One year after a revival swept the Asbury University campus and grabbed national headlines, leaders and students on campus say they still feel its impact. The revival started at the Wilmore, Kentucky campus during a regularly scheduled chapel service in February 2023 and continued for the next 16 days. It spread elsewhere, including to other college campuses like Samford University, Lee University, and Cedarville University.
It was the most significant revival at Asbury since the early 1970s, drawing people from other states and even other countries. Zach Meerkreebs, Asbury University’s pastor in residence, was preaching in the chapel the day the revival started. CBN recently spoke to him and others on campus. He told CBN, “I knew we were encountering something, but it was halfway through the weekend when I was like, this is really special.” He said the revival had a long-standing impact.
Meerkreebs continued, “The temperature on campus is unbelievable, but what’s exciting is they’re longing for authentic long-term steps, not just 16 days of power and encounter. They’re wanting to pursue holiness. They want to be done with porn. They want to be done with addiction to their phones. They want to be done with those kinds of things. They want to really have an authentic walk with the Lord, and what’s amazing is that’s happening here.”
Kevin Brown, Asbury’s president, told CBN he, too, has seen a lasting effect. He said, “Our students continue to be hungry. They continue to lead. They’ve gone, and they’ve shared, we’ve had over 50 groups go to different ministries and churches, both in the United States and overseas.” Enrollment is up about 25 percent from the previous year, no doubt a tangible impact from the university’s time in the spotlight. Students say God’s presence was evident during the 16 days.
“God turned my world technicolor, and I don’t know how else to describe it, but prayer came alive,” sophomore Riley McChord told CBN. “I mean, I saw physical healing, cancer be removed, I saw physically cancer off somebody’s neck be removed. I saw emotional healing, relational healing, and there were two other girls and now my boyfriend, and we spent literally every waking moment there. We did not sleep, and we stayed there for two weeks.”
She added, “What happened on Feb. 8 [2023] was only the catalyst for what’s truly happening and what’s going to happen, and that was only the beginning.” Student Caleb Rushing said, “It was an overwhelming glimpse of just God, His goodness, His mercy, His grace, His firmness. It was a glimpse of what heaven’s going to be like when we get to just reign and dwell with God forever.” Brown, the university president, said the younger generation led the movement.
He told CBN, “During those 16 days, there was always Gen Z represented at the altar. And the very last day that we had a formal service together, I’ll never forget, someone stood in front of all these students, 1,500 Gen Zers in the room, and said, ‘You will not be the generation defined by depression, anxiety, addiction and suicidal ideation.’ And to hear a cry come up from that group, someone said, if we had the spiritual eyes to see it, we would’ve seen an altar filled with loosened chains. That’s my heart. That is the heart of the people around me that this is a burdened generation, but God wants to use them, and we need to invest in them.”