In the months leading up to Urbana I had numerous students asking me if it was really worth $800 to go to Urbana. I remember at the time really wrestling over this question. I mean I couldn’t exactly promise that it would be an amazing life changing experience and that they would receive their life’s calling (as many students might have expected). So I kept my answer simple. There is nothing else like the experience of worshipping with 20,000 people and hearing from international speakers. Yet deep in my heart I wrestled with the question, was that really worth the $800-$1000 that my students had to pay?

I remember the night before the conference, the prayer team gathered in the dome to pray for the start of the conference. About a hundred prayer folks gathered to pray and we proceeded into the dome in two lines taking turns reading the Psalms of Accent.  The Psalms of Accent (Psalms 120-134) were the Psalms that the Israelite people read as the climbed up toward the temple in Jerusalem.

Walking through the empty dome was a unique experience. With no one in it, it felt HUGE, and I was filled with awe at how many people were about to fill this place. As we recited the Psalms, I was struck by how symbolic this act was. We were sharing in the act of preparation that the Israelites took as they drew near to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of the Lord. Read the rest of this entry →