Christian Revival Explodes, Spreads Like Wildfire to Other College Campuses Around United States https://www.westernjournal.com/christian-revival-explodes-spreads-like-wildfire-college-campuses-around-united-states/ By Randy DeSoto February 23, 2023 at 5:41am The revival fire that was ignited at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, earlier this month has spread to other campuses throughout the United States.
CBN News reported that outpourings of God’s spirit are happening at Eastern Kentucky University, Lee University in Tennessee, Samford University in Alabama, Cedarville University in Ohio, Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Texas A&M University in College Station, and Regent University in Virginia Beach.
Rob Fultz, a campus pastor at Lee University, told The Christian Post that a group of students who had watched what was happening at Asbury “asked their professor if they could go to the chapel and pray that God would move on our campus as well.”
“The professor said, ‘yes.’ The class of eight to nine students went to the chapel and began to pray. Within a couple of hours, the room started to fill with students, faculty, and staff,” Fultz recounted.
Trending: Biden Blasted for 'Insulting' Note He Wrote, Then Posted on Presidents Day: 'Total Failure' He described the continuous time of prayer and worship at Lee as “a predominately spontaneous movement of prayer” and “a beautifully sacred movement” that has continued into this week.
1:30 am, salvation, deliverance and healing are here! Isaiah 40 – a voice calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord! pic.twitter.com/IJ5fku0KMX
— Rob Fultz, Ed.D (@therobfultz) February 14, 2023
Byron Paulus — with the group OneCry, which is seeking a nationwide spiritual revival — tweeted a picture from Baylor’s campus of students gathered for prayer and worship on Sunday night.
“Growing intensity and urgency in prayer and worship will lead to accelerating movement of revival. A powerful ‘How to Pray’ document circulating on campus. Never in my 47 years of revival ministry have I seen this widespread of movement,” he wrote.
Baylor campus last night. Growing intensity and urgency in prayer and worship will lead to accelerating movement of revival. A powerful “How to Pray” document circulating on campus. Never in my 47 years of revival ministry have I seen this widespread of movement. #onecry pic.twitter.com/y4X60Ebnja
— Byron Paulus (@ByronPaulus) February 20, 2023
Samford University campus pastor Bobby Gatlin told Baptist Press that, “College students are hungry for authentic faith.”
“They long to experience a Christianity that is real and meaningful,” he said.
Are you surprised to see this happening on college campuses? Yes No Enter your email
Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Students gathered at Samford’s Reid Chapel several days in a row last week, staying until the early morning hours.
“This movement is a grassroots stirring that can only be explained by the Spirit of God working in the lives of individuals and small groups of students who are coming together in faith,” Gatlin said.
The revival is spreading.
This video was taken at Samford university in Alabama.
Young kids are standing up for God!
So incredibly beautiful! pic.twitter.com/4tQVSRj91Z
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) February 17, 2023
The unplanned, nonstop prayer meeting that began at Asbury University on Feb. 8 wrapped up Monday afternoon.
University officials announced that evening services would continue through Thursday this week for those between the ages of 16-25. Thursday is the national Collegiate Day of Prayer.
The decision came as the town of Wilmore was flooded with tens of thousands of visitors over the weekend seeking to experience God.
When a Christian Revival Goes Viral At Asbury University, in Kentucky, a student chapel service turned into a revival that has captivated TikTok.
By Thomas Lyons Illustration of the Hughes Memorial Auditorium—a light glimmers in an upstairs window between columns Joanne Imperio / The Atlantic FEBRUARY 23, 2023, 6 AM ET SHARE On February 8, after a regularly scheduled chapel service on Asbury University’s campus, in Wilmore, Kentucky, a group of about 20 students lingered and began to worship and pray for one another. The chapel speaker that day, Zak Meerkreebs, had exhorted the students to “become the love of God by experiencing the love of God,” and closed with a prayer asking God to “revive us by your love.” According to the students, as they stayed and prayed, an unexplainable, surreal peace descended upon the room. As minutes stretched into hours, many students who had gone to class returned to the auditorium when they heard what was going on. They would eventually be joined by faculty, staff, and community members who trickled in to participate in worship and prayer.
In the days since, a stream of pilgrims has made its way to Wilmore. All of the auditorium’s almost 1,500 wooden flip seats are occupied; the walls and archways leading into the gathering space are crammed with people hungering to join in. Crowds have congregated in auditoriums and chapels elsewhere in town, singing and praying and reading the Bible. There has been a steady diet of proclamation (both standard preaching and personal testimonies), public confession, prayer (individual and corporate), scripture reading, and singing. People I have spoken with who entered these spaces describe encountering a “sweet presence,” “deep peace,” or “the quiet, heavy presence of God.” A sense of awe prevails. It is, one participant told me, as if “heaven opened up.”
I live 20 minutes from Asbury and have spent nine days there since the revival began, and I see a paradox at play. The event has gone viral online—on TikTok, the hashtag #asburyrevival has more than 100 million views and counting. But its appeal is actually its physicality and simplicity. In a time of factionalism, celebrity culture, and performance, what’s happening at Asbury is radically humble. And it gives me great hope for the future of American Christianity.
As of this Friday, the university will no longer hold public worship services. “I have been asked if Asbury is ‘stopping’ this outpouring of God’s Spirit and the stirring of human hearts,” the university president said in a statement. “I have responded by pointing out that we cannot stop something we did not start.” Indeed, the phenomenon has been reported to have spread to other schools, including Samford University, Lee University, and Cedarville University.
The images from Asbury have served a Rorschach-test-like function for onlookers from afar who have projected onto them their own hopes, fears, and past wounds. Some see what could be the seeds of another nationwide Great Awakening, and others see echoes of the crowds of January 6 and the looming threat of Christian nationalism. Many have suggested that these experiences embody simple hyped-up emotionalism and lack the necessary elements for “true revival,” whether those are quotas of conversions or minimum standards of preaching time.
What people watching online miss is the sense of divine presence and the unity of purpose that worshippers at Asbury are experiencing. In my discussions with participants, they repeatedly described the sensation of time slipping away and of being filled with love for God and for others. Tom McCall, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, described “a quiet but powerful sense of transcendence.” Glimpses of the transcendental nature of the experience can be seen on the faces in the photos, but not grasped.
And so, instead, many onlookers have opted to debate whether what is happening at Asbury is a revival at all. The word revival does not appear in the Bible, but it is often used to describe outpourings of God’s Holy Spirit that result in individual and corporate transformation, including personal holiness, greater love of neighbor, and boldness to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. It tends to be used synonymously with outpouring, renewal, and awakening, although many people would nuance these usages based on the scope and impact of any given event.
Asbury University has been careful in its descriptions, favoring “outpouring.” James Thobaben of Asbury Theological Seminary is comfortable labeling this a “revival,” and President Timothy Tennent of the same institution goes as far as to suggest that it is an “awakening.” Almost everyone involved acknowledges that the event’s long-term impact is still unknown. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/asbury-kentucky-university-christian-revival/673176/