“Do you ever see something like [the Asbury revival] happening at Union?”
I looked at the prospective student, surprised and unsure how to answer. The only other time a student approached me after a student panel she asked me a question about eating in Cobo with food allergies, which was decidedly a more straightforward question to answer.
“I think God can use whoever He wants, wherever He wants, so yes, I think a revival could happen at Union,” I said. She did not look particularly satisfied with my answer, but I wasn’t sure what else to say.
Since this most recent revival happened in February of 2023 at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, this has been a popular question across campus. On February 8th, a group of Asbury students stayed late after a chapel service continuing to pray and sing. They were soon joined by more students, and a few extra minutes turned into a day, which turned into a week. The leadership ultimately asked the students to return to their normal activities after two weeks This revival has inspired students and faculty at other universities to try and start revivals of their own.
If Christian colleges want to understand revivals today, we need to understand what revivals have looked like historically. Revivals have been happening in churches, institutions, schools, and every other kind of organization all around the world for thousands of years.
“We need to distinguish between a traditional revival meeting and an unplanned spiritual awakening,” Dr. Hal Poe, Charles Colson University Professor of Faith & Culture at Union University, said. “The planned, calendered revival meeting was a staple of churches from the mid-19th century to the 1990s. Those were sparked because of the spontaneous, unplanned, unexpected spiritual awakenings when suddenly the church was revived.”
Revivals generally involve prayer, worship, fasting, reconciliation, an increase in mission efforts and a renewed passion for an individual’s relationship with Christ.
“There are two types of believers,” Dr. Todd Brady, Assistant Professor of Ministry and Vice President for University Ministries at Union, said. “There are those who want God, who long for God, who long for revival. Then there are believers who are not at a place where they have a desire for God but they want to have a desire for God. When God does a work of revival, He gives Himself to both of those people.”
Francis of Assisi in Italy, St. Patrick in Ireland, and Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Billy Graham in America are all examples of preachers who led people through revivals. Despite the differences in our societies, revivals today are very similar to the revivals from hundreds of years.
“Revivals typically come when there is a low spiritual point in the affairs of a church, a community, a country,” said Poe. “Often what happens in the revival is, a generation that had been bypassed is reached with the Gospel. One thing that is going on in our country today is that you have an entire generation that has grown up without much exposure to Jesus Christ. Revival oftentimes reaches that generation that the church had just, from apathy, failed to reach.”
Social media seems to have had a surprisingly neutral effect on revivals. These platforms are simply a way of communicating that a revival has happened to a broader audience and more quickly than the traditional word-of-mouth method allowed. Despite how moving and emotional the images of the revivals at other colleges seem to be, we must note that they are just that: images.
There is a common misconception that emotion and passion (which are so easily evoked or manufactured by social media) are the fuel for revival.
“I think it is impossible for a person to start revival,” Brady said. “God is the author of revival, that’s why it’s mysterious. If a person tries to start revival, they can seek to imitate, but it would not be true revival.”
A person can have the best of intentions, but without the moving of the Holy Spirit, it would simply be an imitation.
“I’ve always thought of revival as God doing a work where he gives His people an increased desire for Himself. I think about Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 when He says that the person who is born of God is like the wind,” Brady said.
The passage Brady is referencing says: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
If we want to see revival here at Union, we must pray for our school, but maybe not in the way that you think. We should pray for our school to have a renewed longing and passion for God and we must open ourselves to the moving of the Holy Spirit.
I tend to be a skeptical person, so when I first heard about the revival at Asbury, honestly I rolled my eyes a little bit. Horrible first reaction, I know. While it is important to discern within the Christian faith, we also need confidence in our God. Every Christian must believe that He can and does move in us to revive our faith.
After writing this article, I think I would stick with the answer that I gave to the prospective student, but I would add something else. A revival doesn’t have to be contained to a momentary event. God can use whoever He wants, whenever He wants, and wherever He wants, and I believe Union would welcome a revival with open arms. As fantastic and beautiful as a revival on our campus would be, we do not need one to rededicate ourselves to prayer, worship, fasting, reconciliation, and missions. We can all make that decision at any time with the help of the Holy Spirit.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” – Romans 8:26-27
Photo by Laila Al-Hagal
