A rumor worth pursuing

At the beginning of this week, I became aware of the "revival" happening at Asbury College in Kentucky. About two weeks ago, 19 students stayed after a run-of-the-mill chapel service and kept worshipping and praying. Many say God’s presence descended but, for whatever reason, their crying out to God spoke to their classmates. Many others soon joined them. It hasn't stopped. Around the clock, students started streaming to the chapel for prayer and worship. There was no particular church, pastor, band, speaker, lights, or even a projector to lead. Just a variety of students offering to worship, pray, share, and seek God together.

Word spread. By the time I paid attention and became aware of it about a week ago, the story was worldwide and breaking into the news cycles. This simple prayer and worship gathering started attracting attention, and people started journeying there to witness and participate. Thousands of them, and it has only continued to gather steam. People have driven hours upon hours, traveled from all different corners of the globe, and waited in long lines to get into the chapel or one of the three overflow areas set up. And there still isn't a leader, organizer, or plan. I tuned into the live stream last night, and it didn't look that impressive. Four students played acoustic worship, and a few got up and shared "testimonies" and a short message by the campus pastor.

And yet, something is happening there, and people are desperate to join. When one of the speakers during the live stream asked those who were students at Asbury to raise their hands, probably only one in five hands went up. It is drawing people of all ages, denominations, and from all corners of the globe. Please look at this image I saw today that shows all the places people have journeyed from to get there.

Travelers to Asbury have come from all over the world

All of those travel arrangements were made within the last two weeks. There is this rumor and possibility that maybe God's presence is tangible and available, and people are dropping everything to see and experience it. They are taking time off work, uprooting their schedules, and going to great expenses to get there.

Time will tell us a bit more about what this was about. Bloggers, theologians, and various denominational leaders are taking a stab at describing it (sometimes literally), but no one knows what to call it. Is it a revival? A prayer meeting? Hysteria? The answers are as varied as the people offering them, and I don't care what they say. It doesn't make sense; nothing is impressive, yet people are drawn to go and experience it.

And I want to join them.

Everything else aside, this should let us know that people everywhere long for a connection to God. People are tired of performance, politics, personality, and social Christianity. They want something real, genuine, and undeniably God. An artesian well of God's spirit that breaks through our dry and dusty lives and offers us something bigger than we could ever create.

I long for that, too. I long for the presence of God to be so real, so tangible, that my sin, selfishness, worries, and insecurities all fade into the background. Where repentance becomes a gift and love is an embrace. I believe that's what the people journeying there are seeking. And whether it turns out to be “real” or not, the rumor makes it worth pursuing. Maybe, just maybe, a group of people started praying, and somehow God answered in a way that is so much bigger than anything we could ever create. And, if that's the case, what an amazing opportunity to kneel with outstretched arms at his feet and let the “things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”

I wish I could experience that.

I wish I could see Jesus without all the skepticism, judgment, and trappings. I wish I could sit in his presence and not care about me. To sit in his presence and know his overwhelming love and grace so much that I don't have to worry about myself. To be willing to let go of all the things I normally hold onto because the God of the universe is with me, and there's nothing more beautiful than that.

I believe there are thousands more who feel the same. That is what the event at Asbury is telling us. People aren’t spiritually dead in our world. They are looking for something bigger than them. And that is not something we can “create.” It is something we can invite. It is something we can pray for. It is something worth sacrificing for. But it isn’t our job to make it happen. It’s God’s.

I hope, as a follower of Jesus, I can use this event at Asbury to remind me of that. I hope you can too. We are surrounded by a world looking for God, and when they see him, they come running. I hope and pray that I can surrender my life to him so that they see him and not me. That is what it means to be a disciple. I pray you can join me in that prayer.

It is an honor to seek him with you. Grace and peace.

Trevor Owen

Pastor of Spiritual Formation