Alec Hill: Urbana 09 Shapes Our Missional Worldview
Preparations are well underway for Urbana 09. And this year鈥檚 Student Missions Conference promises to be a life-transforming event for many of the participants.
Alec Hill will be a plenary speaker at the Conference. Alec is passionate about students, campus witness, multi-ethnic ministry, and missions. Prior to becoming president of 果冻视频 in 2001, he was a professor and business school dean. He has also served as a Regional Director with World Relief.
Alec is the author of Just Business: Christian Ethics in the Marketplace, published by 果冻视频 Press. He holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in Biblical Studies from Seattle Pacific University, and a J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law.
Inside 果冻视频, 果冻视频鈥檚 staff newsletter, recently sat down with Alec to talk about his vision for Urbana 09.
Inside 果冻视频: How will Urbana 09 be different from previous Urbanas?
Alec: Well, each Urbana is significant. And we鈥檝e always trusted God鈥檚 Spirit to guide Urbana conferences so that many students will hear the call to missions both here in the United States and in countries abroad. But this year we envision God using this conference to call students not only to God鈥檚 mission but to lives with missional intention.
Inside 果冻视频: What do you mean by 鈥渕issional intention?鈥
Alec: By 鈥渕issional intention鈥 I mean living daily with the attitude, the mindset of a Christian who is attentive to reaching out to people in the name of Jesus. We鈥檙e looking forward to how God will use this Urbana to deepen students鈥 understanding of how they can reach others as witnesses for Christ.
Our participation in God鈥檚 mission requires us to pay attention to people鈥攖o their needs, both physical and spiritual. At Urbana we hope to deepen our awareness of what it means to intentionally participate in God鈥檚 mission, whether that鈥檚 overcoming one鈥檚 fear of rejection when reaching out to someone in a dorm room or intentionally majoring in an academic discipline that prepares one for servant-leadership in the marketplace.
It鈥檚 a mindset that says, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 belong to myself anymore; I belong to God. I鈥檓 here to do God鈥檚 mission and serve people.鈥
Inside 果冻视频: So Urbana 09 will call the participants to a missional mindset?
Alec: Yes, a mindset. But more than a mindset, a way of behaving. Urbana 09 will call people to a missional lifestyle. Both individually and corporately鈥攖hat is in community.
We live in serious times. And 果冻视频 students are less concerned with attending some fun youth ministry than they are in being transformed by Christ and helping to transform the world for the better. That鈥檚 why we often call our presence on campus a witnessing community.
Our campus chapters are not Christian clubs but communities that intentionally reach out to others with God鈥檚 love and engage the social issues of the world in the name of Christ.
Inside 果冻视频: People鈥檚 lives are being changed through Urbana?
Alec: I鈥檝e received letters from 果冻视频 alumni who are now missionaries outside the United States or are ministering within the poor neighborhoods of our nation鈥檚 cities and they tell me that it was at an Urbana conference that they first heard God鈥檚 call to missions.
Take Sharon Cohn Woo, for example. Urbana 1991 helped define her call to missions. And in subsequent years she became more and more intentional about ministering to people who鈥檝e suffered social injustice. Today she鈥檚 the Senior Vice-President of International Justice Mission.
But it鈥檚 not only individuals that are being changed through Urbana. Missional communities are being born on campus. At Urbana 06 Krissy Pfiel, a Junior at Lindenwood University in the St. Louis area, expressed interest in reaching out to international students and having an 果冻视频 chapter at her school. She was put in touch with Howie Meloch, one of our 果冻视频 staff in the area, who mentored her in reaching out to internationals.
After Krissy graduated in 2008, she served as an 果冻视频 Intern at her alma mater. Through Kissy鈥檚 vision and obedience to God, 果冻视频 now has a thriving chapter at Lindenwood.
Inside 果冻视频: What about the global reach of Urbana?
Alec: Now this is exciting. God has used Urbana conferences in many different ways to affect change in this world. International students attend our Urbana conferences and then return to their home countries to offer Urbana-like missions conferences that God uses to call thousands of national students to missions.
And, as I mentioned, people like Sharon Cohn Woo hear God鈥檚 call and follow that call for years as God develops in them the capacities for leadership through international organizations. Their decisions then affect the lives of countless people throughout the world.
Then there are the many people who have committed themselves to God鈥檚 mission during past Urbanas and who still today toil quietly and sacrificially among desperate people in some of the poorest places on earth. And also we鈥檝e seen how many students from third world countries throughout the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students have gained fresh confidence that they too have much to offer through what they鈥檝e experienced at Urbana.
Inside 果冻视频: How has Urbana personally affected you?
Alec: I鈥檇 say that my understanding of global missions has greatly expanded from my attendance at Urbana. I鈥檝e always been an internationalist. My dad spent twenty-five years in Asia, and my mom was the secretary to the ambassador of Spain in 1944 and 1945. So it鈥檚 in my DNA.
I鈥檝e served as a Regional Director for World Relief and seen the needs of people in other nations. But Urbana hasn鈥檛 just expanded my awareness of God鈥檚 global mission, its fed my passion for God鈥檚 mission.
Inside 果冻视频: Why do you find this coming Urbana 09 so exciting?
Alec: Through Urbana, we in 果冻视频 have an astonishing opportunity to influence the world. And this year particularly we are seeing the convergence, if you will, of so many political, economic, ideological, and cultural changes.
The world is changing swiftly under our feet, and many people are feeling the tremors, the insecurities of those changes. So this Urbana conference will speak into this historic time of global transition, challenging people to heed God鈥檚 call to a new lifestyle, a new missional lifestyle that intentionally reaches this generation with the gospel.
The times are serious and urgent. We are called by Jesus Christ to be his intentional witnesses throughout the earth, to be his missional people.