Did it all start here? It’s hard to say. Well, the true start of it all was really around 2000 years ago at a place named Calvary or Golgotha in the Middle-East. But, more recently, what about the pandemic? Maybe it was a mix of a number of events?
Some say it did start with the Asbury revival and then everything went quiet for a while, before it began to spread. Others say that the pandemic was the catalyst. But Asbury was significant. What I do remember was seeking out the sermon which was supposed to have started it all off and caused the American college students to remain worshipping God. The sermon was about love. It was about how we all have a lack of love and therefore a deep need of God. And I guess the sermon was about God being love (and the source of it).
I spoke to an American Christian around this time for his
view.
Sam:
“Revival is always a personal matter - and response. It’s not something that is generally promoted or motivated by business or politics. Yet, the power of God through the effects of revival can transcend and effect positives in all areas of life and society.
The enemy doesn’t want revival - and will do everything within his power to thwart it. Yet, even the enemy’s power is limited to that of God’s. Believers have the Spirit of God within them - and that is more powerful than the enemy.
Remember, revival is an outpouring of the Spirit in a believer’s
heart and life. It’s possible that revival will be limited to an individual -
but, better for an individual to be affected by it, then not seeing it all. For
whether we realize it or not, each of us has an impact on all who we meet. Our
prayers and actions must not be to actively influence the masses, but rather to
move us closer to God - for it is he who has the power to move heaven and
earth.”
The Asbury revival began on February 8th, 2023 following a sermon at the campus of Asbury University in Kentucky in the US. It caused a stir at the time, with students saying they felt the presence of God and long, simple worship meetings (on this Christian campus). Soon enough, people, largely believers, from across the US, and even the world, were flocking to the campus. There were reports of change, of miracles even, and of Asbury being a ‘thin place’ where God’s presence could be felt.
If it all started there, then the person who it started with was an unnamed college student who responded to the message with tears and conviction, followed by other, unnamed students, one by one. One name I can give you is Alexandra Presta, another student there. She was the first to run with the message and wrote for the online college newspaper ‘The Asbury Collegian’.
And she wrote this:
According to student accounts, the atmosphere shifted dramatically when one student began openly confessing sins to the group, which catalyzed a deeper spiritual engagement among those present. Undergraduate Alison Perfater, then the student body president, described the moment as one where "the atmosphere changed" and emphasized that the continuation of worship was unplanned and organic. Students began singing, praying, and sharing testimonies, and the gathering quickly took on a life of its own.
The event was not orchestrated or led by any specific
individual or organization.”
This news spread. And it spread like a fire. Videos appeared on TikTok and Instagram. Before they knew it there were millions of views and it seemed as if everyone wanted to chase this spontaneous spiritual twister that had appeared. By February 15, the hashtag #asburyrevival had over 24 million views on TikTok, rising to 63 million by February 18. This 2023 revival (one which had happened before in 1970 at the Asbury college), was shaped by Gen Z’s use of technology.
It could be said that the revival at Asbury ‘ended’ when the university began to realise that the amount of people flooding their campus was too much to contain and the paying students were not concentrating on their courses. But even before they asked people to stop going there, it had spread to other US university campuses.
To American Gen Z…
