Urbana Students Cross Boundaries, Head for Unity
By Elizabeth Kwon
Christian Post Correspondent
Mon, Jan. 01 2007

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The walls that divide Christians felt their foundations shake when students at one of the largest missions conferences joined their voices with hopes to declare unity.

“People tell us Christians can’t meet across denominational boundaries and [racial divisions], but this conference proves them wrong,” exclaimed Urbana 2006 host Greg Jao to thousands of students as he opened the general session Saturday.

The Urbana convention, which marked its twenty-first triennial gathering in St. Louis, Mo., garnered over 20,000 students this past week, and some 220,000 students over the course of its sixty-year history. According to Jao, Urbana has witnessed more than 60,000 churches commit to this generation of students and recent graduates.

“This is truly a multicultural, multiethnic experience,” said Daryl Black, a worship pastor at Grace Church in St. Louis and also the worship leader of Urbana 2006. Black told the Urbana newspaper that he wanted students to see unity connection beyond music as he performed with a band comprised of multiple ethnic backgrounds.

“We want people to walk away with a sense of Christian community-beyond the borders they have been,” he said. the rest