I was at Howard Payne University in 1995 when a revival broke out in almost the exact same way as the Asbury University revival in 2023. We had mass confession of sin and a deep sense of personal devotional conviction and commitment. There were people flocking to our campus to experience a mighty work of God and then take that spirit back to their campuses and towns.
I have no doubt that God is working in this revival at Asbury. What I have doubts about is what impact this revival will actually have moving forward.
From my experience, for the Asbury Revival to have lasting impact it needs to have the following:
- Strong spiritual leadership: Within weeks of the Howard Payne Revival, students and leaders traveled to other campuses and churches to give testimony on what happened on our campus. These were the people that were already leaders on campus but in the direct aftermath of the revival were whisked away to spread the good news of the revival to other places. This is no doubt a good thing but it left a hole of leadership on our campus, where it all originated.
- A Vision of a Very Real God: Many of the people flocking to Wilmore, Kentucky in the last few weeks have no other purpose other than being a part of the experience. The experience is alive, vibrant, powerful, and exciting. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? But the most important thing to come out of this revival is the realization that God is real and intends to move in his people and when he makes his presence known there is no denying the power present. If the students are not careful all that they will have is interesting stories to tell. They need to invite the same God that showed up on their campus into their dorm room, into their classroom, into their cars, and workplace. They need to expect the reality of God to not just be captured in unique worship experiences but in all aspects of their life.
- Discipleship: Whoever God has impacted during this revival will still need to Grow Up. This experience hasn’t instantly brought spiritual maturity to all of those in attendance. For this revival to have lasting impact, all of those moved by this experience will still need to participate in the long, slow process of Growing Up into the disciples that God intends for them to be. God does not want the participants of the Asbury Revival to be the same people they were before the revival. He has a much grander and fuller vision for their lives. Now that these persons have experienced an outpouring of God and the Holy Spirit the goal should be to never go back to the status quo but instead embrace the possibility of a Christlike, trustful, transformed, and easy yoke kind of life. The work of discipleship is still desperately needed in this situation and what better circumstances for disciples to be cultivated.
Grow Up Blog 