Jeff Finley
By Jeff Finley
FEB. 21 UPDATE: Asbury University has responded to the large number of people coming to campus and the community of Wilmore with the following changes. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 21-22, 7:30 p.m. services in Hughes Auditorium are reserved for participants ages 16-25. Services will be livestreamed. There will be no morning or afternoon services. On Thursday, Feb. 23, Asbury welcomes the previously scheduled National Collegiate Day of Prayer to campus; the live stream will be available at collegiatedayofprayer.org/live. Beginning Friday, Feb. 24, no further public services will be held on Asbury’s campus. As part of Asbury’s intention of encouraging and commissioning others to “go out” and share what they have experienced, the university encourages guests to use other facilities for worship and gathering. More information will be shared. Visit asbury.edu/outpouring for details.
A chapel service this month at Asbury University led to an extended time of students confessing, praying and worshipping. The ongoing “time of spiritual renewal” (as the Wilmore, Kentucky, university’s website describes it) has become an intergenerational and interdenominational gathering that is spreading spiritual awakening to other campuses in the South and Midwest.
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“The Holy Spirit lit the wick of Gen Z.” – Sarah Baldwin
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“Last Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 11:00 a.m., the Holy Spirit filled Hughes Auditorium (our chapel) and has not let up. Again and again, people report experiencing God like they never have before in their lives,” Free Methodist Elder Sarah Baldwin, Asbury University’s vice president of student life and dean of students, wrote Feb. 15 on Facebook. “The Holy Spirit lit the wick of Gen Z, and now people from around the nation are putting their candle into the fire, experiencing the goodness and grace of God.”
Baldwin reported “many testimonies from college students about release from anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation” and “a healing of a freshman who due to a mild cerebral palsy had never run before —running!”
Paul Stackhouse Jr., a programmer and analyst for the university and a member of the Wilmore Free Methodist Church, explained that a gospel choir kept singing after the Feb. 8 chapel, “and then students started coming back to chapel. By noon there were many, and by mid-afternoon the chapel was comfortably full.”
When this Light + Life journalist arrived on campus midday Feb. 15, a long line had formed to enter Hughes. Estes Chapel (pictured directly above) at Asbury Theological Seminary, a separate institution across Lexington Avenue from the university, also contained many people watching a special simulcast (not publicly available online) of the worship.
You won’t find famous musicians leading worship during this Asbury awakening. Student musicians from Asbury and other campuses sing and play instruments from one side of the platform.
“Unlike a normal chapel, there isn’t anyone assigned to lead music: Musicians rotate out … as some tire, others take their place,” Stackhouse wrote on Facebook. “Because the music isn’t chosen ahead of time, there are no words to project on the screens. We sing from memory, some better than others.”
Impacting Young Adults
Two Free Methodist universities, Spring Arbor and Greenville, are among the more than 20 academic institutions with students who have traveled to Asbury’s campus in Wilmore, Kentucky, to participate in worship at Hughes.
Spring Arbor experienced its own awakening on Wednesday, Feb. 15, starting in the 10 a.m. chapel with Bishop Linda Adams. Some students reportedly remained in the sanctuary of The Arbor Church, where the neighboring university’s chapel services are held, until 10 p.m.
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“We prayed for the whole campus from the president to the dish room workers.” – Bishop Linda Adams
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“I gave a very simple message in chapel, contrasting the sadness and silence at [Michigan State University] in the wake of their mass shooting on Monday with the outpouring of love and hope and peace that has drawn thousands to Asbury,” Adams wrote in a Facebook post. “The altar was lined as chapel was dismissed. But many lingered. Here is what I saw during the several hours I was able to stay. Worship, prayer, and then public confession one by one and huddling to pray in faith for God to forgive and heal and restore. A beautiful, vulnerable atmosphere. So many students have experienced traumatizing and wounding things in their past and so many have responded with addictive and self-destructive behaviors. The Holy Spirit made himself intimately available to ‘break every chain.’ Campus chaplain Brian Kono was sensitive to the leading of the Spirit to preside quietly. Several students read passages of Scripture that were perfectly suited to the moment, for exhortation and encouragement. We prayed for the whole campus from the president to the dish room workers.”
Meanwhile, on the Asbury campus Feb. 15, Greenville University freshman McGwire Ruot led the Hughes Auditorium evening gathering in prayer and then shared Scripture and her testimony of faith despite difficult life experiences. Ruot said that after arriving at Asbury the previous day, she experienced forgiveness toward others and a new sense of worship.
“I have never gone to my knees at the altar, but, on Tuesday, I don’t think I left this altar,” said Ruot, who added that she was moved by a young girl kneeling nearby. She sensed God telling her to pray with the girl, and she spent much of the evening praying with the girl along with the girl’s sister and mother. “I made a relationship with those people that I didn’t know. They’re from a completely different state than I am, and I just felt called to them.”
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“It was heavenly.” – Gavin Hillenburg
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Greenville student Gavin Hillenburg chose his university for its basketball team but also discovered faith in Jesus Christ there. After arriving on the Asbury campus with other Greenville students, he found the ongoing Hughes chapel service to be “breathtaking. I’ve never seen so many people gathered. We were worshipping, and I had to turn around and look at people. People were crying. People were talking. It was heavenly.” He added that although he already had faith, “now it’s alive.”
Talahiva Talanoa, a Greenville ministry major, sensed God calling her to join the students visiting Asbury even though it meant missing practices for the track and field team. Talanoa said that some people reported feeling their hearts beat faster at the Asbury awakening, but she “felt more peace and contentment. Outside of this, my heart is always going fast and always anxious, always worried about something: ‘What’s next? What’s next, God?’ With this, I was like, ‘Just relax. Just be in His presence.”
(Visit Light + Life Conversations for more reflections from Hillenburg and Talanoa.)
Eve Hurt, 22, of Nashville, is part of Champion Church — a new Free Methodist congregation in Smyrna, Tennessee — and the daughter of The Well (Evansville, Indiana) Lead Pastors Mark and Christie Hurt. Eve stated in a Facebook post that her mother texted her an article about Asbury, “and in less than an hour my roommates and I had our shifts covered for the next day, and were in the car on our way. Three hours later we walked into a revival.”
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“This is only the beginning.” – Eve Hurt
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Eve’s post included a series of questions that concluded, “Are you spending your alone time chasing after Him? If you met someone for the first time, would they know you have Jesus in you? These are questions I was met by Jesus with face first on the floor of a small Christian college in the middle of a revival. This is only the beginning. Find yourself on the floor, face first desiring Him. In the living rooms and stadiums.”
Pastoral Presence
Jamin Bradley — the lead pastor of 1208 Greenwood Church in Jackson, Michigan — is one of many Free Methodists who have driven to Wilmore in recent days and shared about the experience via social media.
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“It is a place people want to visit in order to get right with God.” – Jamin Bradley
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“Asbury is an intriguing revival because it’s not a worked-up experience. It’s not polished. It’s not marketed. It’s not hijacked. There’s no reason to go there and flip tables. It’s just a thing that’s happening, and people are welcome to either visit or press into what the Spirit is doing in their own location. It is a place people want to visit in order to get right with God,” Bradley wrote. “Now that I’m home from this pilgrimage, I want to make some space in my own area for people to keep pressing into what the Spirit is up to at Asbury.”
Rachel Mohlman, a Wabash Conference ministerial candidate serving at West Morris Church in Indianapolis, wrote that the Asbury awakening did not include “pressure to stay or to worship in a particular way. Every posture I saw around me was worship. For me, I could be quiet with God and not sing as voices swelled. Or, I could sing a familiar song from years of worship, and the words would ring differently. … God met with me through the people in the space. God met with me by stirring my heart to pray for those who weren’t in the space.”
Pastor Charlie Shoemaker of Bratchers Crossroads Free Methodist Church in McMinnville, Tennessee, wrote, “Today, the boys [Rob, 9, and John, 8] and I were in Hughes Auditorium. When we left, I asked them if they felt like God said anything to you. Their response: ‘I love you and I will always love you’ and ‘Just keep believing in me.’ I think that about sums it up.”
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“Breaking the bonds of sin is a hallmark of any Spirit-led awakening.” – Dustin Weber
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Mission Igniter Executive Director Dustin Weber reported that “a sweet, tender yet powerful Spirit of the Lord has fallen upon Hughes Auditorium, and really the entire city of Wilmore as people gather in overflow spaces in churches, and the other chapels at the Seminary. We’ve prayed, listened and shared tears.” He posted a building photo and noted, “‘Free salvation for all men and full salvation from all sin’ is the message inscribed on the front of Hughes Auditorium, and, throughout the halls and grounds, I can overhear people confessing sin and seeking forgiveness. Breaking the bonds of sin is a hallmark of any Spirit-led awakening. All can be free from the curse of evil.”
Stopping the Streaming
Robyn Florian, a doctoral student at Asbury Theological Seminary and an adjunct instructor at Asbury University, is among the volunteers at Hughes. She noted, “There are so many stories being shared in these services that many will never see, as Asbury seeks to maintain a safe space for those sharing, but the presence of God is moving like a river through this place and these people.”
Because of social media posts and news coverage about the Asbury awakening, some people may assume the worship and student testimonies can be viewed anywhere in the world. After all, NBC headlined its coverage A nonstop Kentucky prayer ‘revival’ is going viral on TikTok, and people are traveling thousands of miles to take part.
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“Awakening does not move on social media.” – David Thomas
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In reality, only select periods, such as the university’s regularly scheduled chapel service time, are being streamed live online. Worship leaders and speakers also remain largely anonymous.
“There are no celebrities in this room. The only celebrity here is Jesus,” David Thomas, senior advisor to New Room, told the gathering on Feb. 15 before encouraging the students and others in the auditorium to set down their phones. “The university has chosen not to livestream this. Y’all, here’s the thing: A great awakening is not the same as going viral. Awakening does not move on social media. We want people to know. We’re not in any way trying to keep it to ourselves, but rather than people just sitting at home staring at a live feed that you’ve got going on in here, we’d like you to put that down and say, ‘Just get on your face and pray.’”
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