Urbana will launch new millennium missions The Layman Online Friday, September 3, 1999 19,300 at Urbana 1996 URBANA, Ill. – For those who are sticklers for millennial accuracy, a major mission conference at the end of the year 2000 will be the launching pad for hundreds of new world missions in the third millennium. The event is Urbana 2000, more formally known as the Urbana Student Mission Convention, Dec. 27-31, 2000. The third millennium A.D. officially begins the next day, Jan. 1, 2001, although by then it will be hard to convince most people that Jan. 1, 2000, wasn't the opening date. InterVarsity President Steve Hayner Urbana, sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the United States and Canada, is the world's largest and most influential mission conference. Steve Hayner, who is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), is the president of InterVarsity, which serves more than 30,000 students on college and university campuses in the United States. 20,000 expected to attend It is expected to attract nearly 20,000 college and university students and young adults who are interested in serving on the mission field as part of their Christian commitment. They will have a chance to meet with representatives of 240 different mission agencies and more than 50 seminaries. "I believe that God is calling Urbana to open a mission gateway to the next millennium," says Barney Ford, director of Urbana 2000. "The advance of the gospel must continue without compromise until Christ returns. Therefore, we must not see the arrival of the new millennium as a capstone, but as a launching pad for this generation of young people to carry on the worldwide mission of the church." The theme for Urbana 2000 is "Because God First Loved Us," from 1 John 4:19. Convention study Ken Fong, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church in Los Angeles, will lead the convention in studying "The One Great Story of the Bible," the story of how God has pursued all peoples since the beginning of time in order to bring them back into a relationship of love and worship. The convention was originally scheduled for December 1999, but issues associated with the Year 2000 computer glitch helped planners consider the advantages of holding the next Urbana Student Mission Convention in 2000. Delegates who would have been eligible in 1999 for a student rate will have this discount extended to 2000. Urbana began in 1946 Urbana was started in 1946 at the University of Toronto. It moved to the University of Illinois in 1948. The 18 conventions prior to 2000 have had a combined attendance of more than 194,000. The most recent Urbana was in 1996. There were 19,300 delegates from 116 countries and 15,857 made commitments to serve to some degree in Christian ministry. Evangelist Billy Graham has spoken at most previous conventions. "I don't know of any other organization of students in the world today that so motivates people for Christian work," Graham said. "And there are thousands of missionaries out today as a result of the motivation they got at an Urbana conference...it's a tremendous thing."

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