As Asbury revival winds down, participants say experience ‘redirected our priorities’
For many at Asbury University, news of the revival that started two weeks ago came through a text.
“Something is happening in Hughes Auditorium,” a friend texted Gracie Turner, a senior at Asbury.
The normally-scheduled Wednesday chapel service on February 8, which typically ends at 11 a.m., had not stopped. A small group of students stayed behind and continued worshiping. That grew into 50 students, then hundreds gathering in Hughes Auditorium.
That afternoon, Asbury President Kevin Brown sent out a two-sentence email: “There’s worship happening in Hughes. You’re welcome to join.”
Turner attended several of the services, which were happening around-the-clock for the first week. Before coming to Asbury, she had experienced severe depression and anxiety, and said she felt disconnected from God.
Throughout the services she attended, she began praying and said she felt connected to God for the first time in years.
“It was the first time where I could relax, and I felt at peace,” Turner said Tuesday night. “It kind of felt like God was telling me, ‘This is what you’ve been missing.’”
Two weeks after the revival began, Asbury will host its final revival service on Wednesday night, reserved for high school and college students. The university will host the National Collegiate Day of Prayer on Thursday, which had been scheduled prior to the revival. After that, services will be hosted elsewhere, mainly at churches.
Turner said the revival has brought the Asbury community closer together, and allowed students to be vulnerable together.
“We’re able to build these relationships with people and able to come together under one roof, and worship and love God, and be reminded of why we’re here,” Turner said. “Because this isn’t just about Asbury, this isn’t about Hughes Auditorium. This is about God.”
Services moving away from Asbury this week
Tens of thousands of people have streamed into Wilmore in the last two weeks, lining up for hours on Asbury’s campus to take part in the revival. Students from 160 colleges have traveled to Asbury to participate, said Abby Laub, director of strategic communications at Asbury.
Wilmore is a small town of 6,000, and the constant visitors became overwhelming. Cars lined all of the streets in town, and the university’s parking lots were overflowing. Visitors lined the sidewalks around campus, at time with lines a half-mile long to get into buildings at Asbury, Laub said.
Over the weekend, city and police officials reached out to the university with concerns, Laub said, which is when the decision was made to limit services to high school and college students. Worship had been taking place around-the-clock, but last week the university moved to a schedule with morning, afternoon and evening services, closing the auditorium at 1 a.m. each day.
In addition, the university wanted to make sure it was protecting its students and allowing them a safe space to continue attending classes, which didn’t stop throughout the revival, she said. At the same time, other revivals began popping up at schools and churches around the country, and other locations would be able to host services, Laub said.
“We’ve got to respect this town and the people who live here,” Laub said. “It became so clear at that same time this had spread, God has moved and this is bigger than Wilmore. It’s not shutting down, it’s spreading.”
In a statement posted to the school’s website, Brown called the revival the “high point in my career.” For those concerned about ending the services at Asbury, Brown said the movement started there is not ending.
“I have responded by pointing out that we cannot stop something we did not start,” Brown said. “This was never planned. Over the last few weeks, we have been honored to steward and host services and the guests who have traveled far and wide to attend them. The trajectory of renewal meetings is always outward — and that is beginning to occur.”
The revival has been almost completely led and organized by students, and most of the participants have been from the younger generation, Laub said. Twenty-two colleges from Kentucky have sent students to join in at Asbury.
“It was clear that it was striking a chord with Gen Z and with students, and that’s been clear since day one” Laub said. “We’ve really tried to respect that, and we’ve held space for them and had special services (for students). It was clear that God started it with them, and he was moving in their generation.”
History of revival at Asbury
Revivals have happened at Asbury in the past, in 1905, 1950, 1958 and 1970. The revival in 1970 lasted 158 hours non-stop, or a little longer than a week, and continued intermittently for weeks after.
Along with believers, well-known pastors and religious leaders have traveled from around the state and country to participate in the revival. Christian singer and songwriter Kari Jobe and author Jennie Allen made social media posts about their trips to Asbury.
The revival has begun spreading to other states, too. At Lee University, a private Christian school in Cleveland, Tennessee, a prayer meeting that started on Monday extended throughout the week.
Students at Lee began gathering on Monday, February 13, with worship services continuing throughout last week, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. Cedarville University, in Ohio, also saw revival last week, according to the university’s student newspaper.
At Asbury Tuesday night, students again lined up outside Hughes Auditorium before the 7:30 p.m. service. Some sang and prayed, while others talked before entering the building.
Abby Fletcher, a senior, said throughout the services and the busyness surrounding campus, she’s felt a sense of peace. She felt that the revival had “redirected our priorities” at Asbury.
“It’s given us a better focus on loving other, even when we’re stressed and have all these other things going on,” Fletcher said. “I think for people at Asbury, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the things we have to do ... We forget that we serve out of an abundance of God’s love for us, and that we love other people because of his love for us. It has helped us really focus on God.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 12:39 PM.