Before classes, students at a Christian university in Kentucky convene for a brief service at the college chapel twice a week. That is, at least, what they typically do. Nearly two weeks ago, a surprising event took place.
The chapel was still packed with students eight days after the first prayer because the school had experienced an incredible revival that attracted people from all across the world.
Asbury University is located in Wilmore, Kentucky. With roughly 1,800 students, it is a tiny school by US standards. It has a strong Christian character and long-standing ties to evangelical Methodism.
The biweekly chapel services at Asbury are one method in which that ethos is communicated. The typical morning service, however, abruptly changed into something very different on February 8. The students gathered and started praying, and they didn’t stop after that.
Hundreds of kids continued to pray in the chapel after the ceremony ended instead of leaving to go to class. It went for hours that later then turned to days.
When he spoke with Alison Perfater, president of the student body, on February 15, Fox News host Tucker Carlson brought attention to the event, which had already been going on for more than a week.
Perfater claimed that after the ceremony had started as usual, one worshiper got up and voluntarily confessed his transgressions. The atmosphere in the assembly was changed as a result of that setting off something.
The service didn’t seem to finish; instead, it seemed to pick up steam, and some attendees started posting about it on social media.
The amazing event attracted staff and students from 22 different US universities, people from practically every state, and even people from as far away as Brazil and Indonesia after just one week. It received 24.4 million views on TikTok.
Christianity in the US has a history of “revivals,” which are abrupt spikes in worship brought on by unanticipated events.
In truth, Asbury University and other Christian universities have a history of such incidents.
This would occur “roughly once a year,” historian Andrea Turpin reportedly told the Washington Post.
Several of these incidents have had significant effects. One from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1806, was instrumental in igniting the US drive for foreign missionaries.
They frequently transform the lives of those who participate in them, inspiring worshippers to enter the ministry or other fields of Christian service. Some of those who began praying at Asbury on February 8 may discover that their lives are taking unexpected turns.