Urbana 2006 (extended edition)

Urbana is one of those experiences that cannot be fully explained. There was so much intensity, so many realizations, so much information, such a great depth added to my conception of the world, and such an enormous call to grow and respond to God's Spirit, that to even attempt to be comprehensive would just be fake and shallow. So I won't attempt “comprehensive.” Here is the longer version of only the most important bits of what I heard, felt, and saw at the Conference:
Urbana is a Global Missions Conference hosted every three years, with some 22,000 attendees this year. So there was a major focus on themes of racial reconciliation, God's work abroad, each attendees personal “calling” and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. There was more, but broaden each of those topics to their extremes, and that should cover most of the plenary sessions. Actually, I would highly recommend leaving my blog immediately, and spending however many hours it takes to listen to each speaker, soak up every minute of worship, and seek God with every word recorded at http://www.urbana.org/u2006.webcast.cfm. Your time will be so much better spent listening to God then reading my blog. Seriously, maybe you ought to incorporate an extra 10 or 15 minutes each day into your devotional time to watch these. My life has been dramatically impacted by these women and men, by this time set aside for God, and above all by my very real, very living Jesus Christ, who showed up powerfully. And this selection of videos isn't the half of it; the reality of commuting in downtown St. Louis; the daily studies of Ephesians; the depth of the humility God “graced” me with; Bono's personal video to us at Urbana; the hundreds and hundreds of sessions of which each person could attend around 6 – none of those things are in media online. Here are the highlights for me...
One of the first speakers was an African man named Oscar Muriu. He spoke of the diminishing Western (meaning especially the North American and European) Church, and the incredible explosion of the 2/3 World Church (also known as the “Southern” Church, meaning especially South America, Africa, and Asia. He challenged the entire stadium with statistics and trends, hinted at a correlation between the ever-more-liberal and materialistic (non-supernaturalist) Western Church and its own death and decay, and asked if the Southern Church (often criticized for more literal readings of Scripture, more conservative stances, and more charismatic services) should really be encouraged to copy the model of life and Church embodied by the dying West. It was very challenging, but also firmly rooted in facts I had studied myself years ago. Although I really liked Bono's little blurb, I think Oscar was probably my favorite Urbana speaker.
Ajith Fernando, from Sri Lanka, offered expositions on the alternating sections of Ephesians from what we studied in our morning Bible Studies. Not only did he have a sweet Indian accent, but he expounded the Scripture brilliantly, holistically, and challengingly. I can say that Ajith was a high point of Urbana 06, and that his exegesis no doubt contributed to the moving of the Spirit that I personally experienced. Thanks to both Ajith and Oscar.
Two other highlights were Saul Cruz, from Mexico, and Terrence Nichols, an African-American man from California. Saul relayed stories of the triumph and faithfulness of our God, and of the difference we can make in this world. Terrence also riveted us with amazing stories, and lead the communion service for all 22,000 Urbana-ites. “Profound” so dramatically fails at describing the experience of sharing in the elements of body and blood with 22,000 Christian sisters and brothers, that I don't know how to do it justice. I will never, ever, forget those moments.
The conference had a myriad of other speakers, prayer leaders, musical worship leaders, theatrical worship leaders, dance worship leaders etc., all of which were amazing (especially the musical and theatrical worship leaders – truly wonderful). Greg Jao was the Master of Ceremonies (MC), and he was phenomenal. He communicated clearly, challenged us helpfully, and to the point: was hysterical. Rick Warren also spoke, along with his wife Karen, but I wasn't overly impressed. They were helpful, but not the highlight of my own experience.
I also went to three seminars: A Holistic View of Holistic Ministry, Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would, and Gender and Missions: Men and Women in Partnership. In this three seminars, we find three very different types of experience. In the seminar on Holistic Ministry, God spoke to me in incredible ways, while the speeches themselves were little more than semi-interesting. Most of what I felt God calling me to at Urbana was penned in this session, and prayed over more and added to later. In the seminar on homosexuality, all of my practical questions on the subject were answered or solidified. There is still some question in my mind regarding the Scriptural arguments for homosexuality, but those aren't that important to me. What is important to me is the radical and fundamental failure on the part of 95% of Christians and the Church, at least in this country, of loving as Jesus would. What is important to me is repenting personally, and as the Body of Christ, and beginning to seek love over hate, Jesus over Satan. And finally, in the gender seminar we have the experience we generally call a “waste”. The seminar was not on what Zoey and I thought it would be, it was almost completely old, and essentially useless information, connected by flawed or absent logic. There were two minor textual facts about the original Greek that would take 20 seconds to explain, and a lot of frustrating talking by a woman who was otherwise very sweet and wonderful. Sad.
And then I roomed with Stephen Hess, Flynn Espe, and Peter Means. I saw many old friends. I even ran into an Ashley I hadn't seen in a year or two (former roommate of Catherine Stout). I spent far too much time on far too tiny airplanes. Due to the poor communication of my oral surgeon, I almost had a dental emergency when food got stuck in scars in my mouth I wasn't even aware I had and stayed there for days. I wore a really cool fedora. Yeah, basically I think I've reached the end of the highlights of Urbana. Read my short version for the specific things I got out of it. Thanks for reading – dialog with me about anything you're interested in, I'd love conversation or comments on anything I've written here. God bless.