The kingdom of God is a beautiful and diverse place. It is multinational, multicultural, multilingual, and multidenominational. It is here with us now, and is yet to come in its fullness.
But there is an enormous difference in learning about something and experiencing it. You can look at all the photos in the world of the peak of a mountain, but you will never understand what it is like to stand there, seeing the world sprawled out before you, until you experience it.
When I went to Urbana in 2015, this was what it was like for me. I attended the conference because my mentor at the time told me stories of his own experiences singing worship in many languages and meeting people from all walks of life. He told me how Urbana had impacted him and opened him to seeing that the body of Christ is global—that the kingdom of God is diverse and multicultural. I believed him. And yet, I wasn’t prepared for what seeing it myself would be like.
The view from the mountaintop is spectacular. It changes you.
The perspective from the peak is what impacted me. I realized that if we are truly made in the image of God, then everything true, good, and beautiful about humanity is infinitely truer in God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each culture, just like any individual human, contains and emphasizes different virtues and gifts (along with different sins). As any one Christian is a single part of the Body, so each culture is limited in how it glorifies God. It is impossible for any one person or culture to image God fully, so as we see and experience more cultures, we gain a greater experiential understanding of God’s character and goodness.
Urbana 2015 allowed me to live this reality, to experience it firsthand. Singing in many languages, praying for persecuted countries around the world, attending workshops by a diversity of experienced kingdom-builders; these things drove me into cross-cultural missions. I went to Asia the following year on a short-term mission trip, and got to experience this reality on another level.
Then I participated in Urbana again in 2018. We studied the biblical story of diversity and uniformity:
It all starts in Genesis 1:28, in God’s original blessing over his image-bearers:
‘“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”’
And while this blessing is admittedly vague, we receive clarification in Genesis 10 and 11. In Genesis 10 we read the table of nations: a description of how Noah’s sons become the fathers of a diversity of nations. And all this stops in Genesis 11, when Babylon is founded, and becomes a uniform people, gathered in one place, speaking one language, and oppressing one another with the same kind of harsh labor that Pharaoh subjects Israel to in Exodus 1. This is because Babylon desires unity in rule, from a uniformity of people.
The climax of Babylon’s evil comes to us in Revelation. And in Urbana 2018, the call to mission was direct and cutting, coming straight out of this passage in Revelation 18:4:
“Come out of [Babylon], my people, so that you will not share in her sins”.
My wife and I had just gotten engaged and were discerning what our next steps would be. I had this “peak” experience through Urbana 2015, by participating in missions, and through the international student ministry at my university. My wife had taught high school in Mexico for 2 years. We were locked in on cross-cultural life but looking for direction and clarity. But this call spoke to us. Would we choose into our comfort zones, following Babylon’s easy lies? Or would we choose to step out in faith?
My wife was challenged not to just go with me as I did mission work, but to be a full participant in that work. To be sent out in her own right. We sang a bilingual song, Somlandela / Love is Calling, and the chorus said:
Love is calling out to everyone here in this place,
Love is calling out:
Will You go for me?
We met dozens of missionaries who were already serving cross-culturally, showing us the wide variety of ways ministry can be done. Our experience unified our vision for missions and sent us back off to life inspired to take risks, and step out in faith, to pursue the building of a diverse kingdom. For us, Urbana 2018 provided the space we needed to open ourselves up to the Spirit, and really listen. The conference provided all means possible for God to speak to us, from prayer ministry to solitary prayer space, from joyful cross-cultural worship to powerful conversations with other people at the conference.
In Revelation 7:9-10 we saw God’s vision for humanity, in contrast to Babylon’s:
‘After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”’
John sees a diverse group of people, who he can visually identify as many peoples, and visually identify as from many different tribes, and can audibly identify as speaking many languages, worshipping Christ.
We were incredibly impacted by Urbana to participate in Global Missions, and the conference helped us gain clarity on what God was calling us to. This gave us the courage to say yes.
We’ve now been working in missions full time in Colombia for 4 years. Our time here has been one experience after another of experiencing God’s diverse and beautiful kingdom, a kingdom we are grateful to be part of, and one we long to see flourish across the nations.
Judah serves alongside his wife, Jessie, in Barranquilla, Colombia, with their son Henry. Together they run English immersion Christian camps, where their goal is to connect and mobilize Christian youth from a variety of church backgrounds. Judah has a passion for discipleship, bible study, and unity in the body.
