” she recalled. By the end of her sophomore year the chapter grew to 50 students.

“I came into college as a good church kid who did church things, and God had always been a part of my life,” she said. “It was at Chapter Focus Week [at the end of freshman year] that I realized God had become the center of my life. Chapter Focus Week was a big spiritual milestone for me.”

Meg graduated from SIUE with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in metalsmithing. She said her Fine Arts training taught her resourcefulness. This, along with her strong prayer life, was critical when her husband decided to join the US Army.

The summer of 2014, after she and her husband Ian married, they led an ��ñ�� Global Program to Malawi. He was stirred by the deep poverty and injustice that he saw and felt like he needed to respond somehow. He asked Meg to pray with him about whether or not he should join the Army. She was upset and deeply opposed to the idea of him joining the Army—but not to praying about it.

“This was not at all where I expected life to take me,” she said. “I got to a place where I had to tell God, ‘If you want us to do this, I need you to change my heart, because I don't want to give a begrudging yes.’” And God did change her heart.

Meg and Ian were separated for a number of months while Ian went through training, until they settled in Fayetteville once they knew that was where he would be stationed.

Making opportunities to make invitations

Meg likes the culture of UNCP, partly because it’s known for its diversity. Of its 6,500 students, 1/3 are White, 1/3 are Black, 15 percent are Native, four percent are Latino, and there are smaller numbers of other ethnicities.

Students at UNCP are generally open to ministry; a recent outreach involving prayer and free cookies was particularly successful. Two students came to faith in 2018, and six have already come to faith so far this academic year. “We’re making more opportunities to make invitations, and the students are responding,” she said.

Meg sees strong evidence for how the Lord has been leading the ministry at Pembroke. She has grown in valuing time in God’s presence and praying, and she sees students also valuing that spiritual discipline.

“I don’t know what’s ahead,” she said. “I’ve been along for the ride and it’s really great.”

Give to help plant chapters on more campuses

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Urbana 18 Invites Tech-Savvy Students to Hack for Missions

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 20:13:50 +0000

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Urbana 18 Invites Tech-Savvy Students to Hack for Missions

For Immediate Release

(Madison, WI) -- For 70 years, ��ñ��’s Urbana Student Missions Conference has drawn students who want a life of significance and challenged them to discover what God is doing in the world and join his redemptive mission.

Some of the college students attending Urbana 18 at the America's Center in St. Louis on December 27-31, 2018, will be helping solve real-world missions dilemmas. About 150 of the 10,000 Urbana 18 attendees are participating in #Hack4Missions, which debuted three years ago at Urbana 15.

The #Hack4Missions hackathon at Urbana is codirected by Ali Llewellyn and Nick Skytland, who are also the cofounders of NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge and National Day of Civic Hacking. At Urbana 18, they will direct student teams made up of software developers, digital designers, project managers, and other technologists, who will tackle challenges submitted by missions agencies.

The Urbana 18 #Hack4Missions challenges include:

developing a drone navigation system to survey remote airstrips
developing an automated visual storytelling generator that will help people learn Bible stories in their native language
developing a project to monitor shortwave reception to help a radio ministry know how well listeners are receiving programming

Urbana also features specialized tracks, which include:

the Business Track, where attendees will explore how to use a commercial vocation to help people physically and spiritually
the Global Students Track, for international students, third culture kids, and others whose lives have crossed many borders
the Justice Track, for those who want to explore economic, ethnic, and environmental justice issues in a biblical context
the Ministry and Missions Leadership Track, for pastors, nonprofit organization leaders, and others who are already involved in ministry

Urbana 18 has more than 200 seminars. Urbana is an opportunity to learn from Christians who are on the cutting edge of many fields and contemporary issues.

Urbana 18 is ��ñ��’s 25^th student missions conference, cohosted by ��ñ��, ��ñ�� of Canada, and Groupes Bibliques Universitaires et Collégiaux du Canada. ��ñ��'s first student missions conference was held in Toronto, Canada, in 1946.

For more information:
Gordon Govier
608/443-3688

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Generations of Faithful Witness—All Saints Day & Urbana 18

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 13:31:35 +0000

Press Room

Generations of Faithful Witness—All Saints Day & Urbana 18

For Immediate Release

The Christian holiday All Saints’ Day, November 1, commemorates God’s faithful witnesses and saints of past generations. This year, Urbana 18—��ñ��’s 25th Student Missions Conference—will seek to catalyze today’s students to carry on this legacy of faithfulness. Urbana will invite them to join God’s global mission and more deeply consider what it means to be a Faithful Witness, the conference’s theme.

“For Urbana 18, we have chosen to challenge this generation of college students with the story of faithful witness in the New Testament book of Revelation,” said Úna Lucey-Lee, Urbana Program Director. “We are eager for God to use this biblical vision to compel Urbana 18 participants into deeper trust, wholehearted discipleship, and enthusiastic involvement in global missions.”

During daily inductive Bible studies and general sessions featuring Urbana 18 expositor René Breuel and a number of other global voices, students, faculty, pastors, and other Urbana participants will be challenged through the book of Revelation to live as faithful witnesses in several tangible ways:

committing to say yes to Jesus for the first time (for those who have not done so already)
serving short-term or long-term in cross-cultural missions
testifying about Jesus in daily life wherever he calls them

The rest of the conference will focus on helping participants receive and engage Revelation’s hopeful, challenging message and also gain a better sense of God’s global presence as they discern how they are being called to a life of faithful witness. Of the many unique opportunities Urbana 18 provides, some include:

200 seminars—presented by distinguished thought leaders, experts in the corporate world, and veteran missionaries—to provide students with practical guidance about joining God’s global mission through their vocations
an exhibit hall with over 200 missions agencies and seminaries looking to support participants in determining their next steps in their journeys of obedience
rich, multiethnic worship with thousands, praising the King of kings and celebrating the diversity of his people from every nation, tribe, and tongue
#Hack4Missions, a hackathon that invites 150 software developers, graphic designers, program managers, and other technologists to support missions organizations in their real-world challenges and opportunities to further Christ’s kingdom work across the world

“We are praying that God will give this generation fresh eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain, in all his power and glory,” Úna said.

For more information on Urbana 18, taking place December 27–31 in St. Louis, Missouri, go to urbana.org and register by November 15 for the early bird cost of registration, saving you $100.

Media Contact:
Gordon Govier
ggovier@intervarsity.org
608/443-3688

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��ñ�� Remembers Billy Graham

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 13:59:32 +0000

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Gordon Govier

��ñ�� Remembers Billy Graham

Billy Graham partnered with ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship many times during his life in order to bring the gospel message to college students.

One campus that he often visited was the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the home for many years of ��ñ��'s Urbana Student Missions Conference. He spoke at Urbana at least nine times: in 1948, 1957, 1961, 1964, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1984, and 1987. (Photo from Urbana 64.)

“What a wonderful joy it is to go to a city and hold a crusade in which there are university students engaged in ��ñ��, who are winning people to Christ, and who believe in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Graham said at Urbana 57. At each Urbana he challenged the attendees to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives.

“He has left an unforgettable legacy with generations of Urbana students, tens of thousands who have been mobilized long-term around the world because of Dr. Graham’s challenge to give their lives to God’s global mission,” said Tom Lin, ��ñ��’s president.

Former president Alec Hill said that students appreciated Billy Graham’s commitment to integrity in ministry and responded to his challenge to devote their lives to a worthwhile cause. “He will be remembered as a humble, faithful follower of Jesus Christ,” Hill said. “His personal influence, which was considerable, is totally related to his desire to share the gospel message with as many people as possible.”

At more than one Urbana, Graham quoted a six-word phrase written in the Bible of William Borden, an heir to the Borden milk fortune who died in Egypt on his way to the mission field. “There are a thousand things you can do with your life; a thousand ways you can spend it,” he said at Urbana 87. “But how many of them will enable you to say at the end of your life, ‘no reserves, no retreat, no regrets’?”

Hundreds, probably thousands, can look back on their encounter with Billy Graham at Urbana and reflect on how that one meeting changed their lives—people such as Ken Anderson and Linda Kroeger. At one Urbana conference, a medical student in the audience may have saved Billy Graham's life by diagnosing a blood clot from Dr. Graham’s on-stage discomfort.

At a news conference at Urbana 87, Graham said, “I do not know any organization in the world that so motivates students and young people to become missionaries throughout the world [as ��ñ��]. I meet them wherever I go in the world. They’re scattered to almost all the countries of the world and they come up to me and they tell me ‘I heard you, I saw you at Urbana.’ You feel like you’re already in a family because something happens here that makes us a family even though we belong to different organizations.”

Lin observed that Dr. Graham’s commitment to mobilizing students was unwavering. “We are honored to have his name so closely associated with ours—it’s often what people think of when they think about Urbana,” he said.

Graham also held evangelistic meetings on college campuses: at the University of Minnesota during ��ñ��’s “Year of Evangelism” in 1950-1951, and a four-day mission at Yale University in 1957. He spoke to over 31,000 people during a weeklong series of meetings at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in September of 1982.

Billy Graham spoke at the University of Chicago during his 1962 Chicago crusade and at seven campuses in New England during his 1981 New England crusade. ��ñ��'s chapter at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has its roots in the 1978 and 1980 Billy Graham meetings that were held in Las Vegas.

After Billy Graham’s 1957 crusade in New York City, ��ñ�� staff were charged with the responsibility of following up with the 1,700 college students who committed to follow Christ during those meetings. One of those who came to faith at the 1957 crusade was Ned Hale, who described his journey to faith in this way:

When I first heard Billy Graham at a “campus mission” at Yale University in 1957, I believed in God but not that I was a sinner. I was upright morally and even working my way through school. After four months of struggling unsuccessfully to prove that I was not a sinner (to myself if not to others), I was ready to hear Graham again at his Madison Square Garden crusade. The Holy Spirit convinced me not only of my sin but also that Jesus was alive, and equally incredibly that he loves me!

Ned became an ��ñ�� student at Yale, and then joined ��ñ�� staff after graduation. He held a number of leadership positions over a long career in campus ministry. Today, as a retiree, he volunteers as ��ñ��’s archivist.

Speaking at Urbana 57, Graham may have foreshadowed the student activism of the sixties by telling students they had the power to change the world. “You cannot wait upon the faculty,” he said. “You cannot wait upon older leaders. It is time for students to exert their leadership with all of their enthusiasm and the tremendous power that they have. Give it all to Christ.”

Speaking at Urbana 64, Graham said: “God has given us an open door and given us the tools and technology to touch the whole world in the next decade—if you and I mean business, if we are faithful.”

Billy Graham was faithful to the end; his life was dedicated to his Savior and Lord. For many students who heard him at Urbana and on the other campuses where he spoke, he modeled a life of total commitment to the gospel: “no reserves, no retreat, no regrets.”

News Keywords

75 Years of Witness on Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 21:52:40 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

75 Years of Witness on Campus

��ñ�� Christian Fellowship officially began our campus ministry in the United States on November 14, 1941, the day we were incorporated. Campus fellowships had already been active at several U.S. colleges for a few years, however.

In 1941 ��ñ��’s founder, Stacey Woods, directed a three-person staff, operating out of a Chicago office that was shared with the Christian Workers Foundation. Today, 75 years later, ��ñ��’s national office is in Madison, Wisconsin, and staff workers and volunteers across the U.S. total more than 2,000. ��ñ�� has 1,011 chapters on 667 U.S. college campuses, working with more than 40,000 core students and faculty.

“We are currently experiencing one of the most stimulating periods in our history,” said current ��ñ�� president Tom Lin. “The number of students and faculty coming to faith in Jesus Christ through ��ñ�� has doubled over the past 10 years. At the same time, we are experiencing more challenges to our work on campus than in any time in recent memory.”

The vibrancy of ��ñ��’s current ministry stems in part from new specialized outreaches to athletes, arts students, and fraternity and sorority members as well as to ethnic minority groups and international students, as ��ñ�� seeks to share the good news about Jesus with every campus community. ��ñ��’s 2015-2016 Annual Report highlights the ways that ��ñ�� staff and student leaders are trying to reach every corner of one specific campus: University of California, Santa Barbara.

While we are using innovative new methods to communicate with students, such as interactive mobile art displays called Proxe Stations, the mainstays of campus ministry continue to be small group inductive Bible studies, daily prayer meetings, and weekend retreats. ��ñ�� alumni can be found living out their faith on NBA basketball courts, in outer space, in scientific research laboratories, as CEOs, as hip hop artists, in school classrooms, on the mission field, and in a myriad of other careers.

��ñ�� has shaped the lives of students in other ways. In 1946 ��ñ�� hosted a conference in Toronto, Canada, initiating what has become the triennial Urbana Student Missions Conference. Urbana was based on the University of Illinois campus for most of its history, moving to St. Louis, Missouri, in 2006. Hundreds of thousands of students have attended an Urbana conference, with many responding to the call to dedicate their lives to God’s global mission.

Christians of all ages have also been influenced by ��ñ�� Press books. Currently there are more than 1,700 IVP titles in print, and IVP is known as a leader in the industry for publishing thoughtful Christian books. IVP books consistently win recognition among the top books in Christian publishing.

“The vision of ��ñ�� is to see students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed, and world changers developed,” Lin said. “We believe the most impactful Christian witness we can have is to the future world leaders who are now students on our college campuses.”

News Keywords

Urbana

IVP

��ñ�� History

Urbana

Mark Matlock to Lead Urbana Student Missions Conference

Mark Matlock to Lead Urbana Student Missions Conference

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Urbana 22 Calls Gen Z to Rise Up as Whole-Life, Whole-World Disciples

Registration Opens For Urbana 22

Registration Opens For Urbana 22

About ��ñ���� Christian Fellowship:

��ñ���� Remembers David Howard

��ñ���� Remembers David Howard

A Legacy of Global Missions Begins

Living Intentionally No Matter What

Living Intentionally No Matter What

Back in School Again

Believers in Business

Prayers and Planting at Pembroke

Prayers and Planting at Pembroke

Riding the prayer wave

The Army prayer

Making opportunities to make invitations

Urbana 18 Invites Tech-Savvy Students to Hack for Missions

Urbana 18 Invites Tech-Savvy Students to Hack for Missions

Generations of Faithful Witness—All Saints Day & Urbana 18

Generations of Faithful Witness—All Saints Day & Urbana 18

��ñ���� Remembers Billy Graham

��ñ���� Remembers Billy Graham

75 Years of Witness on Campus

75 Years of Witness on Campus

About ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship:

��ñ�� Remembers David Howard

��ñ�� Remembers David Howard

��ñ�� Remembers Billy Graham

��ñ�� Remembers Billy Graham