Urbana 2000 Webcast

Unwrapping the Gift

"The purpose of Urbana is to help you open the gift of worship."
- Barney Ford, Director Urbana 2000

Students today, all around the world, are spending a great deal of time in musical worship. They are humbly coming before God to know him and his character, with renewed fervency and enthusiasm. In community, they are singing God's praises.

This evening, Barney Ford, the Director of Urbana 2000, described God's gift of worship, a gift he's bestowed upon today's students and youth in unique ways. "Worship," Barney shared, "is not about itself. Worship is not first for us. Worship is about who is being worshipped. "

And through worship, God reveals two stories to his people. Firstly, God reveals his story, the reality of who he is, what he's done and what he's doing to redeem the world. Then we live our own story. We're people on a journey from a place apart from God to a place of peace and communion with Jesus. The two stories, ours and God's, are inextricably intertwined.

Then Barney posed a crucial question, one we must ask both together and on an individual basis: "What has God given us the gift of worship for?" He's granted us this gift of worship so that we might know him and his purposes. God's gift transforms us more into his likeness. Our character becomes his. Our purposes in life become his.

So now, in this holiday season of gift giving and receiving, what should we do with God's gift of worship? As Barney stated it, "When you open a gift you use it." We can allow worship to transform us. We can allow worship to motivate us to a life of proclaiming God's story, his mission on earth.

Barney attended Urbana 67 during his junior year in college. Like many students attending Urbana 2000, he had myriad questions about his future plans. He found that, as he worshiped God and was blessed by the faithfulness of others around him, pursuing an understanding of God's story inevitably led to guidance regarding his own story.

This week we explore and experience God's gift of worship. And that is the very purpose of Urbana 2000, to help students " . . . open the gift of worship. "

Read a few articles on worship by Barney:

The Gift of Worship

The Risk of Worship

Read more about Barney himself.

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