by Steve | Mar 3, 2023 | In the News
By Thomas Lambrecht —
In this season of our denomination’s life, Methodists of goodwill should advocate for a fair exit process and terms for local churches and clergy desiring to realign. Many annual conferences in the U.S. have adopted fair processes for disaffiliation. Some have even adopted gracious terms that relieved the financial burden on disaffiliating churches to a greater or lesser extent. Other annual conferences have adopted processes or terms that many traditionalists consider to be unfair, and we continue to advocate for annual conferences to change those processes and terms.
I grew up with two younger brothers, and we enjoyed playing all sorts of games together – card games, board games, and physical games. In the process, we all became acutely aware of any behavior by another brother that we could label “cheating.” None of us wanted to let the other one get away with unfair, cheating behavior. In fact, such behavior could result in ending the game on the spot (sometimes with a bit of hot-headed violence involved)! If everyone wanted to continue playing the game, the unfair behavior had to change.
While we can call out unfair behavior in the disaffiliation process, the difference is that local churches cannot “quit the game.” Local churches cannot abandon the disaffiliation process if they want to disaffiliate. They have to play by the rules established by their annual conference, fair or not. The annual conference holds most of the power, except in a few states where a last-resort lawsuit might open the door for a church to nullify the trust clause and leave the denomination.
What is fair?
It might help to begin with a description of a fair process. After all, what is fair to one person might not seem fair to another.
Information sharing. The first requirement of a fair process would be an informed congregation. For years, Good News has been advocating for pastors to bring their lay leaders, if not also the whole congregation, up to speed with what is happening in the United Methodist denomination. Thousands of churches are operating in the dark today because their pastors in the past failed to prepare them for this moment. A few annual conferences and bishops have gone so far as to prohibit pastors from sharing information with their congregation about options for disaffiliation.
An informed congregation can make an informed decision about what is best for it in its own unique ministry context. That means the congregation should have open access to different perspectives: those wanting to stay in the UM Church and those wanting to disaffiliate. Members should have a chance to read and/or hear from advocates for both positions, ask questions, and discern for themselves what course that information leads them to favor. To prevent either one of the perspectives from sharing their information with the congregation only means the members will not be fully informed.
To label information that one disagrees with as “misinformation” – and therefore to censor that information – is a manipulative tactic that ought to have no place in Christian conversation. If someone shares information that some believe is incorrect or misleading, the answer is to counter it with correct information and fuller context. We must give adults credit for an ability to digest competing perspectives and contradictory information in order to discern a legitimate way forward. Otherwise, a knowledgeable elite will be tempted to keep that knowledge to themselves and attempt to dictate to the “ignorant masses” what the elite believes is the best course of action. Such a course would show contempt for individual dignity and free will, as well as discounting the power of God’s grace to lead and guide the individual and the congregation.
Transparent Process. Most annual conferences have developed a checklist or sequence of steps that local churches can follow to move through the discernment process to make a decision. That process should be transparent and available to all congregations. (There are a few annual conferences that have no published process or have not made it available to congregations.)
The process that annual conferences use should be flexible enough to accommodate the needs and contexts of local churches. The Wisconsin Annual Conference set a deadline of September 1, 2022, for churches to enter the discernment process. Any church that missed that deadline cannot disaffiliate. That level of unrealistic rigidity is not helpful or fair. On the other hand, more and more annual conferences are adding special sessions for this coming fall to act on disaffiliation requests prior to the expiration of Par. 2553, which is very helpful and fair. It is also fair for annual conferences to put in place a disaffiliation process that could be used after Par. 2553 expires at the end of 2023.
Financial Costs. One of the financial costs for disaffiliation is a payment of the congregation’s fair share of unfunded pension liabilities. Given that Wespath has drastically reduced those liabilities since the beginning of 2021, conferences should make use of the latest calculation of that liability, so that congregations are not overcharged to satisfy this agreed moral obligation. At the same time, it would also be fair for annual conferences to use existing conference pension funds to offset some of that liability. After all, the disaffiliating local churches contributed toward those conference pension funds and ought to share in the benefit of them. Unfortunately, most annual conferences are not taking that route.
When Par. 2553 was written, the authors envisioned the payment of a second year of apportionments as a way to cushion the annual conference against the loss of future apportionments. It would enable the conference to have time to adjust its budget and programs to fit the new reality, based on the number of congregations that remain. That is a fair provision that we support.
The levying of additional costs beyond the two required by Par. 2553 run over into unfair territory. Asking the congregation to reimburse grants they received ten years prior ignores how the benefit of those grants resulted in greater congregational vitality and higher apportionment payments for those ten years. The conference has already benefitted and should not require reimbursement. Some annual conferences are charging the congregation up to 50-60 percent of their assets (buildings, property, and bank accounts). Congregations already paid for their buildings and upkeep, in most cases without any help from the conference. The congregation should not have to pay for their building twice. This is simply a tactic to discourage disaffiliation and line the pockets of the annual conference at the expense of the local church. At the extreme, the Greater New Jersey Conference has added nine different costs beyond pension and apportionments, making it financially unfeasible for most congregations to disaffiliate. Such an approach is patently unfair.
If annual conferences develop a clear and transparent process of disaffiliation that allows for open sharing of information from all perspectives, allows reasonable timelines for the process, and does not impose additional costs, congregations can and do make the decision of what works best for them in their ministry context. Such a fair process honors the agency and maturity of the church’s members and creates a foundation of trust, upon which future relationships and cooperation between denominations might be possible.
Changing the Rules in the Middle of the Game
Unfortunately, as bishops and annual conference leaders have seen the desire from a substantial percentage of their churches to disaffiliate, they have at times short-circuited the process in order to prevent disaffiliation. My friend, the Rev. Scott Field, likens this to Lucy pulling the football away as Charlie Brown tries to kick it. Some churches attempting to follow the disaffiliation process in good faith have had the football pulled away and disaffiliation unfairly refused.
This began in 2021 when congregations in a few U.S. conferences were told they did not qualify for disaffiliation, since the annual conference was following the Book of Discipline. Churches in the central conferences outside the U.S. have been told they also cannot disaffiliate under Par. 2553. All these churches are deprived of using a provision enacted by General Conference in 2019 (four years ago!) to allow disaffiliation.
Last fall, three churches in the Arkansas Conference were refused disaffiliation by a majority vote of the annual conference. They had followed the process, received the necessary vote in their local churches, paid the required amounts, and been approved by both the cabinet and trustees of the annual conference. Yet, the conference still pulled the rug out from under those churches.
On the last day of 2022, the North Georgia Conference “paused” all disaffiliations until after the 2024 General Conference, when the Par. 2553 disaffiliation process will no longer be in force. About 150 local churches were in the discernment process toward making a decision, and the rug was pulled out from under them. Although all presentations made by North Georgia Wesleyan Covenant Association representatives had to be pre-approved by district superintendents, the conference still accused the WCA and others of “misinformation.” Instead of simply correcting the alleged misinformation, the conference took the draconian step of forbidding all disaffiliations until a time when there may be no disaffiliation process available.
Now we are hearing of other bishops and annual conferences following the North Georgia playbook with individual congregations. Several who had church conferences scheduled to vote on disaffiliation have had those church meetings cancelled due to the presence of alleged “misinformation.” In other instances, bishops are halting the discernment process for individual congregations and requiring them to do an extensive study of their community and the impact of the local church’s ministry before being allowed to proceed. Such a study is supposed to be done before closing any United Methodist church, yet it is rarely done in practice, and the disaffiliating churches are not closing. This is simply another way of putting an unfair bureaucratic roadblock in the way of local churches wanting to disaffiliate.
All that traditionalists are asking for is a fair discernment process for local congregations to follow. If the congregation fairly considers all perspectives and wants to remain United Methodist, we obviously have no problem with that. However, unfair elements should not be introduced into the process to influence or coerce congregations into remaining UM. Such coercion does no good for building an enthusiastic support for United Methodism and it poisons the atmosphere for any future potential cooperation or relationship between United Methodism and the Global Methodist Church or other disaffiliated congregations. For the sake of the cause of Christ, the church must give a witness to the world that it operates with fairness, transparency, and integrity. It is not too late for that to happen, but time is running out.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and vice president of Good News.
by Steve | Mar 2, 2023 | Front Page News, Uncategorized
Harbinger? Asbury, Jesus People, and a Timeline of Crosscurrents
Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. February 2023. Photo courtesy of Suzanne Nicholson.
By Steve Beard —
After two weeks of an extraordinary spiritual stirring on the campus of Asbury University, The New York Times eventually reported in a lengthy story that “more than 50,000 people descended on a small campus chapel to experience the nation’s first major spiritual revival in decades – one driven by Gen Z.” The student-led round-the-clock public meetings came to a crescendo when the live-video simulcast of the Collegiate Day of Prayer on February 23 was broadcast from the campus in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Interestingly enough, the worldwide premiere of Jesus Revolution – a film about a hippie spiritual awakening of the ‘60s and ‘70s – took place on the following day. In the works for six years and told through the eyes of Greg Laurie, the film features charismatic evangelist Lonnie Frisbee and Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel. The Southern California congregation had roughly 30 people in 1966. It grew to 15,000 in less than 10 years. The 200 cribs in the nursery illustrate the age of the new membership wave.
Times change. Culture morphs. But, rolling back the clock, there is a spiritual connection between the Asbury campus in Wilmore and the noteworthy events on the West Coast through the Jesus People.
Fifty-three years ago, also in February, the students at then-Asbury College experienced a similarly lengthy revival in Hughes Auditorium. The 1970 Asbury revival is spoken of in reverent tones for the generation that experienced a “divine moment” that lasted for more than a week. Legions of teams from Asbury testified in churches throughout the country about what had occurred on campus.
“The unusual revival which came to Asbury College early in 1970 and spread to scores of campuses across America is evidence that God is still at work in His world, lifting men and women out of self-centeredness, secularism, and boredom,” observed Billy Graham.
In retrospect, the 1970 Asbury revival was one very unique and distinct aspect of a dizzying array of spiritual touchpoints taking place within a tumultuous era. “With the Lord, it is usually in the worst of times that the best things happen,” observed Graham in the foreword to Robert E. Coleman’s One Divine Moment. “The Protestant Reformation, the Wesleyan Revival, and the Great Awakening in America in the nineteenth century are examples.”
In 1970, Asbury was a heartfelt awakening localized on a college campus that can be seen as a vibrant expression of an unmistakably wider simultaneous and distinct spiritual passion brewing in West Coast coffeehouses, communes, and Pacific Ocean mass baptisms 2,100 miles away.
Completely unique and regionally-oriented, both movements made global impacts and were sparked by the spiritual hunger of young people – from straight-laced students to scruffy hippies.
While the 2023 re-percolating of the historic well of revival at Asbury was broadcast internationally via TikTok and other social media platforms, the chronicling of the Jesus People movement five decades ago was done through the medium of national magazines.
In 1966, Time magazine provocatively probed the question “Is God Dead?” for its cover story. Five years later, Time’s psychedelic cover story reported on “The Jesus Revolution.” In that same year, Life magazine wrote about “The Groovy Christians” and Look magazine declared: “It’s an old-time, Bible-toting witness-giving kind of revival, and the new evangelists are the young. They give their Christian message with cheerful dedication. Turn on to Jesus. He’s coming. Soon.”
Responding to the 1970 experience at Asbury, Graham pondered: “Perhaps the eruptions of revival which swept through a segment of our college youth in the early months of 1970 are harbingers of what the Holy Spirit is ready, able and willing to do, throughout the world, if Christians will dare to pay the price.”
Some modern day church leaders are left wondering the same thing.
********
When Time reported on the nationwide spiritual movement in the early 1970s, it featured three groups: the Jesus People, the “straights” (non-hippie young people), and charismatic Catholics. “The movement, in fact, is one of considerable flexibility and vitality, drawing from three vigorous spiritual streams that, despite differences in dress, manner and theology, effectively reinforce one another.”
For Good News readers, the following timeline attempts to put broad cultural movements – both good and bad – within an ecumenical faith-based context of the era of 1960-1974.
Timeline
1960 – YWAM (Youth With A Mission) founded by Loren Cunningham (Fall). More than 60 years later, YWAM is considered the largest mission-sending agency in the world.
• John F. Kennedy is the first Roman Catholic elected as President of United States (November). Amongst supporters, his administration was dubbed “Camelot,” a literary reference to the legend of King Arthur and his court.
• Teen Challenge is launched by David Wilkerson. His mother helped found two coffeehouses in Greenwich Village (The Lost Coin and The Living Room).
1961 – Dr. Gabriel Vahanian publishes The Death of God: The Culture of our Post-Christian Era (January)
• Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is launched by Pat Robertson (October)
1962 – Marilyn Monroe dies at age 36 (August)
• The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council is launched to renew and reform Roman Catholicism (October)
• Cuban Missile Crisis (October)
• James Meredith becomes the first Black student to study at the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss. (October)
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, photo by Steve Beard.
1963 – David Wilkerson writes The Cross and the Switchblade. It sells 11 million copies in the first 10 years. (January)
• In August, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers the “I Have a Dream” speech in front of 200,000 on the Washington Mall (August)
• In September, A Ku Klux Klan bomb kills four African American children at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama (September)
• C.S. Lewis, author of Mere Christianity, dies on same day that President Kennedy is assassinated (November)
1964 – The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan show in front of 70 million viewers (February)
• Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy is on cover of Time (May)
• Civil Rights Bill of 1964 is signed into law (July)
• John Sherrill, a reporter for Guideposts magazine, publishes They Speak with Other Tongues (August) about the widespread charismatic movement
• Dr. Martin Luther King wins the Nobel Peace Prize (December)
1965 – Dr. Harvey Cox publishes his book The Secular City. “The age of the secular city, the epoch whose ethos is quickly spreading into every corner of the globe, is an age of ‘no religion at all.’ It no longer looks to religious rules and rituals for its morality or its meanings.” (January)
• First American combat troops enter the Vietnam War (March)
• In its article, “The God is Dead Movement,” Time quotes Dr. Thomas Altizer, associate professor of religion at Emory University: “We must realize that the death of God is an historical event, that God has died in our cosmos, in our history, in our existence.”
• The Presbyterian Lay Committee is launched to work for renewal and reform in its denomination.
• Dr. Martin Luther King and Congressman John Lewis, also a clergyman, attend President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. (August)
1966 – John Lennon states: “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.” (March)
• “Is God Dead?” is the cover of Time on April 8, 1966. The provocative 5,600 word essay was written by Time religion editor John T. Elson. “In search of meaning, some believers have desperately turned to psychiatry, Zen or drugs. Thousands of others have quietly abandoned all but token allegiance to the churches, surrendering themselves to a life of ‘anonymous Christianity’ dedicated to civil rights or the Peace Corps.”
• Anton LaVey launches the Church of Satan. “This is a very selfish religion,” LaVey said in an interview. “We believe in greed. We believe in selfishness and all of the lustful thoughts that motivate man because this is man’s natural feeling.” (April)
• Charles Keysor writes “Methodism’s Silent Minority” in the Christian Advocate, the journal for Methodist clergy (July). “Within The Methodist Church in the United States is a silent minority group. It is not represented in the higher councils of the church. Its members seem to have little influence in Nashville, Evanston, or on Riverside Drive. … I speak of those Methodists who are variously called ‘evangelicals’ or ‘conservatives’ … A more accurate description is ‘orthodox,’ for these brethren hold a traditional understanding of the Christian faith.”
• World Congress on Evangelism sponsored by Billy Graham and Christianity Today’s Carl F.H. Henry held in Berlin (October)
1967 – Timothy Leary urges 30,000 hippies at the “Human Be-In” held at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to “Tune in, Turn on, Drop out!” (January)
• Elvis Presley releases his album, “How Great Thou Art” (February)
• Catholics from Duquesne University (Pittsburgh) experience a Holy Spirit encounter at a Episcopalian retreat. Subsequently, the “First International Conference” of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is held at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. (February)
• Evangelical United Methodists publish the first issue of Good News magazine (March). The lead article by Los Angeles Bishop Gerald Kennedy was titled “The Evangelicals’ Place in The Methodist Church.” The issue also included the sheet music and lyrics to the hymn “God Is Not Dead” by the Rev. M. Homer Cummings.
• The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 26)|
• Six-Day Arab-Israeli War (June 5-10)
• “Summer of Love” draws 100,000 hippies to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury to hear rock music, experiment with hallucinogenic drugs, and hear anti-war and free-love speeches (June)
• At an inter-denominational gathering hosted by Billy Graham and Christianity Today in Washington D.C., three of the Methodist delegates were Charles W. Keysor, editor of Good News; Dr. Frank Stanger, president of Asbury Theological Seminary; and the Rev. Philip Worth, chairman of the board of Good News and Methodist clergy from New Jersey (September)
• The Living Room, a Christian hippie outreach/refuge, is launched in Haight-Ashbury
1968 – Christian Life magazine’s January cover proclaims: “Psychedelic Christians: Where and How They Live.” The story, “God’s Thing in Hippieville,” is written by Maurice Allan. “They are by all conventional standards, a weird mob. I like to think of them as a kind of evangelical Robin Hood and his merry men. With their different costumes, communal ghetto-style living, and anti-authoritarian ways, they outwardly resemble the mythical English folk-hero. Also, like him, they are essentially on the right side of what is righteous and good. Sideburns, para-military jackets, thigh-high dresses, red Indian motifs –they dig these and/or other tell-tale marks of the interstitial culture of the psychedelic scene. Strongly pacifist, not unduly patriotic, yet they love Jesus Christ, and their allegiance to him is undeniable. They stroll like medieval mendicants along Haight street, strumming autoharps, playing harmonicas and passing out day-old doughnuts.”
• Johnny Cash records “At Folsom Prison” (January)
• Evangelist Oral Roberts becomes a member of Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma (March)
• At “His Place,” a coffeehouse rescue mission on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, Arthur Blessitt urges addicts and runaways to try “getting high on Jesus.” (March)
• Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated (April)
• The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merge to form The United Methodist Church (April)
• Senator Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated (June)
• Calvary Chapel pastor Chuck Smith meets “Jesus People” evangelist Lonnie Frisbee in Costa Mesa, California. Together, they launch House of Miracles communal house.
• On Christmas Eve, the crew of Apollo 8 read in turn from the Book of Genesis as they orbit the moon (December)
Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee baptize young people in the ocean.
1969 – The Christian World Liberation Front (CWLF) is established by Jesus People in Berkley, California, by former Campus Crusade for Christ staffers (April)
• The Byrds record Art Reynolds’ gospel song “Jesus is Just Alright with Me” (June)
• Right On, put out by the Christian World Liberation Front, was the first of the underground published Jesus newspapers, appearing in Berkley (July).
• Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee baptize thousands of young Jesus People converts in the Pacific Ocean at Pirates Cove in Newport Beach, California
• The Woodstock music festival attracts more than 400,000 young people to Bethel, New York (August)
• The Hollywood Free Paper is launched in Los Angeles as a Christian response to countercultural underground newspapers. Published from 1969-1978, it had print runs that sometimes exceeded more than one million copies per issue. (October)
• Billy Graham preaches at the 1969 Miami Rock Music Festival from the same concert stage as Canned Heat, the Grateful Dead, and Santana. Graham actually donned a disguise to get a feel for the festival the night before he would preach. “My heart went out to them,” he wrote. “Though I was thankful for their youthful exuberance, I was burdened by their spiritual searching and emptiness.” (December)
Students pray at Asbury College in 1970. Screenshot.
1970 – The students at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, experience an unusual revival beginning on February 3. Classes were cancelled for a week. “The young people in this movement have been the key,” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw, president of Asbury, wrote in Good News. “Faculty and administrators have been chauffeurs and guides while the Spirit has used the young to open closed doors and storm the enemy’s bastions.” An estimated 2,000 witness teams went out to churches and at least 130 college campuses around the nation.
• Professor Bob Lyons and students from Asbury Theological Seminary (also in Wilmore, Kentucky) host the first Ichthus music festival in May. It would be held in Wilmore from 1970-2015.
• Good News publishes the testimony of a transformed drug addict named Coni, republished from Right On, the Jesus People newspaper in Berkeley. “Jesus, they call you God. They say you can change people’s lives. Right now I can’t dig life. Living in this rotten world is a bummer. All I can think about is nodding out forever. But for some outrageous reason, life wants me anyway. I’ve tried to end it three times, but every time I came through,” confessed the young woman. “I don’t believe in anything and I don’t have anything. And since I am cursed to live, I want a reason to live. I’ve hit bottom and can’t seem to get out.”
• The Cross and the Switchblade film released nationwide starring Erik Estrada and Pat Boone (June)
• Good News hosts the first convocation for evangelical United Methodists in Dallas. Speakers include E. Stanley Jones, Bishop Gerald Kennedy, and Tom Skinner. (August)
• “Some call it an ‘underground’ movement. Others describe it as the closest thing to New Testament Christianity this country has ever seen,” reports Rita Klein in Christianity Today. “But those involved – thousands of bearded, long-haired, rather unkempt former hippies – term it a ‘spiritual revolution.’”
• The Rev. Dennis Bennett, an Episcopal priest, publishes Nine O’Clock in the Morning, about experiencing the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.
• First Baptist Church of Houston sponsors SPIRENO (“Spiritual Revolution Now”) youth rallies featuring evangelist Richard Hogue.
• The Word of God covenant community is launched for charismatic Catholics in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Judy Collins includes “Amazing Grace” on her “Whales and Nightingales” album
• Rick Griffin, a leading designer of 1960’s psychedelic posters and closely identified with the Grateful Dead, became a born-again Christian.
• Time publishes “Street Christians: Jesus as the Ultimate Trip” in August. “Jesus freaks. Evangelical hippies. Or, as many prefer to be called, street Christians. Under different names – and in rapidly increasing numbers – they are the latest incarnation of that oldest of Christian phenomena: footloose, passionate bearers of the Word, preaching the kingdom of heaven among the dispossessed of the earth.”
• Hal Lindsey publishes end-times best-seller The Late Great Planet Earth
• Inter-Varsity Christian Youth Conference has 12,000 participants at the University of Illinois (December)
Jesus Christ Superstar black light poster.
1971 – Billy Graham uses index-finger gesture while riding in the Tournament of Roses parade on New Year’s Day and acknowledges the Jesus People chanting “One Way!” along the parade route
• Look magazine’s February cover proclaims: “Today’s Kids: Turning to Jesus, Turning from Drugs.” In his story, “The Jesus Movement is Upon Us,” Brian Vachon reports: “It’s an old-time, Bible-toting witness-giving kind of revival, and the new evangelists are the young. They give their Christian message with cheerful dedication. Turn on to Jesus. He’s coming. Soon.” The now-defunct Look was a national bi-weekly with a circulation of about six million. “It was unquestionably the most remarkable week of my life,” wrote Vachon. “They had the best sounding music I’ve ever heard. Everyone wanted me to accept Christ, too. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m thinking about it.”
• With a circulation of seven million, Life magazine publishes “The Groovy Christians of Rye, N.Y.” – a 3,500 word feature by Jane Howard about newly-converted teens and their befuddled parents. “They don’t see their new faith in terms of rebellion, or of fundamentalism, but as the dazzlingly simple cure for a ‘hunger’ for absolute truth – a famine … as acute in Westchester County as anywhere else. … the growing band of new Christians have been looking intently backward, all the way to the first century A.D., and are clearly transfixed by what they find.” (May)
• The musical Godspell is first performed off-Broadway in the East Village of Manhattan (May)
• With a circulation of four million, Time‘s cover proclaimed “The Jesus Revolution.” The provocative 5,600-word essay was written by Time religion editor Mayo Mohs, with reporting from Richard Ostling, Barry Hillenbrand, and Margaret Boeth. “Jesus is alive and well and living in the radical spiritual fervor of a growing number of young Americans who have proclaimed an extraordinary religious revolution in his name. Their message: the Bible is true, miracles happen, God really did so love the world that he gave it his only begotten son.” (June)
• “Youth are turning to Christ on a scale that perhaps we’ve never known in human history,” Billy Graham tells the crowd gathered at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The Christian World Liberation Front arranged for busses from the University of California campus in Berkeley, luring curious onlookers with the bold letter message on the side of the busses: “People’s Committee to Investigate Billy Graham.” (July)
• Donald M. Williams writes “Close-up of the Jesus People” for Christianity Today. “Up until now, youth evangelism has been inaugurated by adults. Now it comes by youth. The same hip teen-ager who last year turned his friends on to drugs may now be turning them on to Jesus.” (August)
• Billy Graham publishes his book, The Jesus Generation. “Tens of thousands of American youth are caught up in it. They are being ‘turned on’ to Jesus.” Other books in the genre published in 1971 included The Jesus Movement in America, by Edward E. Plowman; Jesus People Come Alive, edited by Walker L. Knight; House of Acts, by John A. MacDonald; Turned On to Jesus, by Arthur Blessitt; The Jesus People Are Coming, by Pat King; Jesus People, by Duane Pederson; The Jesus Trip, by Lowell D. Streiker; and The Jesus Kids, by Roger C. Palms.
• Associated Press names “Jesus People” one of its top ten stories of 1971
• People of Praise, an ecumenical intentional community begun by charismatic Catholics, is begun in South Bend, Indiana
• Andrew Lloyd Weber’s rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” is first performed on Broadway (October)
• Kenneth N. Taylor’s personal paraphrase The Living Bibleis published
• J. Benton White, coordinator of the religious studies program at San Jose State College in California, writes “New Youth Revival Exploits Feelings of Powerlessness” about the Jesus People for the Christian Advocate, the journal for Methodist clergy. “How do we respond? How do we get involved? I’m not certain we need to. Perhaps as some of these youth mature in Christian faith, they will find that the established churches will meet their needs. In the meantime, the professional role should include trying to understand young people while at the same time preserving the essentials of faith as we have experienced it. And we need to ask ourselves why this religious revival had to take place outside the confines of established denominations?” (December)
1972 – Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announces her run as the first African American woman for the U.S. Presidency from Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn (January).
• The United Methodist Council on Evangelism was held in San Francisco. According to the February 3 issue of the Christian Advocate, there was heckling and debate between a contingent of Jesus People from Berkeley and the controversial pastor of Glide United Methodist Church. The booing occurred after the Rev. Cecil Williams claimed that evangelism was “theologically abstract, irresponsible, and unchristian.” The session was “quickly overshadowed by a verbal confrontation between the Berkeley group, Mr. Williams and his friends.” Speaking at the Council on behalf of the Jesus People was Dr. Jack Sparks of the Christian World Liberation Front.
• Explo ‘72 was an event organized by Campus Crusade for Christ and held at the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas. Tens of thousands of young people attended the event. “The Rev. Billy Graham, the evangelist, says it’s a ‘religious Woodstock,’” reported the New York Times.“In any event, a meeting under way here is the largest religious camp meeting ever to take place in the United States.” Special guests included Roger Staubach, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and Johnny Cash. (June)
• Life’s cover story, “The Great Jesus Rally in Dallas,” covered the Campus Crusade event (June)
• Dr. Jack Sparks of the Christian World Liberation Front speaks in St. Louis at the Good News Convocation for United Methodists. He shares about his counter culture ministry in Berkeley, California, and challenges the young people in attendance to abandon the hotel and witness for Jesus in a park. According to Christianity Today, the following day, sixty young people and fifteen adults shared their faith with strangers at the St. Louis Zoo. (August)
• A Time to Be Born, a book documenting the Jesus People movement in Southern California, was published by Brian Vachon with pictures by Jack and Betty Cheetham. The three had worked together on the February 9, 1971, feature for Look magazine.
• “Surely we can extent the hope to Jesus People that in spite of our dissimilarity, change can and will take place within the established church,” wrote the Rev. Ralph Bailey in an article titled “Both Generations Needed to Bridge the Spirit Gap” for the Christian Advocate, the magazine for Methodist clergy. “In so doing we would be helping them to see the possibility that they may be able to ‘put it together spiritually’ with that context. We could, but will we? The old questions come back to haunt us. ‘Why bother? Do we want them here?’ How we deal with these questions and their attendant fears may determine whether thousands of Jesus People decide to ‘do their thing’ in or outside the church as we know it. Hopefully we can both reach out across the Spirit gap and then cross over to iron out some of the other kinks in our relationship.”
• The Doobie Brothers release their version of “Jesus is Just Alright with Me” (November)
1973 – Jesus People USA, an intentional Christian community, sets up base of operations in Chicago’s North Side
• Larry Norman releases his album, “Only Visiting This Planet”
• The Rev. Dennis Bennett helps start Episcopal Renewal Ministries, soon renamed Acts 29, to promote the charismatic renewal movement within his denomination.
• Key ‘73 was launched as an ambitious nationwide pan-denominational evangelistic campaign. According to its Congregational Resource Book, the program had the “vision of every unchurched family in North America being visited by someone who comes with loving concern to share his faith in Christ.”
• Johnny Cash releases film Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus, a project he and his wife June fully financed. “It’s my life’s proudest work,” Cash told the Nashville Tennessean. “John came up with the idea of doing the crucifixion in lots of places to show that Christ died for people all over the world,” said documentary film director Robert Elfstrom, an agnostic. “We ended up doing it once at Jericho in Israel, on the waterfront in Brooklyn Heights, on the Strip in Las Vegas, at the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, and in Death Valley.” While they were filming in Death Valley, reports Robert Hilburn in Johnny Cash: The Life, “a VW minivan filled with hippies drove up, and they stopped to watch. They got out, smoked some dope, and then returned to the van. As they sped off, the driver yelled, ‘Good luck with the resurrection!’”
Steve Beard is the editor of Good News.
by Steve | Feb 24, 2023 | Home Page Hero Slider, In the News
By Suzanne Nicholson —
(The Asbury University revival gives us a window into the heart of God and how the Holy Spirit works in unusual ways in the lives of his people. The following article was written almost a week ago when public services were still being held around the clock and contains helpful reflections to give us perspective and greater understanding about God’s way of working. This piece was excerpted from a longer articlepublished on Firebrand Magazine. – Editors)
What do you do when the streams of living water suddenly burst into a flood? The spiritual outpouring that began at Asbury University on February 8 was spontaneous and unexpected. After an ordinary chapel service, a number of students felt called to linger and praise God. As students responded, the Spirit brought an immense sense of joy and peace. More students came. The Spirit remained, and so did the students. Worship has continued ever since, and – as a result of social media posts – thousands of Jesus-seekers have poured into the small town of Wilmore, Kentucky.
Theological Reflections
The day before the revival began, my Growth of the New Testament Church class was discussing Peter’s speech in Acts 3 after he healed a man in front of the Temple. Peter had described Jesus’ death and resurrection and then challenged the audience: “Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets” (3:19-21). Our class had discussed the beauty of the description, “times of refreshing,” only to experience that refreshing the very next day!
My students had noticed in Acts several places where – after the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost – the disciples had been described as being “filled with the Spirit” (e.g., 4:8, 7:55, 13:9). They wanted to know if Luke was simply reminding his readers that the disciples had been filled with the Spirit previously, or if this was a new filling. At the time I described it as sort of a turbo-charge: there’s always gas in the tank, but sometimes you need an extra burst of power for the task at hand.
As I’ve been reflecting this week, two other metaphors have come to mind that might be helpful. It’s important to remember that the Spirit who is present at Asbury this week is the same God who was present three weeks ago and is the same God who will be here long after the crowds have dispersed. The difference is in the level of communion we are experiencing. God is always feeding us by his Spirit, but some occasions are a bit more special. It’s like sitting down to meals three times a day, but occasionally indulging in a fantastic Thanksgiving feast, enjoying all the special dishes with the best of ingredients, and sharing the overwhelming spread with anyone who shows up to partake. The Spirit is giving us a feast right now.
My favorite image, however, arises from Psalm 1:3: those who delight in the law of the Lord “are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” Believers who regularly commune with the Lord through prayer, Bible study, corporate worship, receiving the Eucharist, and other means of grace are the trees planted by streams of water, receiving their nourishment. But occasionally we need flood waters to spur new growth – not the destructive floods that wipe away homes, but rather the essential spring flooding of the Nile that brought much-needed water and nutrients to agricultural lands in the ancient world.
This is where we have found ourselves at Asbury these past two weeks. We are planted by streams of water, but the dry air of secular culture surrounding us has left us thirsting for more. The thousands of visitors to campus have only demonstrated how much spiritual thirst exists right now. These people are desperate for relief, life, and hope, and they are willing to wait in line for hours to enter the place where the veil between heaven and earth is remarkably thin right now. The Holy Spirit has graciously sent gentle flood waters to revive us, reshape us, and empower us for the work ahead. We are receiving a sort of spiritual Miracle-Gro, a nutrient boost to inspire new growth. We are drinking deeply from this refreshing gift.
Not everyone has found it comfortable to explore this movement of the Holy Spirit. Some students have said they feel pressured to go and join in the revival; others are skeptical or fearful of what they will encounter. Some students are experiencing the refreshing of the Spirit as they pray in their dorm rooms, rather than joining the immense and, for some, intimidating crowd. Some students have stayed in Hughes Auditorium for a few minutes at a time, while others have remained for hours or even days. These different experiences should remind us that we need to be gentle with one another, because what each of us needs from the Holy Spirit may be different. God is gracious enough to meet us where we are, and we are all at varying points in our walk with the Lord.
Yet we should also keep in mind that there is something powerful about being in community and hearing testimonies of how God is working among the body of Christ. When others publicly repent of their sins, we may be moved to do the same. When others praise Jesus in loud voices, we may experience a similar joy in the Lord. When others intercede in prayer for the nations, we may be urged to follow suit. Witnessing together the movement of God, we are strengthened for our own testimony just as we strengthen those who are giving testimony. Ephesians 4:15-16 reminds us of God’s desire for the body of Christ to be knit together in this way: “speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
Some have asked how this outpouring of the Holy Spirit came about. How can it be replicated? The simple answer is that this was a spontaneous act of God, a beautiful act of grace. It was not manufactured. Asbury University simply had another average, ordinary chapel service, and God chose to move. We have done nothing ourselves to make this happen.
That’s not entirely correct. People have been praying for revival for years – some, for decades. God delights in these kinds of prayers. God responds in his own timing to the cries of his people. But make no mistake: this is not a “work.” The prayers of the people are a response to what God has done previously. God’s grace comes first, the people respond with prayers for more, and God pours out his grace once again.
What is so stunning about this kind of outpouring is that it is locally focused. We regularly preach the truth that God who created and sustains the universe is accessible anywhere – whether in foxholes or brothels or athletic fields or beaches or homes or churches. God is available to all who cry out to him. And yet there are times when the Spirit appears profoundly in a particular location. When Moses met God, he saw a burning bush that was not consumed, and he was told to remove his sandals because the place on which he was standing was holy (Exodus 3:1-6). When God led the Israelites through the desert, he did so by a cloud of his presence during the day and by fire at night (Exodus 13:21). God’s glory filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38). When the Spirit poured forth at Pentecost, it filled a house in Jerusalem where believers had gathered (Acts 2:1).
These kinds of manifestations of God’s presence have continued through the centuries as God regularly revives his people. Now God has chosen this season to pour forth abundantly his Spirit at Asbury University. But this does not mean that God is any less accessible in your home church. Pray for the refreshing Spirit of God to bless your community. Be persistent. Wait with longing. Don’t give up hope. And don’t forget that even as you await the flood, you are trees planted by water. Drink deeply of the Spirit who is always present. The flood is no replacement for the daily drinking from the streams of God’s goodness.
A Few Practical Notes
As the Spirit began to move, the leaders have worked hard to keep the emphasis on Jesus. No one leader has emerged, but a large team is working together to make sure the music, the testimonies, the personal narratives, the discussion of Scripture all focus on glorifying God rather than on individuals in the room.
Repentance has been a large part of what God has prompted among those in attendance. In order for God to revive us, we must confess the ways in which we have followed our own wills rather than the will of God. We must be willing to flee sin and be transformed by a loving God who desires to give us a life of flourishing (2 Chronicles 7:14). We have been called to a life of holiness.
Flexibility is an incredibly important part of responding to the Spirit. Our churches and institutions often have policies and procedures – routines that keep the cogs of progress running smoothly. But when the Spirit suddenly shows up in powerful ways, the rule book may need to go out the window. Our administration at Asbury encouraged professors to be flexible with assignment dates and attendance policies for those who have felt called to worship in Hughes Auditorium. Leaders have been creative in addressing unforeseen needs – a snack table outside the back door of the auditorium for those who remain for hours, portable toilets outside for those waiting in line to gain entrance to the packed auditorium, a baby changing table placed outside the restrooms (not your typical equipment here!).
In the early church, organization developed over time. At first, the believers simply gathered together and “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Later, in Acts 6, deacons were appointed to distribute food to the Hellenistic widows who had been overlooked in the daily food distribution. Structure was introduced to make sure the needs were met. Similarly, here at Asbury systems have developed quickly to meet pressing needs. At first, volunteers simply showed up and asked where they could serve; now, sign-up lists have been created and leaders appointed to organize the needs. Flexible structures are important.
Discernment is perhaps one of the greatest needs. How is God moving? How can this gift best be stewarded? Where might people intentionally or unintentionally be leading this community in a different direction than God desires? Constant prayer is an absolute necessity.
Spiritual outpourings today contain an element not foreseen in previous generations: social media. Word about this movement of God has spread like wildfire on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. In the past, teams of evangelists needed to travel from town to town to spread the word, but now in a matter of days people on the other side of the planet have heard about what is happening in Wilmore, Kentucky. For the first week and a half of this outpouring, Asbury University intentionally chose not to livestream the revival (other than our previously scheduled student chapel services). Some in the crowds, however, have been livestreaming non-stop.
We need to be concerned about the potential for abuse. Those who are unaware they are being filmed but are moved by the Spirit to repent publicly of their sins – even if they are in a room of 1,500 people – are not expecting to later see their testimony spread to millions across the globe (including family far away who may not appreciate the personal revelations) or that their images may be turned into memes. When we post under these conditions, we should consider posting short snippets of praise and worship so that God may be glorified. But we must be careful not to abuse others in our eagerness to share. Just because we can post intimate personal testimonies to social media does not mean that we should.
This dynamic is admittedly different when those present are aware that they are being filmed. On Sunday, Asbury University President Kevin Brown announced that Asbury will begin livestreaming services during the next week. Believers across the world who cannot physically travel to Wilmore will be able to see how God is moving here. It remains to be seen, however, the ways in which broadcasting will affect the nature and tenor of testimonies and worship. My prayer is that the focus remains on God as our audience and not those watching through their screens.
What Happens Next?
As I write this, thousands of strangers are on campus – so many, in fact, that on Sunday police officers had to close access to the main road into Wilmore. The town simply does not have capacity for any more visitors. The crowds have been unsettling to some of our students, who have found their routines significantly disrupted. Yet I am reminded that these newcomers are standing where we were two weeks ago when we drank deeply from the well of the Spirit – thirsty and desperate for a touch from God. We need to be careful, once we have drunk from the flood, not to lose compassion for those who remain thirsty.
Our administrators have done well to support this public longing for God, but they also recognize that this outpouring is not meant to remain here, but to spread. President Brown announced on Sunday that the services at Asbury for the general public would end on Monday, February 20, although evening services for high school and college students will be held through February 23. After that, services will continue at locations other than Asbury University.
My prayer is that revival will come to you. This refreshing Spirit is not for us alone, and there is plenty to go around. Scripture is full of language describing the abundance of God: “hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). Already reports are occurring of revivals on other campuses, such as Lee University and Samford University.
The challenge will occur, however, after the flood waters recede. We must not forget that we are still trees planted by living water. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, even if we experience God in different ways on different days. We cannot forsake the normal means of grace in search of floodwaters alone. It will be important in the days ahead for local faith communities to disciple those who have found new life as a result of this outpouring. We will need to teach Scripture in depth and provide small-group support and accountability to help people make sense of what they have experienced and challenge them toward deeper relationships with Jesus.
This flood we are experiencing today is meant to revive us for a purpose – to share the joy and the love of God with those living in a dark world. As this revival has been occurring, we have simultaneously watched tens of thousands of dead being pulled from the rubble after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. We have witnessed several more mass shootings, including one on the campus of Michigan State University. We continue to see famine and poverty, addiction and despair, racism and sexism, abuse and ailments across the world and in our homes. We need this refreshing of the Spirit more than ever as a testimony that God has not abandoned this dark world. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). This is the hope for a world gone wrong.
Our experience of this hope empowers us to go and preach the good news to the dying and the destitute, not only through our words, but also through our actions. God calls us to perfect love of both God and neighbor. If we keep this refreshing Spirit to ourselves, then we have missed the point. God has given us shalom – wholeness and healing and flourishing – so that we can bring the love of God to others. If we proclaim the love of Jesus but do not demonstrate God’s love by helping the poor and destitute, then we are nothing but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). God forbid that we turn these songs of praise into nothing more than a noisy interruption.
Suzanne Nicholson is Professor of New Testament at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. She is an Elder in the Global Methodist Church and serves as Assistant Lead Editor of Firebrand. Republished by permission of Firebrand (firebrandmag.com). Photo: Shutterstock.
by Steve | Feb 17, 2023 | In the News
Each historical move of God is unique. “The wind blows where it wishes,” said Jesus. With so many other onlookers, we have been prayerfully mindful of the student-led renewal and revival services taking place since February 8 on the campuses of Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. From all reports, students are encountering the Living God.
For several decades, Good News was headquartered in Wilmore. In 1970, Dr. Dennis Kinlaw was the president of then-Asbury College. At the time, the school was the epicenter of a powerful outpouring of the Spirit among the college students. “The young people in this movement have been the key,” Dr. Kinlaw wrote in Good News magazine more than 50 years ago. “Faculty and administrators have been chauffeurs and guides while the Spirit has used the young to open closed doors and storm the enemy’s bastions.”
Decades later, the same could be said of the spiritual stirring on campus in Wilmore. Facebook and other social media outlets have publicized the events in Hughes Auditorium to a worldwide audience. There are no celebrity personalities or “influencers” at the helm of this organic movement – only students and a very capable campus administration. We have pulled together a non-exhaustive collection of excerpts, quotes, and observations from special voices – undergrads to PhDs – to share in this Perspective to give insight, encouragement, and context.
Sarah Thomas Baldwin, Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students, Asbury University (Facebook)
Last Wednesday, February 8, at 11:00 a.m., the Holy Spirit filled Hughes Auditorium (our chapel) and has not let up. Again and again, people report experiencing God like they never have before in their lives.
Early on, thick clouds came down and settled around our campus. I will never forget how it seemed to be the visible thick presence of Jesus settling in on us.
The movement of God is across the generations – from 93 years old to 2 weeks old – they have shown up. College students arriving with backpacks and pillows, wheelchairs and elderly people, babies in strollers, in arms and in front packs. Children and many teenagers. And of course, at the heart – Gen Z.
The Holy Spirit lit the wick of Gen Z, and now people from around the nation are putting their candle into the fire, experiencing the goodness and grace of God.
Many testimonies from college students about release from anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation. Come Lord Jesus! This generation needs this.
Words that people keep saying to me about their experience: LOVE of God, JOY of Jesus – “I have never experienced this! I have never felt Jesus like this!” I hear this all day every day for 7 days. …
Afternoon testimony time! Hearing people testify to the goodness of God with incredible testimonies often about freedom from addiction, healing of relationships, a word of blessing proclaimed. …
Alexandra Presta, editor, Asbury Collegian
It’s still hard to verbalize. I’ve had friends across state lines text and call me, wanting an explanation for how and why God chose now to come in this way. I admitted to all of them a phrase I usually despise: “I don’t know.”
And honestly, none of us do. But just because we don’t know all the details of God’s plan or His timeline doesn’t eliminate that He still moves. He still shows up. Funny enough, it always seems to be right when we need Him.
Alison Perfater, Asbury University Student Body President (WKYT)
“We are just sitting with Him. It’s just deeply gentle and deeply loving; it’s just a glimpse of what I think heaven will look like.”
Jason Vickers, Professor of Theology, Asbury Theological Seminary (Facebook)
In the time that I was there, I could not get over certain distinctive qualities about the atmosphere. The words that came to mind were: gentle, sweet, peaceful, serene, tender, still. Some people were singing. Others were talking. Many were praying. But there was something like a blessed stillness permeating the place. No one was swinging from the chandeliers. In fact, it was right the opposite. What made this so wild was just how un-wild the whole thing was … is.
Andrew Thompson, lead pastor, First Methodist Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma (Facebook)
All I can say about the experience I had over the next several minutes is that the manifest presence of the Lord is there – it is thick and substantial, and it is full of love. It is as if the Lord has set up his tabernacle right there over that room. The Holy Spirit covered me like a blanket, and then he began to flush out all the pain, and fatigue, and spiritual weariness I was feeling. I went down to the altar rail to pray, and an otherworldly peace came upon me such as I have only known one other time in my life. I felt two hands on my shoulders, and a voice began to pray over me: “Lord, walk with this man in his life. Let him know your presence. Fill him with your Holy Spirit.” When I later stood up, the two young college students who had been interceding for me were themselves praying at the altar. God is using his people to minister to one another in very humble, but bold ways.
Alexandra Presta, editor, Asbury Collegian
Peers, professors, local church leaders, and seminary students surround me – all of them praying, worshipping, and praising God together. Voices are ringing out. People are bowing at the altar, arms stretched wide. A pair of friends cling to each other in a hug, one with tears in her eyes. A diverse group of individuals crowd the piano and flawlessly switch from song to song. Some even sit like me, with laptops open. No one wants to leave.
No one even expected this to happen. Not on a random Wednesday for sure. Yet, we sit and sing about God’s love pouring out and His goodness.
Anna Lowe, Asbury Collegian
When I arrived at Hughes, my immediate inclination was to take photos and record what was happening through interviews, as my job typically requires. In my heart, I felt an outer nudge to be still. And so that’s what I did.
Nothing immediately happened to me or changed in my heart. …. I did not let the lack of immediacy deter me, even though I thought about leaving. All that mattered at that moment was our Creator. The transfer of my focus nudged me to ponder how infinitesimally small we are. The situations that enraptured my mind were mere specks on the horizon compared to eternity.
My heart shifted, and a resentment that had followed me for months was lifted by the grace of God alone. Walls of bitterness and agitation released themselves from my mind. I felt them cast out of my mind and heart to the point where I have almost completely forgotten the prior feeling. Knowing myself, I am confident this shift is not of my own volition. I was set and satisfied in my resentment, but God had different plans for me.
This moment of absolute peace shifted my reality.
Craig Keener, Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary (Facebook)
The university chapel (seating 1500) and seminary chapels (seating 1000) and a local church are filled and lines are waiting outside. But what strikes me most is that, even walking near the chapel or out on the street (itself full of cars), I CAN FEEL THE TANGIBLE PRESENCE OF GOD. Not something that can be manufactured. We’d prayed for this to happen someday, but it’s still way beyond my expectations!
Jake Traylor, associate producer, MSNBC News (NBC)
On TikTok and Instagram, videos hashtagged “Asbury Revival” are racking up millions of views. At the time this article was published, the hashtag #asburyrevival had 24.4 million views on TikTok. …
Tuesday night [February 14] capped the largest crowd yet: 3,000 worshipers piled into the college chapel and four overflowed facilities throughout the college town. At least two-thirds of the attendants are from out of state …
Students and staff from 22 schools have visited so far, alongside groups from Hawaii to Massachusetts, university faculty said. Travelers from Singapore and Canada are expected to arrive soon, they added. …
Nick Hall, an attendee who purchased a one-way plane ticket from Minneapolis when he saw a viral video on Instagram, emphasized that the gathering was notably low-key for something that people are calling a “revival.”
“This is acoustic guitars, pianos and very noncharismatic speakers. This is as un-sensationalized as it could be,” he said.
And according to Hall, leading the charge in the sanctuary and on social media is the Gen Z generation.
“They’re the ones that started it, they’re the ones that sustained it, and they’re the ones that have been on the platform the whole time,” he said.
Stephen Seamands, Professor Emeritus of Christian Doctrine, Asbury Theological Seminary (Facebook)
In revivals, said [First Great Awakening preacher and theologian] Jonathan Edwards [1703-1758], people get seized, gripped, overwhelmed by the divine excellency of Christ. As a result of being captured by his love, his “superlative amiableness,” as he puts it, they fall in love and stay in love with Jesus in such a way that their lives are never the same, the church is never the same, the world is never the same.
These first hand revival experiences, convictional experiences, divine encounters – grip us so profoundly, transform and shape us so deeply that they set us on a trajectory that continues for the rest of our lives.
Like Paul’s encounter on the Damascus road, they impart to us such a profound awareness, such a revelation of the risen, exalted Jesus, such an experience of his presence in us through the Holy Spirit, such an unswerving commitment to his mission, that standing in chains before King Agrippa decades later, he would declare, “No matter what happens, I simply can’t be disobedient to such a heavenly vision.”
Revivals produce Christians who are faithful, bold, and unapologetic. Christians who find their joy and satisfaction in God. Christians with a love and passion for holiness, who will gladly lay down their lives for Jesus, who are looking, not for a prosperity gospel, but in Amy Carmichael’s words, “a chance to die.”
Revivals cause the church to move forward in purity, power and unity; in boldness and confidence to be his witnesses. As a result God’s people are able to withstand cultural pressures to conform and compromise. They refuse to be seduced by the gods of their culture.
I think Jonathan Edwards had it right. We need revivals because we need more of Jesus. Through revival God raises up a generation, a people, a church which gets focused on Christ. As the characters in Narnia would say: “Aslan comes in sight.” So we discover things about him that we never knew before. He truly becomes the pearl of great price. Ultimately, revivals are about “the divine excellency of Christ.”
Elizabeth Glass Turner, writer and editor (Facebook)
Let it be what it is. Is it Holy Spirit, or hype? On watching and listening, here’s what I find: On February 8, a preacher shared what they named a mediocre sermon, but at the prayer of confession, something broke loose; and college students didn’t leave chapel service, but continued it. It kept continuing. Before social media lit up, there was just – simplicity. No one was trying to manufacture An Experience.
That’s really important to distinguish – the Holy Spirit met these students, at that moment, not to recreate the 1970s, but as a sweet movement for these lives, now. So whether they’d stayed an hour past usual chapel time, or three hours, or twelve hours, or twenty-four, if it had stopped then, that would’ve been okay; it wouldn’t have meant that the Holy Spirit wasn’t at work. It’s okay to let it be whatever it is, without putting pressure on college students to frame it a certain way.
Of course, in the 70s, there wasn’t social media; I think I first saw a comment online (from someone not present) less than 12 hours after it started, making swift comparisons. Let it be what it is, I thought. Whether it quiets to a hush and wraps up or lingers and continues, there’s grace in simply receiving. Like manna, yes? Don’t try to hoard it for the next day; simply receive the bread of heaven with thanks today. What’s funny is that smartphone-laden students weren’t trying to make anything go viral; weren’t trying to leverage as influencers. They were busy praying, confessing, worshipping. …
Exhausted, sad, burned, or desperate friends: skeptic or seeker, let’s let this be what it is. Negative experiences of emotionally charged, individualistic worship that doesn’t bear fruit are real; they also don’t mean this outpouring can be reduced to that. It’s okay to gently hope. And collective strain, exhaustion, burnout, and desperation should absolutely drive us to the feet of Jesus; that doesn’t mean our hopes should pin on one specific path or outcome this outpouring may or may not take or result in. If it quiets to a hum or holy silence, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t real, genuine, beautiful, transformative or holy – whether you’re doubtful or desperate. …
The predominant theme I’ve noticed from folks who popped over for a few minutes or longer – deep, deep, deep, quiet peace. Restorative peace. Deep, quiet joy. Not a circus, not a bunch of antics. God’s Spirit, like a weighted blanket. …
This started with a prayer of confession. If there’s any corner of your heart tempted toward being a consumer of an experience, know that uncomfortable remorse may come first. Some of the crowds around Jesus came face to face with that dynamic. The great thing is that reckoning and revival have a long history together, and you can share in prayers of confession wherever you are. (My favorites always pinch, always close loopholes: “what we’ve done and what we’ve left undone; we have not loved you with our whole hearts or our neighbors as ourselves” etc.)
Beth Felker Jones, Professor of Theology, Northern Seminary (Facebook)
• An event doesn’t have to be everything to be good. God works in partial, broken things.
• If we want to know something by its fruit, we have to give it some time to grow fruit.
• Judging something from afar, via Twitter, seems ill advised. Discerning the spirits is important. It’s best done in embodied communal relationship and not as a hot take …
• God made, loves, and works through emotions. Can emotions be manipulated or sinful? Yes. Does that mean emotion is out of bounds in Christian life? By no means!
• Our culture is so materialist. Are we prone to believe that a powerful, tangible work of the Spirit simply cannot be a real thing?
Peter J. Bellini, Professor of Church Renewal and Evangelization, United Theological Seminary (Facebook)
Revival often is dealing with the larger mystery and providence of God. We should all take a holy pause and breathe in before we claim to be able to judge the work of God. In one regard, we are all amateurs.
Tom McCall, Professor of Theology, Asbury Theological Seminary (Christianity Today)
As an analytic theologian, I am weary of hype and very wary of manipulation. I come from a background (in a particularly revivalist segment of the Methodist-holiness tradition) where I’ve seen efforts to manufacture “revivals” and “movements of the Spirit” that were sometimes not only hollow but also harmful. I do not want anything to do with that.
And truth be told, this is nothing like that. There is no pressure or hype. There is no manipulation. There is no high-pitched emotional fervor.
To the contrary, it has so far been mostly calm and serene. The mix of hope and joy and peace is indescribably strong and indeed almost palpable – a vivid and incredibly powerful sense of shalom. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is undeniably powerful but also so gentle.
Luther Oconor, Associate Professor of Global Wesleyan Theology, Asbury Theological Seminary (Facebook)
The Asbury Revival is still showing no signs of slowing down even after over 160 hours. People are just coming from nearby states and even as far as Florida. Last night, Hughes Auditorium was full, and services overflowed to the seminary chapel and at another auditorium on campus. By God’s sovereign grace, the partition between heaven and earth in Wilmore, Kentucky, seems to be thin or nonexistent.
As I reflect on this I am reminded of this observation by Mark Stibbe about revival: “Christian revival is a divinely initiated process in which a dying church is revitalised through the power of the Holy Spirit, leading to a new love affair with Jesus Christ, which in turn transforms the community, region, and even nation in which that church is situated” (“Seized by the Power of Great Affection,” in On Revival: A Critical Examination, 2003).
While the definition is a bit local church-centric, it still helps us understand that what we’re seeing at Asbury right now is the early stages of a revival. It is clear that a new love affair with Jesus Christ is taking place in Wilmore. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, people, mostly young people, are experiencing the love of Jesus for the first time or in such powerful ways that they are beginning to love him back. Jesus is glorified. For this is what happens when Holy Spirit shows up! He points us to Jesus (John 15:26). He removes the veil and we begin to gaze at him and are thereby transformed, and in this case, collectively (2 Corinthians 3:16-18). This is why the slogan at the altar at Hughes, “Holiness unto the Lord,” which also points to the rich Wesleyan-Holiness heritage to which Asbury is connected, sounds more like a prophetic unction to what is currently happening.
But transformation, as pointed out in the quote above, comes in stages. For love for Jesus overflows to love for neighbor. And so, it initially touches the local community, and so far the Asbury Revival is on track towards that. But as far as its implications to region, nation, and, if I may add, the world is concerned, that will take a while to determine. Only time will tell.
As several scholars have pointed out, there is always a link between genuine revival and social transformation (see the works of Timothy Smith, Don Dayton, Doug Strong, and others). But as the deep well of Asbury’s revival past has shown us, I won’t be surprised if years from now we will hear of people who will point to the revival of 2023 as a watershed moment for their lives. I somehow intuitively know this because I am a result of a powerful revival in the Philippines in 1997. There’s not a day I don’t look back to what God did to me then. Hence, I am confident that there will be a future generation of pastors, evangelists, healers, and missionaries who will emerge from this. The famous missionary from India, E. Stanley Jones, points to the Asbury Revival of 1905 which launched him into a long and fruitful missionary career. …
What matters most is we celebrate and thank God for what’s happening in this moment. One simply cannot complain that an infant doesn’t know how to drive yet! Let’s enjoy every moment with that baby and be excited about her or his potential. For when college students (yes, the same kids of the Gen Z TikTok generation!) are turning to Christ in droves, when people are reporting healings from emotional hurts and illnesses, or when people gain a new love for Jesus and neighbor through the power of the Holy Spirit, that is always a win in God’s Kingdom. May it be so on earth as it is in heaven.
I John 1:1-4
From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in – we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
– The Message
Photo: Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University, February 10, 2023. Photo by Sarah Thomas Baldwin. Used by permission.
by Steve | Feb 14, 2023 | In the News
By Dennis Kinlaw
Good News, April-June 1970 —
When the students and faculty of Asbury College met on Tuesday, February 3, 1970, for chapel, they did not know what was in store. The program was to be one of sharing by students and faculty, of their faith in Christ. As witness to Christ was being given, a spontaneous movement of the Spirit began. It grew to disrupt class schedules, bring the great majority of the students to a new relationship with the Lord, set up a chain of witness for Christ that was to extend to numerous campuses and churches and to thousands of individuals.
For eight days an unbroken service of praise and adoration to God continued. Men and women sought and found forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ, the inner cleansing and filling of his Spirit, a new love for God and others, and an authentic sense of Christ’s mission.
At the time of the writing of this article, the Spirit is continuing his reviving work in numerous places where the revival fires have been kindled.
This movement began in evangelical schools but has not been confined to their walls. The Spirit has likewise worked in a significant manner on secular campuses and in numerous churches and communities around the country.
What is the significance of this awesome movement of God’s Spirit? Is God saying something to us that needs to be heard? This could be the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand that is the harbinger of significant revival [1 Kings 18:44-46].
Perhaps God is ready, now, to take a new initiative. Popular theologians have told us that God is dead, silent, indifferent, or impotent. The Church, the state, the educational institutions and various organizations for reform have done their best but have left us in despair. Now God has decided to show his hand. The current movement of God was longed for by many – but it came clearly as a surprise. It was spontaneous and unplanned – at least by men or women.
We have seen afresh the power of an authentic witness for Christ. A characteristic of this movement has been the absence of preaching. It was personal testimony to the transforming power of Christ that seemed to trigger and to extend this movement. There was no preaching but eight days of unbroken witness, praise, adoration, invitation, and intercession. Out went teams to tell of the glory of God – and the fire spread. In a day that accents the sensual and the empirical we have seen afresh the power of witness to Christian experience.
The power of students committed to Christ has been made evident. The world has watched while other students have brought down administrations and shaken national governments. We have come to regard students as political and social revolutionaries. Now God has let us see their potential as Christians.
The young people in this movement have been the key. Faculty and administrators have been chauffeurs and guides while the Spirit has used the young to open closed doors and storm the enemy’s bastions.
This should really be no surprise. History reminds us that in 1806 it was two college sophomores and three freshmen at Williams College who triggered the movement of Christian missions in American life – a movement of God hardly surpassed elsewhere in Christian history. The major Christian movements of the 20th century – from independent faith missions to modern ecumenical movement – began in student groups in the late 19th century.
Luther Wishard persuaded D. L. Moody to give four weeks in July of 1886 to college students. Few realized that history was being made. But from that group of 251 collegians who met with Moody came a movement of the Spirit that produced John R. Mott, Robert Speer, Samuel Zwemer, E. Stanley Jones, Wascom Pickett, the Student Volunteer Movement, the 20th century missionary thrust around the world, and laid the foundations of the ecumenical movement.
Twentieth century humanity has been characterized by a supreme confidence in itself and its institutions. Political personalities have felt that the state could bring in “The Great Society.” Religious figures have looked to the church and its institutions to produce “The Christian Century.” By now, those illusions are pretty well shattered. Perhaps the ground is now clear so God can plant that vine of his choosing.
God is ready to bless again when men and women turn their attention to the central verities. A characteristic of the current movement of the Spirit is the absence of the marginal and the trivial. The attention has been on getting right with God in terms of sin, self, and one’s neighbor. The cry of the sinner has been for pardon and new life. Multitudes have found this. The plea of the backslider has been for restoration. Carnal believers have yearned for clean hearts. Many have sought and found through the filling of the Spirit.
Jeff Black, a student, noted these observations firsthand: “Basketball players with their coach are at the altar … my roommate has not moved for five hours from his seat … 14 hours have passed since the revival began. There are 300 to 400 people present at this midnight hour ….”
The prayer of all has been, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” To all he has said: “Ye shall be witnesses.” Many now are, and the end is not yet.
Dennis Kinlaw (1922-2017) was the president of then-Asbury College in 1970. Dr. Kinlaw was a noted Old Testament scholar and a leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. This article appeared in the April-June 1970 issue of Good News.
