On Feb. 8, 2023, the Holy Spirit sparked a flame at the end of a typical Asbury University chapel service.
Asbury is a private Christian university located in the small Kentucky town of Wilmore. But over the next 16 days, what began as a rather local on-campus experience exploded into social media headlines and encouraged people from coast-to-coast with the reality that God is still on the move.
(Our complete podcast interview)
It became known as the Asbury Revival
Rev. Dr. Sarah Thomas Baldwin, Vice President of Student Life at Asbury, was smack-dab in the middle of the historical event. “At the end of a typical worship service – and some people say that they sensed that God was moving during the service – most people say it just felt ‘typical,’ but at the end of the service, a few students stayed to worship.” And Dr. Baldwin says that is not too unusual. But, later, “I was eating lunch, and I got a text from a friend, and she said ‘Sarah, chapel is not over. You’ve got to come over the see what’s going on.'”
Sarah returned to the chapel and found 30 students deep in worship. “There was a very sweet and gracious worship happening. People were at the altar…now, again, I didn’t think very much about this. I just enjoyed what was happening with the students and went on to another meeting, and then I came back...and to my surprise more and more people came.”
Sharing excitement, enthusiasm
Students were texting one another and even knocking on classroom doors saying, “Hey, you’ve got to come. Something is happening. And our students had this contagious sense that God was on the move.” Some students were even running to the chapel to see for themselves what everyone was excited about. And by that evening, “community members started to show up and we started getting notifications that people from other universities and colleges were coming. That was the first evening, and we decided to leave it open overnight and just expecting that it would wind up on its own in the early morning hours, or that next morning, but, it didn’t.”
What God was doing, something only He could do
Sarah noticed Asbury’s own students were experiencing something special, clearly supernatural. “They were confessing. They were repenting. They were at the altar. They were in reconciliation between one another – restoration of relationships. They were experiencing some spiritual and emotional healing. They were sharing stories, everything from self-harm to addiction to suicide ideation to anxiety and depression – and sharing their need for God – and stories of feeling the Holy Spirit upon them in a unique way.”
“What we saw first was this young generation awakened to God in a beautiful and profound and contagious way… and then the rest of us [older generations] were just catching up,” she smiled. At least 50,000 people – and that’s a conservative guesstimate - took part in the multi-day worship and outpouring. At times, people in line to get into the auditorium had a nine hour wait.
A sign never seen before
For those driving to Wilmore, police created an unusual, but necessary, flashing sign that read: “Revival. Full capacity.” The roads in and out of the small town were jammed.
In our complete podcast interview just below, you can follow this story of God at work. “We really couldn’t believe our eyes!” Many in leadership at Asbury, including Pastor Sarah, felt a variety of emotions including shock, awe, full of wonders. “We weren’t in charge of this at all,” and she says we didn’t want to mess this up, “people showing up, desperate to experience Jesus, from all over.”
