What Should Our Response Be to the Revival at Asbury?

 Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about the revival that has begun at Asbury University in Wilmore Kentucky. It began with a chapel service that students decided to continue to praise and worship. The chapel was on Feb 8th, and the praise and worship service has not stopped. Other colleges report that this movement is beginning to spread to their campus. Samford University has reported a revival at its campus. Lee and Cedardale Universities report the same.

As a believer in Northwest Iowa who is not on a college campus, how do I respond? Let me begin with what I am NOT going to do. I am not going to discourage or speak ill of this event. I am not going to label this as emotionalism or just immature college students. I am going to believe the best. I am not going to let myself become a skeptic, because revivals have a history of older skeptics attempting to quench the fire.

The missionary David Brainard was a student at Yale when revival began. During that revival, many of the local pastors and college staff attempted to discredit the revival for its emotionalism. Brainard said that one of the local pastors and college tutors "had no more grace than a chair" and was expelled from Yale. History will remember David Brainard and the Great Awakening that swept through the United States in the 1720s and 1730s. Those who fought against the Great Awakening are not remembered well in the annals of history. They are often written about as those who "wished to regain control" and who refused to support the young students as their excitement for the movement of God began to grow.

Knowing the history of the First Great Awakening, and knowing that many revivals and spiritual awakenings have begun with the younger generations, with students, and in colleges. My response is to have hope. I hope that his movement continues to spread to college campuses, to young men and women, and to churches. I hope that people reject the selfish ideology that is sweeping our country. My hope and prayer is that young people turn from the lies that are being pushed on them today and reject the hypersexualized culture in our country.

My response is to continue to pray that God's Spirit will be poured out. I can't claim to know what God is doing and what He has planned, but I trust and have faith. I know that students who praise and worship God today have a better chance to follow and trust Him tomorrow. I believe that these events have a better outcome in our country that the current path we are on. I'm going to pray that this movement of the spirit grows and comes to Northwest Iowa and consumes the entire country in the Holy Spirit. I hope you will join me in praying for revival!