With more than thirty-four thousand books representing more than seven hundred titles, InterVarsity Press (IVP) will soon be hosting the largest missions bookstore in the world at the twenty-sixth Urbana Student Missions Conference.

The Urbana 22 Conference, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, will include more than five thousand attendees and nearly two hundred seminars and organizations. It starts on Wednesday, December 28, and concludes at midnight on New Year’s Eve. During this four-day conference, participants engage in a variety of experiences, including multicultural worship sessions, seminars, Bible studies, testimonies from the global church, and prayer ministry. And IVP employees and volunteers will once again construct and serve at the expansive pop-up bookstore for Urbana.

Al Hsu, senior editor for IVP, will be participating in his tenth Urbana Missions Conference this year. He said, “When I attended Urbana 93 as a college student, I was amazed and overwhelmed by the big picture of what God was doing in the world. So I found my way to the IVP bookstore at Urbana, where I bought every Book of the Day and dozens of other books to help me navigate my next steps after the conference. I literally brought two boxes of books home with me on the bus! The books students encounter at Urbana can help them discern their vocation and get them to wherever in the world God may be calling them to serve.”

Urbana began over seventy years ago in 1946 in Toronto, Canada, with five hundred seventy-five students. Since then, Urbana has called nearly three hundred thousand people to whole-life, whole-world discipleship. For many years, Urbana was hosted in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois—hence the name Urbana.

Ruth Hubbard, vice president for Urbana, said, “I’m one of thousands upon thousands of Urbana alumni who have been discipled in my journey of ‘yes’—in my development as a whole-life, whole-world disciple of Jesus—by IVP authors through their books. I’m thrilled that, once again, Urbana participants will have access to curated resources in Book of the Day offerings that will challenge, inspire, instruct, and activate them as witnesses.”

Books on sale at the conference will once again be discounted anywhere from 30 to 80 percent off. The bookstore will also be featuring the ever-popular Books of the Day that are just seven dollars. This year the Urbana Books of the Day will include the following:

• First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament by Terry M. Wildman

Many First Nations tribes communicate with the cultural and linguistic thought patterns found in their original tongues. The First Nations Version (FNV) recounts the Creator’s Story—the Christian Scriptures—following the tradition of Native storytellers' oral cultures. 

• The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best by Irwyn L. Ince Jr.

The church is at its best when it pursues the biblical value of unity in diversity. Pastor and theologian Irwyn Ince boldly unpacks the reasons for our divisions while gently guiding us toward our true hope for wholeness and reconciliation.

• God Speaks Through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming by Drew Jackson

In this dynamic collection of poems, Drew Jackson explores the first eight chapters of Luke’s Gospel. These are declarative poems, faithfully proclaiming the gospel story in all its liberative power.

• The Reluctant Witness: Discovering the Delight of Spiritual Conversations by Don Everts

Everts grew up assuming that spiritual conversations are always painful and awkward. But his surprising—and sometimes embarrassing—stories affirm what Scripture and the latest research reveal: spiritual conversations can actually be a delight. With original research from the Barna Group on spiritual conversations in the digital age, this book offers fresh insights and best practices for how to become eager conversationalists.

• Here in Spirit: Knowing the Spirit Who Creates, Sustains, and Transforms Everything by Jonathan K. Dodson

Who is the Spirit? Is he a person or a spiritual force? How are we meant to relate to him? What does being filled with the Spirit look like? Instead of relating narrowly to the Holy Spirit based on just a few of his gifts, this book broadens our engagement with him, touring aspects of his vast character that often go unexplored. It turns out, living here in the Spirit is the source of the most meaningful, creative, satisfying life possible.

• The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself by Marlena Graves

For writer, professor, and activist Marlena Graves, formation and justice always intertwine on the path to a balanced life of both action and contemplation. Drawing on the rich traditions of Eastern and Western Christian saints, she describes the process of emptying herself that allows her to move upward toward God and become the true self that God calls her to.

• Finding Your Yes: Living a Life That's Open to God's Invitations by Christine E. Wagoner

Would you like to live into your yes? Christine Wagoner invites you to be attentive to the movements of the Spirit and engage with opportunities God gives you on your spiritual journey. Sharing about her own yes moments as well as those of others, Wagoner offers practical tools for living a life of openness to the invitations of God in our lives.

• Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience by Sheila Wise Rowe

Professional counselor Sheila Wise Rowe exposes the symptoms of racial trauma to lead readers to a place of freedom from the past and new life for the future. In each chapter, she includes an interview with a person of color to explore how we experience and resolve racial trauma.

While most Book of the Day authors will be leading seminars and signing books at Urbana, several IVP authors will also be part of the large group plenary sessions, where conference attendees gather for worship, messages, prayer, and Bible exposition. This year IVP author Bishop Claude Alexander (Necessary Christian and Becoming the Church) will serve as the Urbana 22 Bible expositor, daily guiding attendees through the book of Acts. IVP authors Alexia Salvatierra and James Choung will be main stage plenary speakers. Salvatierra is the coauthor of IVP’s Faith-Rooted Organizing and more recently Buried Seeds (Baker Publishing Group). Choung is the author of True Story, Real Life, and Longing for Revival.

A complete list of plenary and seminar speakers is available at urbana.org, and plenary sessions will be streaming live from urbana.org.

Books and ebooks featured at the conference are already available for purchase online at urbanabooks.com. The Urbana conference discounted prices will be offered through January 31, 2023.