What are these Students Reviving Anyway?

On February 8th, a group of students at Asbury University stayed in the chapel after normal worship hours and continued to pray. And this sparked a revival in that place that attracted tens of thousands of worshippers from around the country over almost the entire month of February. This phenomenon spread to other Christian and even secular campuses alike around the country at the same time.

The little town of Wilmore, Kentucky was overwhelmed with visitors, people parking their cars wherever they could find an empty space. Pedestrians and drivers were urged to use extreme caution as they made their way to the small chapel at Asbury U. But what was all the fuss about, I mean, some students stayed after chapel to continue worshiping and praying. 

This was not the first time a revival of this nature has occurred at Asbury. Revivals have occurred dating back to 1905 with the most recent occurring in February of 1970. This revival was similar to the current one, beginning after a morning chapel service and lasting for 185 hours. Remember what was going on in our country in 1970?

So what are these kids doing on the campus at Asbury and at the couple dozen other colleges around the country? They are engaging, maybe for the first time, with the Holy Spirit of God in a way that is pure and sacred. There aren’t any celebrity performers or preachers on the stage, although many flocked to the little village in central Kentucky. The spotlight is definitely on the Holy Spirit as people from all over the world converge to experience it for themselves.

The irony is not lost on me that this revival is occurring in the same general area as the most famous camp meeting of the early 19th century at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, KY. This was a revival started by some immigrants from England that brought with them their protestant approach to following Jesus, Methodism. (Ok, I hear all my Baptist friends chuckling that of course the Methodists would hold a revival in Bourbon country). The Cane Ridge Camp Meetings sparked an evangelical movement through the new frontier of the United States, that would carry the Gospel to the backwoodsman and mountain folk of the Appalachian region and beyond.

The “public” service at Asbury University ended on Monday, February 20, but there are plans for a continuation of services for students and local high school kids going forward. And as I write this blog post two days later, the Christian media and academics are scrutinizing and pulling apart the events to understand what happened at Asbury. The questions are flying fast and furious: is this real or was it contrived, what if their theology was off, was this just a social media frenzy?

But I agree with an article written in The Gospel Coalition (yes all my moderate peeps, it's ok to read TGC). There is a more important question we need to ask and it is the same one Jesus asked the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5: Do you want to be healed?

Deep down we all want revival in our lives but us “church folk” get tangled up in the surface trappings of “going to church.” We think we want revival but most things we do and think contradict the idea of revival. These students at Asbury University broke through the surface, the rituals and programs, of church and engaged with the power of the Spirit and let their space, their minds, and their hearts be used as vessels for God to flex, as the kids might say. But what’s next?

I have worked with churches all over the country that want revival for their congregations, for more people to accept Jesus. But the hard work comes after the revival, the work of following Jesus as His disciples. Jesus told his first century followers that the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. Is your church prepared for the hard work of connecting, engaging, teaching, nurturing, and most importantly, loving, Jesus’ disciples in your midst?

Don’t miss the point of the revival at Asbury U. It might have been held in a chapel but it was definitely going on outside the church on a college campus. Are you ready to embrace the Spirit moving in places that we don’t necessarily consider sacred? Is your ministry prepared to meet the people the Spirit touches to guide them into a life-long relationship with Jesus? Are you through blaming the chaos of the world around us and turning into the order of the Creator God? Where will revival happen next? I can’t wait to find out!