Asbury revival grips schools throughout the United States
One Wednesday in early February began as any day at Asbury University of Wilmore, Kentucky, a Christian academic institution that held a weekly chapel service at Hughes Auditorium. But by the end of this particular service, something different was taking place as some 30 students stayed afterward for prayer and impromptu worship.
Alexandra Presta, a senior at the university who is also the executive editor for the campus newspaper, The Collegian, told The Christian Post that she was one of those who initially left.
“I had left for a few minutes but then felt called to return,” recounted Presta in an interview a couple of days later. “Since then, it hasn't stopped. It's been a mix of worship, testimony, prayer, confession, silence.”
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For several days afterward, Asbury became the epicenter of an outbreak of revival, with several thousand people coming to the campus to worship, give testimonies, sing and pray.
Not only did the revival draw in students and others to the auditorium, but it also spread to other college campuses, schools and churches across state and denominational lines.
University of the Cumberlands of Williamsburg, Kentucky, was one of those campuses, Campus Minister Jacob Ratliff explained to CP, noting that his school was experiencing “significant evidence of the Lord’s work.”
“We have been encouraged by our students’ desires to see Christ exalted. They have organized two worship gatherings that have been impactful for our campus and local community,” said Ratliff. He noted that around 400 attended an impromptu Monday night service.
“It can be traced back to movements at Asbury. Students present at Asbury on Thursday night received intentional prayer from Asbury faculty and students, which encouraged them to come back and organize the worship night on Monday.”
Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, was impacted, with campus pastor Bobby Gatlin telling CP that a series of regular prayer and worship services began at the school “very organically."
According to Gatlin, Samford’s spontaneous worship came when “a Christian ministry class prayed for God to bring a spirit of revival to campus similar to what was happening at Asbury.”
“One by one, God began to create a sense of expectation among individual, disconnected students. On Wednesday night, a student brought a few friends to Reid Chapel to play piano and guitar for a time of personal worship,” Gatlin said.
“As they sang, another student arrived to pray for revival. Soon a few others joined, and God began to move. As our men’s basketball game was ending, text message group messages began to circulate telling students to stop what they were doing and get to Reid Chapel.”
Gatlin told CP that hundreds of students made their way to Reid Chapel the same week as Asbury’s revival, with testimonies, Bible reading, worship and prayer lasting until 3 a.m.
Rob Fultz, a campus pastor at Lee University of Cleveland, Tennessee, told CP about how students began continuous worship of their own after watching the events at Asbury.
Fultz called what was happening at Lee “a predominately spontaneous movement of prayer” and “a beautifully sacred movement” that was continuing for days on end without a “scripted worship service.”
Cedarville University of Cedarville, Ohio, saw a series of unplanned services take place on campus in February. President Thomas White described the event as “a special outpouring and sensing of the presence of the Lord.”
The average chapel service at Cedarville University has around 3,000 students. However, one day, approximately 1,000 students stayed afterward for additional prayer and singing.
“When I left work that day to go home to get dinner at 5:30, we still had a small group of students,” said White. “We came back to the chapel that night to do an eight o’clock prayer meeting.”
“I would guess we had about 1,000 students who showed back up that evening, and we prayed, we sang praise songs to Jesus, we read Scripture, and we were still there after 10 o’clock.”
Later on, several hundred students went to other campuses, including Michigan State University and Ohio State University, with the intention of witnessing to communities.
Gabriel Cherry, one of the students who went to MSU, told CP that there “were many sobering conversations that we had with students” and that they “were able to pray for them and encourage them in an eternal hope.”
“God's name was being lifted up in the midst of darkness, and the students were able to be encouraged, not by our efforts but by the provision of the Lord,” said Cherry.
It was not just universities, as middle school students at Grace Christian Academy of Knoxville, Tennessee, also found themselves staying after scheduled worship to pray, confess and give professions of faith.
“God can speak in showers or waves,” said GCA Upper School Principal Angie Nordhorn in a statement shared with CP, adding that God “decided to flood our campus with His presence.”
“As a tenured member of the GCA community, I only remember one other time, in 2010, when we experienced a profound demonstration of the Holy Spirit,” Nordhorn continued.
“I pray that the Lord will continue to flood our halls with His presence.”
