Discussing and Embodying Global Christianity: Liveblogging Urbana 2015

26 Dec 2015 6:52 PM
J. Nathan Matias | @natematias | Civic Media Blog

What does it mean to be part of a global religion, and how can we make sense of the diverse ideas, values, and politics of that belonging?

Every three years, the Urbana conference brings together 16,000 international undergraduates, grad students, faculty, and other Christians to ask these questions. As a missions conference, the central theme is deeply cosmopolitan. In the past 59 years, attendees have been confronted with the unfolding challenges of imagining and debating the mission of Christianity in our world. First launched in 1946 (the earliest days of neo-Evangelical Christianity) and coming out of complicated North American post-war cosmopolitan and humanitarian stirrings, the conference series has continued to be a place to imagine and discuss a spiritual, ethical, and political vision of Christian mission: just what is the meaning of salvation, what is our social mission, how do we find just ways to cooperate across cultures, and what role might each of us play in those issues?

Urbana’s host organizations are Intervarsity USA (who facilitate a decentralised network of 985 chapters on 649 U.S. campuses), Intervarsity Canada, and GBU Canada, who are connected to a wider global network of similar groups in 168 countries.

Discussing and Embodying Global Christianity

Each day at Urbana has four parts, which represent four very different ways of engaging with these questions. In the mornings, students have intimate discussion and prayer in small groups with others who share their interests. The afternoons are full of seminars and panels. Afternoons also include a large showroom for attendees to talk with representatives of Christian organisations. Each day ends with a collective gathering of all attendees for singing, prayer, and a talk by a headline speaker.


Photo of an Urbana 2012 seminar Session, by James Docherty

This week, I’ll be leading a team of livebloggers to document some of the seminars at this vast, multi-lingual event for Intervarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network. Among other things, we’ll be writing posts about:

Urbana is also hosting a hackathon for the very first time, something I plan to cover, as part of my ongoing writing about Christianity and technology at the Center for Civic Media blog.

While much of what we write will be for a religious audience, I imagine that most of my followers are non-religious. I’ll do my best to offer context for a wider audience. As livebloggers, we’re not endorsing or supporting any of the claims or ideas of speakers, but we do want to enrich the conversation by sharing notes from the seminars to a wider audience.

So if you’re used to hearing from me about technology and society, you should expect something very different from me over the next week. My tweets and blog should return to normal by January 2nd. Thanks everyone!