I remember it well. It was 1970. I was in the eighth grade when word began to spread that something had sparked a Revival at Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky. Asbury was not a well-known university, tucked in a small town near Lexington.
This was a gazillion years before cell phones and social media. Word spread by mouth from students to parents to churches. What had begun as a normal chapel service continued for 185 hours. The Asbury Revival was the real thing where lives were changed.
In the church, a Revival is the falling of the Holy Spirit upon the people. Few had ever seen anything like this Revival.
Now, some 50 years later, there is a new falling of the Holy Spirit. What, again, started in a chapel service at Asbury University on Feb. 8 is spreading to other campuses and churches.
People of all denominations and religious groups are driving for hours to see this amazing meeting with God. Some are actually coming from other countries. It’s been going on for over a week, during the day and night. It seems to truly be a Spiritual Awakening.
Tucker Carlson, a popular television network commentator, interviewed the student body president, Alison Perfater. He had so many questions. Alison said that the students had read, during chapel, the scripture in Habakkuk 1:5 which says, “For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe, even if someone told you about it.” NLT
The next day the network asked to come and do a segment from the chapel. The President of Asbury said, “no.” This isn’t about social media presence but the presence of God, unlike anything most people have ever seen or felt.
There are no special lighting effects, no pre-selected worship band or speakers in jeans with smoke machines. This is pure and simple worship. All student led. Hundreds are standing in line outside the chapel to get their chance to be a part of this.
This Revival is making the news on a daily basis. People have a curiosity and maybe, a need to find their faith.
There will always be naysayers. I respect their need to have a negative opinion. Even Jesus had his scoffers in Biblical times. But what if … ?
We live in a time where the powers that be are the “influencers.” Where has that gotten us?
Mental health is at an all-time low. Anger and violence are at an all-time high. Children don’t seem to know right from wrong. Social media is influencing how kids feel about themselves. Christianity is mocked. The church is seen as a place of thou-shalt-nots and not a place of love and where your purpose can be found.
Our children are spiritually dehydrated. Spiritual direction has been placed in a time-out.
Who would think this Revival would start in a small university in Kentucky? And start again some 50 years later?
I only know that what started there in 1970 changed my life as it spread to my little Nazarene Church at the corner of 10th and Grant streets in Noblesville when I was 15 years old. We were in our usual Spring Revival and its one-week duration ended three weeks later. Lives were changed. Mine was one of them.
I remember praying, at the altar, in 1970 that my life would make a difference in the lives of others. I’m still praying that same prayer.
Janet Hart Leonard can be contacted at janethartleonard@gmail.com or followed on Facebook or Instagram (@janethartleonard). Visit janethartleonard.com.