Musings on Urbana 2009

I spend most of this week at the Urbana Missions Conference to help man a booth for Synergy Ministries, an organization that I founded that sends short-term teams of professional and students to provide pro-bono business and technology consulting to Christian businesses and ministries in the third world. It was my second time at Urbana as an exhibitor, and I have to say that I benefitted from my time there. Some musings:

• The conference has taken place in St. Louis for the last two years (2009 and 2006), but since it's seared in people's minds as "Urbana", having been held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign since its inception, InterVarsity has opted not to mess with that. I did ask a couple of InterVarsity leaders why they didn't move the conference to a warmer weather central US city to mitigate winter weather problems (Dallas or Houston, anyone?), I was told that St. Louis was also favored due to its status as a economically struggling city, which could really use the local economic stimulus of a major multi-day conference. Fair enough. David Bing (mayor of Detroit), I think you need to make a phone call to InterVarsity headquarters.
• Signs of the weak economy are evident everywhere, and Urbana was no exception. The attendance was down to 17,000 from 20,000 three years ago, and if my "finger in the air" sense was that exhibitors were perhaps a tad more reserved in terms of their free giveaway "flair".
• I couldn't notice 3000 less attendees when in the Edward Jones Dome, where the main sessions, including the praise & worship sets, were held. Praising and singing with so many people is something amazing to experience, and I was thankful for yet another chance to do that.
• Personally, it was a spiritually refreshing time for me. I struggled in the beginning of the conference with feelings of condescension, even disdain, towards the students and fellow exhibitors. I think much of it was a "you guys are so incredibly naive and/or stupid and your giddy enthusiasm makes it obvious to me that you have no concept of the real world" attitude towards others. I think God was gracious in revealing just how wicked and arrogant my heart was, even leading me to ask for prayer from conference people who were doing prayer ministry - that I wouldn't simply just go through the motions as a "salesperson", but genuinely be encouraged, challenged and admonished by God as a participant of the conference. I think that happened.
• As more of an explanation than an excuse, I think being in the New York metropolitan corporate workplace and living in the Northeast tends to ramp up the cynicism (and associated confidence-bordering-on-arrogance) factor, which is particularly deadly if you're already a predisposed cynic as I am. I think God really spoke to me in many of the talks and the large group studies of the Gospel of John, and I felt as if there was some healthy "re-calibration" of my mindset and heart. Put simply, the "real world" isn't evidence of the irrationality or inaccuracy of biblical joy and hope - no, I'm not smarter or more savvy than everyone else. If anything, I'm neck-high the foolishness of the world when I fail to anticipate or expect God's redemption in places I may least expect it.
• While all of Ramez Atallah's expositions of John were excellent, including a hard-hitting talk about social justice and wealth and stewardship, the best talk I heard was York Moore's altar call. Powerful, powerful stuff.
• One of the way that this metamorphosis manifested itself took place the last night I was there, where a "Business as Mission" (a.k.a. BAM) reception was being held at the hotel. I had some great conversations with students and I found myself really loving the people who were there. Students kept picking my brain about both Synergy as well as the challenges of being a "corporate workplace Christian" and I was happy to share my own thoughts and experiences. By the end of the conference, I think my attitude towards them had changed from "disdainful arrogance" to "older brother kinship".
• I had dinner with Patrick Lai, a tentmaking guru of sorts, and enjoyed hearing his perspectives on Business as Mission. He clearly has a great deal of experience in this area and wasn't at all shy about his points of view on the concept of "full-time ministry", the word "missionary", the emergence and effectiveness of "BAM" over other missionary contexts, and so forth. I didn't necessarily agree with everything that he said, but his experience and passion for the Kingdom demanded and earned my respect.
• Something that came up in more than one conversation was what I'll call the commercialism of missions. That is - missions becoming an industry, with people in one clearly having incentives to "beat the competition", thus leading to the hoarding of best practices and even the not-so-subtle marginalization of a competing missions organization so that short-term missionaries' or donors' precious dollars will flow to your organization. It would sadden me to think that the "Global Connections" exhibit at Urbana is essentially no different than a software convention - just a bunch of vendors who will collaborate selectively, but is clouded by an understandable desire to win while crushing the competition and thus put food on the table for one's own family. Patrick hinted that BAM has less of this phenomenon, since a BAM unashamedly seeks to profit and self-finances their "ministry". I personally think there's a place for a variety of means of reaching the unreached.
• One of the things that I enjoy most about Urbana is the opportunity to meet up face-to-face with friends who work for InterVarsity. As one staff worker put it, "Urbana is usually mandatory attendance for all InterVarsity staff unless you're nine-months pregnant or getting married, but waivers were granted a little more liberally with the bad economy." It was particularly sweet to meet with Shannon Lamb, who along with her husband Dave were my staff workers at Penn, and two of the most influential people in my journey of faith. We talked about mutual friends, what we've been up to in the past ten years, and (particularly important to me) I had the opportunity to tell her how much I appreciated her and Dave's shepherding and discipleship, and that whatever ministry fruit that I've yielded as an adult have been largely influenced by their teaching, example, and care.
• One of the things that I think InterVarsity, and by extension, Urbana does very well is the getting the "whole picture" when it comes to the holistic nature of God's work, and thus the holistic purpose of missions - not simply to see souls saved, but to see God's redemptive work manifest across the board, with hungry fed, naked clothed, and enslaved free. One thing that Ramez said summed it up well in one of his talks, referencing a great quote from John Stott - "If we love our neighbors as God calls us to, yes, we must them about Jesus. But if we truly love them as much as God call us to, we will not stop there."

A great experience. God-willing I'll have another chance in the future to experience this yet again.