Archive: When Will It Stop?

by Dennis F. Kinlaw

The Spring 1970 Asbury College Ambassador carried this column written by then president, Dennis Kinlaw. His answer to the question posed in the title has new significance 25 years after the Asbury College Revival.

Two questions have been common in the last six weeks as those of us at Asbury have talked with others. The first was “When will it end?”

When it became obvious that the presence of the Spirit on the campus was continuing, the question then became “How long will it last?” Of course most have meant the special services that have accompanied the revival. But does the revival end when special services stop? Not necessarily and hopefully not. God’s works are not acts of passing fancy, but movements with long-range designs.

The most exciting part of this period of blessing is yet to come. Many people, both young and old, have come to know pardon, peace, heart purity, and the presence and power of God. They have found new relationships with their fellows as well as with God. They have also found a new perspective of purpose for themselves. More clearly than ever they have heard God’s voice saying “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” Their faces are now lifted to the future and to the problems that confront our world. Revival time is a time of gathering of workers. Always when the Spirit has moved in power, men have felt a call to service.

The problems that face us today are enormous. The population explosion with its unevangelized millions, the increasing breakdown in our society of moral restraint, the bitterness that extends from race to race and class to class and nation to nation, the low value placed upon human life, the despair that grips our world—all threaten to destroy us. The State and the Church have talked long and fervently about these and yet have failed to offer any significant help in their solution. In the past when revival has quickened men, they have turned to confront seemingly impossible tasks and, with God’s help, have done wonders.

In the past, revival times have prepared the Church for persecution or for service. The purpose of the present movement may be for both. Let us pray that it will at least accomplish the latter.

Reprinted with permission.