A Kentucky Christian college has abruptly stopped their 24-hour revival worship two weeks after attracting thousands from across the United States and overwhelming the small town.
Asbury University, which has a student body of less than 1,700, is located about half an hour outside of Lexington and drew international and national attention after students refused to leave following a chapel service on Feb 8.
A revival, defined in biblical terms, allows for spiritual worship with many students spending hours and days praying, crying, and reinvigorating their faith with God and is not the first in the town of just 6,000 people.
This is the first time since 1970, when classes shut down for a week with nightly services for a further two weeks, that a revival of this magnitude has happened in the area. The school’s most recent revival was in 2006.
A Kentucky Christian college has abruptly stopped their 24-hour revival worship two weeks after attracting thousands from across the United States and overwhelming the small town
Asbury University, which has a student body of less than 1,700, is located about half an hour outside of Lexington and drew international and national attention after students refused to leave following a chapel service on Feb 8
A revival, defined in biblical terms, allows for spiritual worship with many students spending hours and days praying, crying, and reinvigorating their faith with God and is not the first in the town of just 6,000 people
Word quickly spread of the daily worship as videos were rapidly uploaded to social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram.
Footage of people crying, praying, singing with their hands extended above them and holding hands with strangers have emerged over the past two weeks.
But the overwhelming draw has forced the University to reconsider public service and abruptly stopping the 24-hour service to students as of Monday.
The town of only 6,000 has felt the strain as thousands from across at least 22 colleges and others came to pray, the mayor of Wilmore working with the school to address logistical issues, Fox News reported.
The movement began after students refused to leave following a chapel service on Feb 8, and the services have since grown to pack the school’s auditorium and spill out into parts of the community.
Local restaurants and hotels have been scrambling to keep up with demand – with more people in town than the number of available bathrooms.
Beginning Monday, the afternoon service will be accessible to everyone while the evening service will only admit high schoolers and individuals aged 25 or below, according to WDRB.
The last public service was scheduled on Sunday at 7.30, afternoon services will continue until Wednesday at 2pm and will be officially moved off-campus Friday.
Asbury’s communications director, Abby Laub, told WDRB that it was time for normality to resume.
‘We recognize life for the students had to return to normal, they have to go to school, they have midterms next week,’ she said.
‘They know this is a gift, they have received it as a gift, so we are going to charge them with now you take this to your job, your family, your church.’
Craig Keener, who serves as a professor of biblical studies at nearby Asbury Theological Seminary, said the revival’s ‘public phase’ should ‘wind down’ for the sake of students.
‘The public phase needs to wind down soon—right now there are twice as many visitors in town as residents and some lines stretched into the next block,’ he wrote in a Facebook post.
‘Many of us were praying for revival for our university and seminary,’ Keener continued.
‘We didn’t realize how many others were thirsty, now filling the university’s auditorium, front lawn, seminary chapels, a Baptist church, a Christian church, a Vineyard and Methodist church, plus some of the seminary cafeteria and gymnasium.’
Footage of people crying, praying, singing with their hands extended above them and holding hands with strangers have emerged over the past two weeks
The last public service was scheduled on Sunday at 7.30, afternoon services will continue until Wednesday at 2pm and will be officially moved off-campus Friday
The university’s president, Kevin J. Brown, remarked in a statement echoed these sentiments.
‘Students have not only had to juggle various campus commitments … but also the throngs of people who have entered the dimensions of their space,’ said Brown.
‘For some, this has created a sense of being unsettled and even alienation from their campus community.
‘Along with a new schedule, we are working with several groups to increase security, prayer and ministry support, event management, and overall logistical planning,’
The school will no longer live-stream or broadcast anything from indoors and will search bags before people enter Hughes Memorial Auditorium where prayers had been taking place.
Editor of Asbury’s student newspaper, Alexandra Presta, wrote that questions of safety had been on her mind since the violence at Michigan University.
‘When we get to learn, we grow in our spiritual formation, gifts, callings, and our relationships with God in general. However, our focus has been deterred; our safety is becoming at risk,’ Presta wrote.
In Christianity, the term ‘spiritual revival’ means a reawakening interest in church and God from believers and nonbelievers.
‘What you’re seeing on social media is a real-time version of how revival has always spread in American history through accounts that inspire other people in other locations,’ Editor in Chief of the Gospel Coalition Collin Hansen said.
Revivals have a long history in American colleges, many of which were founded by church groups that looked to the events as a part of student life, either to convert students or deepen their faith, Andrea Turpin, associate professor of history at Baylor University, told the Religion News Service.
Experts said revivals can occur when people feel things have gone wrong or there is need for hope for those who have traveled for the Kentucky revival many said it was needed during this ‘time of unrest and uncertainty.’
The hashtag #asburyrevival had more than 68 million views on TikTok as of Sunday afternoon and news of the revival had traveled through its participants.
‘The university made an intentional decision not to publicize this because we wanted to place an abundance of respect toward the experience of our students,’ Brown told NBC News.
David Legge, who is engaged in a ministry as an itinerant preacher and Bible Teacher, said the Asbury Revival was brilliant in its simplicity.
‘There were no celebrity praise leaders. There were no famous names giving addresses,’ Legge told the MSN.
‘There was nothing for people to go there to other than the presence of God and what they felt God was doing in this space.’
David Legge, who is engaged in a ministry as an itinerant preacher and Bible Teacher, said the Asbury Revival was brilliant in its simplicity
This is the first time since 1970, when classes shut down for a week with nightly services for a further two weeks, that a revival of this magnitude has happened in the area. The school’s most recent revival was in 2006
Hansen compared the current revival to others spearheaded by youths, such as the Great Awakening in the 1700s and the Jesus Movement in the 1970s.
‘This is regular but spontaneous and you can’t plan it,’ Hansen said.
‘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.’
Similar movements have reportedly spread to Christian campuses such as Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, and Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.
