Urbana Observations

This seminal missions conference returns to its roots

I was privileged to have been able to attend the 2025 Urbana Missions Conference that was held the last four days of December, culminating with New Years Eve. A number of you have written to me about my impressions of the event. Before I do that, I should note that the past couple of Urbana conferences have received criticism from the mission agency community because a drift away from the historical missions emphasis that Urbana represented. The past few events felt more like internal Inter-varsity conversations responding to cultural shifts and changes. The purpose of what I am writing here is not to dwell or comment on these criticisms but to tell you what I observed at this event.

One of the first things that struck me was how incredibly well done the orientation process was. All participants who attended the conference were given the Trucenter evaluation. Trucenter is a motivations assessment. It focuses on what things you are naturally inclined to lean into during the course of your life. You might compare it to Strength Finders or Working Genius, but it is different. At Missio Nexus, we offer Trucenter at a discount to our members, and Trucenter has had some field testing for longevity in missions leadership. At Urbana, it was a slightly truncated version of Trucenter, but it provided five motivations, and these were placed on the name badges of participants. This made a statement right from the beginning that InterVarsity was seeking to align a person’s passions and inclinations with what God is doing in the world. I had numerous discussions with people about their motivations, comparing motivations, and overall this was a great exercise.

During this orientation process, there was an onboarding film that everybody sat through. If you have been tracking here on the Substack, you’ll know that I have been writing about the importance of the Grand Narrative. We must connect the Great Commission to what God is doing from Genesis to Revelation. Well, the Urbana 2025 orientation film was an introduction to the gospel by using the Grand Narrative. Urbana scored a lot of points in my ledger with that video, and the conference had not yet started!

The entire conference used the book of Jonah as the central Bible text. This is a very strong text to use for a mission conference. The devotionals were led by Anne Zaki from Egypt, and each one was a reminder of this overall framework. The Bible teaching was led by Jon Tyson. It was my first time hearing him teach, and I was impressed at how well he was able to communicate to this audience. The guy has the gift of teaching, no doubt. I could not help but notice how well he connected to the GenZ themes as they fit into the story of Jonah.

I did not attend every plenary session, as I had other meetings scheduled but thosw I did attend were well done. The global missions messaging was very clear. They highlighted both traditional missions work as well as “faith/work” issues, generosity, told numerous stories of how God has worked in people’s lives, and highlighted specific missions strategies (in Bible translation and church planting). There were some fun bits sprinkled in, like a first ever viewing of an unreleased Chosen clip.

The worship music was not what I expected based on the past few Urbanas. It was more of a contemporary approach than the multicultural music that has been typical. The students loved it and there was quite a celebration each session, but the New Years Eve session was really powerful and high energy - as in “Forrest Frank energy.”

In fact, that last session was the home run session for me personally. Sarah Breuel gave a challenge in which she highlighted her own call into missions, the decision point that she reached as a young person, and the difference that her decision has made in her life since then. It was powerful, highly relatable to the students and communicated how God was speaking to her through the word as she entered ministry. Mark Matlock, the director Urbana, then led a time in which students could record their life intentions using the Urbana app or a commitment card. As this happened, people were praying and calling out to God. It was a Holy Spirit moment. Nothing like being in a room with 7,000+ students prayerfully contemplating their future.

There was a “Mob Hub” which is a bit of insider language for “Mobilization Hub” or, in Missio Nexus language, an “Exhibit Hall.” It was well staffed and attended. When I spoke with agencies, they were very happy about the traffic they were getting and indicated there was quite a bit of interest. Intervarsity went the distance here, not only inviting these organizations but providing feedback to them. They conducted a study last year about how GenZ might view their marketing materials. When I saw that they were doing that, my first thought was, “Missio Nexus should have come up with that idea!” Super creative and hats off to the Urbana team for being so thoughtful about exhibitors.

I participated in the church track, led by Ed Stetzer. This was something new for Urbana - a track dedicated to church leaders. I thought that there might be 50 to 60 people in the room but when gathered, it was more like 150 to 200 [EDIT: I was just told via email that there were 400 chairs setup and it was full]. Good interaction and a very positive tone all week. Ed’s first session was an overview of missiology and it was quite well done. There were other speakers for the rest of the sessions, including Lisa Pak from Finishing the Task and Michelle Atwell from SEND International.

Urbana has been criticized as moving away from a missions emphasis and were getting too involved in political issues. I felt this myself at the last event. At Urbana 2025, the global Great Commission was front and center. In the sessions I attended, I only heard one political reference (I bet the organizers were not particularly excited about it). This was a missions conference designed to help students consider their role in the unfolding global missions movement. It was not exactly a return to the “good old days” (which are long gone) but a GenZ focused event that was surprisingly rich in content and approach.

Kudos to Intervarsity and Mark Matlock for pulling off such an excellent event. I would bet that interest in Urbana will rise along with the revitalized missions vision. Mark will be speaking at the 2026 Missio Nexus CEO/2iC Retreat - if you are leading a ministry, we would love to see you join us.