Tyndale at Urbana 12
From December 27 – 31, 2012 approximately 27 Tyndale students attended Urbana 12. Urbana, hosted by Inter-Varsity, is a missions conference for North American students held once every three years. Participants were able to attend large group sessions and up to eight breakout sessions with various international speakers on a variety of topics. Dr. Janet Clark, the Senior Vice President Academic and Academic Dean of the Seminary, was one of the speakers at Urbana. There were 215 exhibitors that ranged from missions organizations to schools (including Tyndale). New Year’s Eve saw the thousands of participants have communion just before the count-down—a wonderful way to ring in the New Year, by feasting at the Lord’s Table.
‘Feasting’ and the ‘Great Invitation’ were two of the overarching themes for this Urbana and were incorporated into every aspect of the conference. Throughout the conference the hard question of “What is North America’s place in missions?” was asked. James Brooks, Tyndale’s Coordinator for Intercultural Initiatives commented how the conference framed the question, “We are no longer the privileged white Jesus-loving westerners we once thought we were, but we are a broken people in need of God’s love who are partnering with other broken people from around the world to continue to share God’s love.”
The idea of every tribe, every nation and every tongue was another powerful theme at this year’s Urbana, from the songs sung in different languages (New Years was rung in to a worship song in Hindi) to the various international speakers.
To read about the Urbana experience from Tyndale staff and students, visit the Tyndale Urbana blog site where you can read how speakers and challenges left a mark.