Off to Urbana 2015

Once held in Urbana, Champaign, Illinois, the conference has become so
large that it has been moved to the larger convention center in St. Louis

I'm off on a road trip to St. Louis to attend Intervarsity's Urbana 2015 Conference. Though I have heard about Urbana many times, as far back when I myself was a college student at the University of California, Berkeley, and listened to tapes from speakers of past Urbana conferences (e.g., Helen Roseveare), this will be the first time I will be attending the conference in person. I, another pastor, my oldest son and four other graduating high school seniors will be driving from Chicago to St. Louis for a week at Urbana. 
   I'm not sure how much of the conference will connect to my research, but if there are pastoral connections and reflections to share, I will post them here or via twitter. I personally am looking forward to hearing some challenging messages and reflect on my own call as a theological educator for the church. I'm always conscious of the need to bring the best of the academy in service of the church's mission and ministry. Being at Urbana will not only be, by God's grace, a fresh wind and fire for my own walk with Christ but also hopefully inspire me to think through the pastoral and theological implications of my own research, as I make connections between what I hear, and the conversations I engage in, with the work that I am currently doing. 
   In the end, this is a time for me to "Be still and know that the Lord is God" (paraphrasing Psalm 46:10).