Over the last couple weeks, various media outlets have reported on the “Asbury Revival.” On Feb. 8, students at Asbury University, a Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky, gathered for their morning chapel service, but the gathering didn’t end. Student-led sharing, praying, confessing of sin, singing, and rejoicing in the saving love of Jesus went on and on—all that day, then through the night, and it’s been going on for over two weeks now.
On Feb. 14, Timothy Tennent, President of Asbury Theological Seminary, explained. “The Lord began to move in the lives of a group of students.” He was reticent to say too much: “…better to stand in awe of something” than talk about it. He compared it to a wind—the wind of the Spirit blowing as God wills (John 3:8).
Tennent offered an historical perspective: “…a deeper look at this outpouring reveals that it has the same elements which are found in any authentic revival: people repenting of their sins; people being filled with the Holy Spirit; men and women finding reconciliation with God and their neighbor; people capturing a renewed love for Jesus, the gospel and the Holy Scriptures. All of the above has been happening here day after day.”
So is it a revival? “I think it is wise to see this, at the current phase, as an awakening,” Tennent clarifies. “Only if we see lasting transformation which shakes the comfortable foundations of the church and truly brings us all to a new and deeper place can we look back, in hindsight and say ‘Yes, this has been a revival.’”
The Asbury Outpouring has drawn thousands of visitors to their small-town campus, and it’s also spread to other schools and communities around the country and beyond. Of course, some onlookers are wary of all the excitement—and there may be some eccentric manifestations. But we can give thanks that Gen-Z students are reveling in the grace of Christ. And we can also pray the God would have his way in our hearts and in our church!
