Every three years between Christmas and New Year, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sponsors a 5-day mission event called "Urbana", named after its longtime location at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The last several events have been held in St. Louis (due to outgrowing the venue), but the conference retains the Urbana brand. Urbana challenges college students to see the needs of the world and to respond to God's call to expand his kingdom globally. My own personal prayer life and prayer ministry owes its origins to Urbana '84, so I thought I'd focus this spotlight on Urbana '15, scheduled for 12/27-31, 2015. (Where did those 30 years go?!)
Urbana is a conference founded on prayer (I've included some of their specific requests for prayer below). When I attended, we had small group Bible studies in the morning and those same groups met for prayer each night (usually around 10:00), reviewing our days and praying for discernment of God's call; in fact, this was where I (and probably thousands of other college students) first learned to consider and pray about God's path for my life. And it's no wonder, given the amount of prayer that goes into the conference.
Urbana's prayer page notes this from David Platt:
David Platt’s first exposure to InterVarsity came at a preparatory retreat for Urbana 12 speakers in August 2012. One of the things that impressed him the most was our commitment to prayer. He said, “I speak at a lot of conferences. And I have never seen a group putting on a conference who takes prayer as seriously as you all!”
Urbana 2015 will guide attendees through studies on the book of Matthew through small groups and expositions; broaden their vision through plenary sessions (with about 16,000 attendees!); and challenge their thinking through hundreds of breakout sessions focused on different topics of missions. Of particular interest to us as people of prayer, Urbana will open the eyes of students to the concept of missional prayer and will challenge them to understand that, in the words of Eric Alexander, "Prayer is fundamental, not supplemental" to the work of the church.
Students will have an opportunity to begin to practice missional prayer both in their small groups and through a missional prayer room, where they will intercede for the needs of the world. They'll be given an opportunity and space for worship and reflective prayer, and times and spaces to receive prayer from volunteers at the conference. In short, not only the conference but also the attendees will be saturated with prayer. I speak from experience when I say many of them will be changed forever by the encounter.
To get a taste of what students will hear, check out this excerpt from Eric Alexander's exposition of Ephesians in Urbana '84: The Ministry of Christian Intercession.
If you're passionate about raising up the next generation of prayer warriors within the church, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more strategic event to pray for than the Urbana missions conference. As God leads you, please lift up the following requests from the Urbana staff:
- Pray that all participants would encounter Christ as we spend hours studying the Gospel of Matthew, hearing careful exposition, and receiving from the Spirit through the gifts of artists.
- Pray that the Lord would protect, sustain, and direct everyone working to make Urbana as useful and beautiful as possible, including leadership, the worship team, volunteers, media, operations staff, speakers, and prayer ministers.
- Pray that while on break from campus life—where many are in important conversations about racial justice—students would hear God’s call to justice and be equipped as agents of change and reconciliation.
- And pray that we all hear, discern, and embrace God’s call to his global mission—that we have courage to reach beyond perceived limitations, encounter the unfamiliar, risk failure, and say “YES!” to Jesus.
If you're interested in praying during the course of the conference, Sign up to receive daily prayer requests from December 27-31. You can also watch the live stream at urbana.org to guide your prayers.
Pray.Network Spotlight by Andrew Wheeler.
See Andrew's website at www.togetherinprayer.net
Comments
Prayers of Thanksgiving from Urbana:
Thank you for supporting Urbana 15 through prayer. God has truly met us and revealed himself to many people this week.
Prayers of thanksgiving for December 31:
Please continue praying for participants as they depart from Urbana today. Pray for the Lord to sustain and build upon the growth they experienced here as they head out to serve in God's global mission.
Thank you again for partnering with us in prayer.
Prayer Requests for Urbana, Thursday, 12/21:
Prayers of thanksgiving from December 30:
The theme for our last day, December 31, is the victory of God. Please pray for:
As we close, we want to share a comment from a participant: “I think one of the reasons why Urbana works is because of the deep commitment to prayer. This conference is bathed in it!”
Thank you for your part in praying for Urbana.
The Urbana Team
Prayer requests for December 29:
Prayers of thanksgiving from December 28:
The theme for December 29 is the offense of God’s generosity. As we move forward, please pray for:
Thank you again for praying.
The Urbana Team
Prayer requests from Urbana 15 for Monday, December 28:
The theme for December 28 is the leadership of God in the midst of darkness. As we move forward, please pray for: