The personal cost of Urbana: $992

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There have been a couple of things on my mind lately, and although none of them are incredibly pressing matters, I find that I have somehow managed to weed those things out from the regular writing I do on this site. Someone asked me once if I kept a diary or journal and I had said that I didn’t. Little did I realize however that this site has been serving as such for about 4 years now. So, in response to that question, I change my answer to a ‘yes’, because in fact, I do keep a journal. It’s just not traditionally bound in book form like most other journals or diaries.

Missing from my journal are the thoughts I’ve had on the Urbana Missions Conference being held in Missouri at the end of this year (2006). The earliest memory of Urbana 2006 came to me from Enid. She had emailed me a “deal” for early registration through her referral. It was the one spark that I needed to get my head churning with thoughts of missions. Still, I felt like it was a dud of an email; lots of words, no bang, and definitely no personal incentive for me to go. That’s what I was really looking for: a good reason to go, and I had not found it from her referral. So the early deadline passed without seeing my name registered for the event, and I thought that it was ok. Nobody up until that point (June 15) had urged me to go, and nobody had asked me to go with them (for rooms, transportation, etc.).

The next deadline is October 15 and I am still unregistered for the event for several reasons. There’s such a large “fantastical aura” hovering over the Urbana missions conference. I personally think this is not so much from the event being successful in its objective in informing attendees of missions events around the world and to encourage them to go on missions (thought there is no doubt in my mind that they do a very good job of it), but more instead on the fact that most Christians will never experience worship and fellowship with other Christians in such large numbers (20,000+) ever again for the rest of their lives. It really may be the closest taste of heavenly worship anybody will ever get to, or at least I would think so from the descriptions given in the Bible.

Anyway, the #1 reason I have for not registering already is the price of the conference. Don’t bother wasting your breath in telling me that I shouldn’t let money be a factor in my decision to not register. I know that much already, but I still can’t believe that the registration price alone is $350. Just doing a quick airfare price check right now, the cheapest non-stop flight to St. Louis, Missouri, leaving on Dec. 26 and coming back Jan. 1, is about $380+ (about $415 after tax and additional fees). Thankfully, the Urbana conference has pre-booked nearby hotels at a price of about $17 per night (which is friggin cheap) which comes out at that rate to about $102 for 6 days’ stay (if I arrive on the 26th and leave on the morning of the 1st). Factor in food and other miscellaneous expenditures while in another state, and you add on anywhere between $100 to $150 in extra spending.

Now, doing the math, I estimated that the overall total of the conference for me would be somewhere around $992 (I added $350 for conference fee, $415 for round-trip flight, $102 for hotel, and around $125 for 5 days’ worth of food and other miscellaneous needs).

If your eyes are bulging at the price of that conference, then you may understand my predicament. I have never ever heard of any other conference amounting to nearly 1 grand in required payment just for me to make it there and experience. Sure, my church has offered to pay half of the registration fee, but that still leaves the amount I would have to pay at an outstanding $817! Yes, if your eyes are still popping out at that conference total, then you’ll understand where I am. I just can’t believe it. If I pay for this conference in total, it will only be third on my list of things that I’ve ever spent over $800 on.

And you know what really gets me? I’m normally a huge consumer of all things. Heck, this blog flaunts some of that mentality every single day on every single post. I regularly post about things I’d consider buying or have already bought. The way in which I gauge how much something is worth is by comparing it to the things I already have, and I just feel so guilty about personally wanting to just have money saved–not to spend on stupid things–but just to have some money saved for later. I do not have that much saved up right now, and I’ll have even less by the time Urbana rolls around since I have been working for FREE all summer (roughly translated, that means that the amount in my bank account would get dangerously close to the amount that most people would consider carrying around in their wallets!). Ok, now you can commence the Bible verses about not storing up treasures here on Earth but rather storing treasures up in Heaven. Yeah, ok, great. Thanks for reciting the Bible to me. Now, can you tell me what that really means to you and to me?

You know what would be great? It’d be fantastic if they left regular registration as it was, but then streamed everything online to those who can not pay or could not make it physically to the conference. I don’t think that would dwindle their attendance numbers at all. If anything it would allow their missions message and purpose to reach an audience that has been forced to stay home because of the outrageous conference total. Sure, the technology would cost some, but really, who’s thinking about money here, right? Sigh…

I really don’t like putting a price tag on the whole idea of missions because I acknowledge its importance and urgency, but I really do feel like this missions conference is so out of most people’s normal price reach for a conference. So many people that I talk to about Urbana bring up the money issue because it is something that college folks think about, especially when they are already strapped for cash and stacking up on bills thrown at them by school. I’m really just discouraged by the number. Really though, all I did now was just put in writing what so many others are thinking as they put out the money for this conference. I regret that I haven’t signed up already, and I know that I’ll regret it even more when the conference is over and people come back home with stories and all that other good stuff. I just wish that this conference wasn’t tri-annual so I wouldn’t feel so hopeless if I didn’t sign up this year.

For now though, I’m gonna need a big push on this one. A huge, huge, huge push.

PS: I wonder if Urbana would benefit from doing a conference in the style of Creation Festival, where everything is outdoors, people bring their own things to camp in, and where the registration price for all 5 days would probably never exceed $200 (I’m pulling this number from my butt right now).
I mean, Creation is only 3 days, I know, but the festival books ALL of those bands, rents out the land space (Agape Farm), and coordinates all of the facilities and activities while managing to fit just right in most people’s budgets. Two more days can’t possible jump the price that much more if Urbana took on this form of presentation, right?

PSS: I feel horrible, but I’m thinking about this too: If I sign up for Urbana, I will more or less be giving up New Years’ in NYC (the most magical of all places) for New Years’ with “brothers and sisters” (translated: strangers to me…on Earth) in Missouri (the “show-me” state…WTF?).
Why, oh why, does Urbana have to come every three years and coincide with a worldwide celebration of something that comes just once a year?!

*Update: There was an OCM bus going to Missouri for a cheap price but unfortunately, that bus has been cancelled altogether. I don’t know what is to happen to all of the people that have signed up to take it. I hear that they are trying to convince everybody to fly there instead. Somebody give me a reason for that, please. Seriously.