Asbury a year on: give thanks, hope, and pray

It has been a year since the events described below at Asbury University. For some, that is a long time. Long enough for social media's self-appointed perpetual discernment police to reiterate their cynicism with oddly triumphalist "see, I told you so - Asbury wasn't real" retrospectives. I refuse to embrace or promote such misery, even less so when it is is warmed-up leftovers. By my recollection, one week I saw people lamenting a brief performance at the Grammys, featuring an obscene Satan-worship act; the next thing I knew, I was baffled to see much the same response to crowds of young adults engaging in weeks of uninterrupted simple worship of God. Among people of the risen King, there has always been a place for doubters (John 20:24-29, Matthew 28:17), and we all should be discerning - but this was and is utterly misplaced despairing. In real historical terms, a year is not at all long - certainly not long enough to assess the ripple effects and impact of a single moment, "revival" or not, on those who have barely if at all left adolescence. Of this week's "a year on" reviews, I prefer (knowing my personal preferences count for little) that of Mark Tooley, who wrote "Likely decades from now we will learn of new churches, and perhaps even new denominations or communities, that arose from the revival." I shared my more hopeful perspective when these events were underway, and an evangelical newspaper asked me to write a longer piece. I initially declined, anticipating that my perspective would be easily dismissed, so pointed them to comments made by an older and more respected man, the Welsh Baptist Geoff Thomas, shared by Baptist theologian Michael Haykin. The newspaper prevailed however, and I wrote the following. Despite efforts on both sides, I don't believe it actually made it to print but I'm glad I wrote it and share it below in reflection, with my perspective unchanged, my disposition prayerful, and my outlook hopeful. I offer it, admitting that from where I am sitting, it doesn't take a lot to be encouraged: "Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country" (Proverbs 25:25).

On 08 February 2023, Zak Meerkreebs preached what he thought was a poor sermon on Romans 12 at the chapel service at Asbury University, a nondenominational Christian school in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. There was nothing else to do but pray, which he did: “Revive us by your love”, he asked the Lord. The chapel emptied. A few students lingered to pray. And then those who had left began to return. They kept coming back until the room was full with students, faculty, and staff praying and praising God. A unique and tangible sense of the presence and peace of God is reported to have filled the place, not unlike that reported in parts of Scripture and throughout history. Word began to get out to the wider community in Wilmore, Kentucky and people began to travel from much further afield, queueing in their thousands day and night through rain and bitter cold, hungry and thirsty for refreshment in spiritually desolate times, and craving the peace that an anxious generation was experiencing as they prayed, sang, and listened to the Scriptures. The public gatherings were continuous, 24/7, until Thursday, 23 February, when the administration had given notice that the public nature of the meetings would end and the focus would return to shepherding the students through ongoing spiritual renewal away from the crowds and cameras. Reports of similar phenomena from other university campuses are ongoing. 

 

While the University leadership and participants were hesitant to put a label on the unplanned event, which consistently shunned celebrity showmanship and embraced simplicity, many have seen parallels with other events throughout history that have come to be called "revival". Regardless of the appropriate label one gives to events at Asbury, a room full of Generation Z young adults reordering their priorities and breaking away from their preoccupations, even their addictions and sins, to spend a few weeks filled with awe and lost in the wonder of God, seems like a good thing. 

 

Unfortunately, many have thought differently. The critiques have been many and numerous. One narrative that gained far too much traction was the presence of various false teachers in the crowd, which, it was alleged, discredited the legitimacy of the gathering. It must be noted that the Pharisees and Sadducees regular present in the crowds that followed Jesus, and the constant presence of Judas as a close friend and ministry partner did not discredit who Jesus was and what he did. Simon Magus’s attempts to buy the power of the Holy Spirit did not disqualify the ministry of Philip or raise doubts about the work of the Holy Spirit in Samaria.

 

There is a long history of questioning the legitimacy of Holy Spirit outpourings in Christian history, right back to the day of Pentecost when a prayer meeting of 120 gave way to men and women preaching Christ in the streets and 3000 people repenting of sin and being baptised. Many people in Jerusalem - who, it must be added believed in God and lived 'moral' lives - mocked them and said they were drunk. I wonder if I would respond any differently? Would you? Pause and think hard before you answer, as perhaps it has implications for how we respond to other events that make us uncomfortable, offend our sensibilities, or challenge our preconceptions and preferences.

 

What we now call the "First Great Awakening" in the USA or the "Evangelical Revival" in the UK was questioned and opposed by cynics and sceptics in the moment, as well as the inactive and insecure. Some may have even had legitimate concerns but amplified those to overshadow the reality of what God was doing. One of the flawed men God was pleased to use during that outpouring was Jonathan Edwards who wrote in that context, in The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God: 

 

“Let us all be hence warned, by no means to oppose, or do anything in the least to clog or hinder that work that has lately been carried on in the land, but on the contrary, to do our utmost to promote it. Now Christ is come down from heaven into this land, in a remarkable and wonderful work of his Spirit, it becomes all his professed disciples to acknowledge him, and give him honor.”

 

I do think you can tell who has been expectantly praying for revival (on God's terms, not theirs!) by whether they respond to mercy drops and showers of blessing with hope, or hostility and a hindering spirit. I understand. There are many counterfeit gospels, manufactured movements, and false teachers. I understand. So much is attributed to "the Holy Spirit", which is clearly not of him. I understand. I know what it is to be more jaded than joyful, to be more fearful than faithful. But keep hope alive! 

 

When people are crying out to God in simple prayer and fervent song, and meditating on his word day and night, I for one will rejoice, because "no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3), and "he who has begun a good work will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6), and "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:2-4).

 

May God give us humility, hope, and help us to stand in awe of him. May he reshape our priorities, reorder our expectations, restructure our lives, and revive us again.