Going to the chapel

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming next on The World and Everything in It: an extended chapel service and the move of God.

For two weeks now, tens of thousands have traveled to Asbury University to witness the events happening inside Hughes chapel—a building on campus that usually sees far less foot traffic.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Social media posts and national news reports have been calling this event a “revival” and it's been spreading to other schools. WORLD’s Zoe Schimke visited Asbury last week, and she has this report.

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ZOE SCHIMKE, REPORTER: It’s a Thursday evening in Wilmore Kentucky. It’s raining and chilly. But that hasn’t shortened the line of about 500 people waiting to get into Asbury University’s Hughes chapel. Umbrellas stretch out for two blocks.

It all began with a guitar, a piano, and a small group of college students two weeks ago after a regularly scheduled chapel. It ballooned into an event that’s drawn visitors from around the world.

MALIK EDWARDS: When I saw it, I was like, let me get to Kentucky and see what was going on.

Malik Edwards is the pastor of Relentless DC church. He’s one of thousands of people who have come to see the events taking place. He hopes that this results in the spread of enthusiasm for Christ.

EDWARDS: So I'm just hoping it's gonna keep on spreading beyond even the college campuses. All the way into, you know, secular places, you know, I'm hoping that it's gonna spread like fire.

The informal time of prayer, testimonies and singing inside the chapel have drawn national spectators like Edwards—and also many students from other Christian universities. They’ve come to Asbury for the spiritual experience, but also because they hope to carry the awakening back to their own campuses. There are reports of extended chapel services happening at Samford University, Wheaton, and many more.

CADE REX: We want to come, we want to worship the Lord here. And we want this same thing to take place at our school and for the Lord to move in power there.

Cade Rex is a student at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was one of approximately 20 students from the school who came to Asbury to participate in the chapel services. He’s since returned home.

REX: There definitely is a desire that the Lord would move in this way back at Wheaton, and I mean, we've been praying for this. And there's been people praying for this for years at Wheaton.

Spiritual awakenings—or revivals—have often begun on college campuses. In the 1790s, the first stirrings of the Second Great Awakening began at Yale University when campus president Timothy Dwight preached a six month long sermon series on the inerrancy of Scripture.

But college campuses have seen revivals even more recently. In February 1970, Asbury was the site of another revival, that one also led by students. The chapel speaker that day was inspired to call for public testimony instead of his planned message, and that led to more than 140 hours of continuous revival.

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This event is similar. The outpouring at Hughes chapel comes with a special emphasis on the Gospel for younger generations. Lexie Presta is a senior at Asbury University. She is the executive editor of the campus newspaper.

LEXIE PRESTA: Everyone's been talking about how this is like a Gen Z movement. But I think it's just because our generation has tried other things. We've looked to other things, and nothing has been satisfying us.

Presta was there at the original chapel service that started it all.

PRESTA: Especially at the beginning, I didn't leave. l I think once I came back after chapel officially ended, like I didn't leave until like, two or three o'clock in the morning.

For Presta, it may be too soon to call this a revival. What will really make the difference is when those who are encountering Christ bear the fruit of repentance in their own lives. She wants to see what happens next.

PRESTA: But if nothing's changing, all you're gonna keep doing is experiencing and reflecting in your life is going to be stuck in a horrible cycle. God's gonna reveal what needs changing, and you have to be willing to make those changes, even if it's hard, because the end result is a relationship with Him that would produce so much more fruit than if you tried to do this life alone.

Presta, like other students and faculty, is glad to see joy for the Gospel. However, she points out that you don’t need to come to Asbury to experience the Holy Spirit in your own life.

PRESTA: There's nothing special about Hughes auditorium, it's just a building. There's nothing special about Asbury, we're just a university. And there's nothing special about us students. We're just people. But the Holy Spirit is just using this time and us in this space. However, he is not limited to this space and time.

God does seem to be at work in this chapel, and people from everywhere want to come and see it. While the excitement for the Holy Spirit is high, this has created some logistical challenges for the school.

WHITWORTH: By Wednesday evening, we realized that this was something that could be long lasting, and in terms of several days…

Mark Whitworth is the vice president for communications at Asbury University. He’s one of the faculty members who have been handling the logistical challenges of the crowds on campus.

WHITWORTH: I don't think it's careless to say you're talking about tens…you know, tens of thousands of people that have over the past eight days. You know, experienced worship and ministry.

Besides the logistical difficulties though, Whitworth and his colleagues want to be good stewards of the event. They are wary of publicity and self-promotion.

WHITWORTH: We don't even introduce the speakers with their full name. It basically, would be, for example, Hi, I'm Mark, and I'm going to read today's scripture, it wouldn't be my last name. Even for worship, we don't use the screens for lyrics. It is…as basic as it can possibly be. But we really want to fiercely protect to the best of our abilities, the work that God is doing in there.

Asbury officials have been intentional about avoiding press for themselves. Tucker Carlson offered to come and film a segment on campus, but the university administration turned him down.

CARLSON: The ongoing service at Asbury is purely spiritual…It's mostly these young people worshiping God, young people finding meaning and answers in a country that increasingly doesn't offer much of either. It's not really a place for TV cameras.

Whether it’s a spiritual awakening, outpouring, or a true revival, vice president Whitworth says that only time will tell what the true result of this event will be.

WHITWORTH: It's after someone has taken a step back, and they've kind of reviewed and spoken to a number of people, before someone would actually label something like this a revival…I think the impact of an event like this must transform the church. And I think that will be something that we can see, as the days and weeks and months and years unfold, but that's our prayer is that the church would come more alive.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Zoe Schimke in Wilmore, Kentucky.

EICHER: Just a quick note, Asbury University has announced that the public services inside the chapel are winding down—in the hopes that the faculty, staff, and students can resume their normal academic work during the semester. The last service open to the public is tomorrow, Thursday the 23rd.

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