Participating in Urbana is like making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Each ingredient plays a critical role in helping you have the best possible experience at Urbana.
My family and I had been serving as missionaries in a predominantly Muslim country in Africa when one night, six men showed up, four of them carrying guns.
These past months, as I’ve lived in the story of Matthew’s Gospel, I’ve found a gospel written for a time like ours. I’ve found a manual for the disciples of Jesus living in a hurting world.
Over the months and years, through books, conversations, and these discipleship opportunities through his church, Sam’s approach to faith and work evolved. As his questions got better, so did his answers.
Just as you prepare for Urbana by doing things like registering, you can prepare spiritually, as well. The Matthew Challenge is one (fantastic) way to do that.
In the beginning, God made a wonderful world. But before long, we make a tragic mess of it. God’s solution is to call one family to know him and to make him known to the peoples of the earth.
The seasons I have spent intentionally memorizing Scripture sustained me and shaped me in some profound ways as I sought to do good and honor Christ in Nicaragua, China, South Africa, and the United States.
Why go all the way to Urbana to study the Bible? Can’t I do that on my own? Well, yes, you certainly can. (Please do!) But you can experience so much more of the Word when joined with a diverse community of God’s people.
As Christopher Wright says in The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative, “The writings that now comprise our Bible are the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God.” The Bible is the revelation of God’s mission. But it is also the primary tool of missions.
Since the civil war began in 2012, 3.9 million Syrians have fled their homes. They join the ranks of over 50 million refugees worldwide. Matthew’s Gospel, the text from which Urbana 15 is designed, was written for believers facing similar challenges.
