THE ASBURY REVIVAL of 2023

                   

  Barbara and I drove home recently from Greenville and found more stories about a revival at Asbury University. News about this is all over the internet.

   The 2023 Asbury Revival, which is ongoing,  seems to have started Wednesday (Feb. 8, 2023), when students at Asbury University gathered for their biweekly chapel service in the 1,500-seat Hughes Auditorium in Wilmore, Kentucky, about a half-hour outside of Lexington. 

Asbury University is a private school affiliated with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. Chapel attendance is mandatory for students on certain weekdays.

“The revival has been compared to similar revivals at Asbury, notably one that occurred in 1970, which had far-reaching consequences in Methodism, US culture, and in the creation of the Jesus Movement,” Wikipedia says. “The new revival is noted for its use of social media, as the participants are mainly members of Generation Z.” 

Generation Z grew up with access to the internet and began being born in the mid-to-late 1990s. The early 2010s marks the ending birth years for Gen Z. 

“Videos of students singing, weeping and praying have been posted on social media, leading to both criticism and praise from onlookers,” writes Bob Smietana of Religious News Service. “News of the revival has also drawn students and other visitors to the campus to take part in the ongoing prayer and worship.”

“We’ve been here in Hughes Auditorium for over a hundred hours — praying, crying, worshipping and uniting — because of Love,” wrote Alexandra Presta, editor of The Asbury Collegian, the school’s student newspaper, days after the revival started.

Michael McKenzie, associate professor of religion and philosophy at Keuka College in upstate New York, said revivals have long been a staple in the Methodist tradition that Asbury belongs to, reports Smietana. Revivals often happened when people felt things had gone wrong and were trying to recapture something that had been lost, he said. Online accounts of the meetings at Asbury, he said, seem to “fit all the historical signposts of previous revivals.”

Like revivals in the past, said McKenzie, the one at Asbury seems to have happened spontaneously. They often bypass leaders and start from the grassroots. That makes them harder to predict or control. They can also be a way of separating spiritual experience from the baggage of organized religion, said McKenzie.

Friday, Feb. 17, 2023: “It’s not winding down,” said Craig Keener, a biblical studies scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary, which is across the street from the university. “People have been praying for it for years,” he said. 

Lee Grady, a Christian journalist, gives the following account of Francis Asbury and also comments on the new revival:

“Asbury University is named after Methodist leader Francis Asbury (1745-1816), who was only 26 when he came [from England] to evangelize the American colonies. He became a leader of the 2nd Great Awakening. It’s estimated that he traveled 270,000 miles on horseback preaching and planting Methodist churches. But circuit-riding wasn’t glamorous; prior to 1847 more than half of Methodist circuit riders died before the age of 30 because of animal attacks, exposure to bad weather and the hardships of travel. Their sacrifice was a seed that died in the ground and produced a massive spiritual harvest. 

“Francis Asbury’s life was marked by white hot spiritual fervor. After being sent to our shores by John Wesley, Asbury wrote: ‘We must reach every section of America, especially the raw frontiers. We must not be afraid of men, devils, wild animals, or disease. Our motto must always be FORWARD!’ Like a modern Joshua, Asbury possessed the land, in spite of his frequent ailments. He never married, perhaps because he knew his sacrificial lifestyle would be difficult for a wife. He was so loved by his Christian brethren that more than 20,000 people followed his coffin when he was buried in Virginia after his death at age 70.

“Asbury University is named after this giant of faith. I think it’s fitting that the revival that erupted last week on the campus also reminds us of Francis Asbury. I’m not listening to religious critics who are skeptical of the music being sung at the revival, or worried about ‘emotionalism,’ or which translation of the Bible is being used, or which denominations are represented in the audience. God please forgive us for the cold, heartless Phariseeism that quenches the Holy Spirit. Francis Asbury would have been thrilled to see young people repenting and worshiping Jesus. May this holy fire spread to the world, and may an army of young Francis Asburys be sent out to claim the nations for Jesus.”