New book examines worldwide reach of Asbury Revival of 2023 | Opinion

Why did Lexington’s Costco and Sam’s Club outlets run low or out of bottled water more than once this past February? Why were Lexington overnight accommodations in short supply the weekends of Feb. 10-12 and 17-19? And why did 90 members of nine Central Kentucky police departments, including UK police officers, take on extra hours to safeguard the campus of Asbury University in that same February 2023?

The explanation centers on an ordinary Feb. 8 chapel service in Asbury’s Hughes Auditorium that ended up running an extraordinary 16 days nonstop. It caught the attention not only of Lexington, but through social media, the nation and — it is no exaggeration — the globe.

The morning of Feb. 8 a few dozen Asbury students lingered after chapel to pray and kneel at the altar. Word of subsequent swelling numbers of worshippers spread rapidly by text, Facebook, smart phone live-streaming, YouTube, and TikTok—perhaps the first instance of a social media-fueled spiritual awakening. The surprising day-and-night worship appeared to reflect a generation’s, a nation’s, and even a world’s spiritual hunger in an age of contentious division and pandemic-induced anxiety and malaise.

By the numbers the spontaneous, unscripted Asbury Revival of 2023 drew pilgrims from 40 states, 40 nations, and 279 colleges and universities for an estimated total of 50,000 to 70,000 sojourners in tiny, two-red-light Wilmore between Feb. 8 and 23. Print coverage included the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Economist. Cable news reporting included CBN, CNN, Fox, and NBC. But what literally brought Asbury to world attention were digital media platforms documented by the university’s public relations staff and a savvy sleuth of a professor of communications:

▪ The top five “Asbury Revival” YouTube videos, even though not authorized by the university, had a February viewership of 6.34 million;

▪ The TikTok #asburyrevival, again not generated by the university, mushroomed from 10 million views on February 9 to 240.8 million by April 6; and

▪ Asbury University’s Facebook page reach for February 8-23 was 15,600,644.

Those sixteen days in Wilmore had all the hallmarks associated historically with spiritual awakenings: prayer, preaching, teaching, repentance, confession, and reconciliation. In writing “Taken by Surprise,” my account of this February 2023 Asbury Revival, I originally did not intend to address criticisms, preferring to let descriptions of the winsome character of worship and spiritual renewal speak for themselves. But negative assessments — often by individuals who were not in attendance — ended up generating an appendix entitled “A Critique of the Critics.” It answers the question: was this happening at Asbury really genuine? The stress is upon marks of authenticity, many of which run counter to society’s expectations of Gen Z youth and an increasingly irreligious age. As examples:

▪ The night of February 12, the Super Bowl could not compete with worship on the campus of Asbury University and Asbury Seminary across the street. One student told LEX18 News: “Like I’m a big Eagles fan, and I didn’t even watch the Super Bowl.”

▪ One worshipper, and not of the Asbury tribe, told a Washington Post reporter onsite, “You can’t tell a bunch of college students that we’re going to pray together all night and share our secrets. You can’t plan that or engineer that;”

▪ In March-May 2023 Asbury University’s counseling service experienced an eight-fold drop in student appointments compared to the previous spring; and

▪ Asbury’s student body president offered her own no-nonsense critique: “I know this campus very well. It’s small, and I know exactly which students on this campus hate each other. Those are the people I have seen praying together, singing together, hugging, crying…. It’s been totally life-changing.”

By all accounts, because of the revival that surprised Asbury in February 2023, many will never be the same—and for the better.

Mark R. Elliott, retired professor of history, is the author of “Taken by Surprise: The Asbury Revival of 2023,” available from MySeedbed Publishing in September 2023.

This story was originally published October 3, 2023 at 11:02 AM.