The non-stop worship service taking place at Asbury University has brought together over 20,000 visitors to the tiny Kentucky town.
QUICK FACTS:
- The worship service happening at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky has welcomed over three times the town’s population over the weekend.
- Greg Gordon, founder of SermonIndex.net, tweeted a photo from the campus on Saturday night, highlighting over 20,000 people came to gather and worship God.
- “Over 20,000 people came to asbury last night, with 5 overflow buildings and a grass lawn filled. there is a 2.5 mile backup of cars going into Wilmore,” Gordon said. “Cry out to God for your FIRST LOVE to be renewed.”
- The entire town of Wilmore is home to just 6,000 residents, with the student body totaling around 1,600.
- The school announced on its website Sunday that Wilmore was unequipped to handle to influx of visitors, officially marking the end of the revival that has lasted since February 8.
- “Earlier this afternoon, the university in consultation with local law enforcement and city administration notified incoming visitors that parking and seating had exceeded capacity,” the school’s website read.
- “Beginning Tuesday, February 21, services available to the public will be held at another location in the central Kentucky area. Asbury will host evening services for college-age and high school students (16-25) through Thursday, February 23.”
- Starting Friday afternoon the school will no longer be holding worship services, encouraging believers to “go out” and spread the good news with the world.
PREACHER JACOB COYNE ON REVIVAL AT ASBURY UNIVERSITY:
“I just wanted to know Jesus. There is just no other agenda but to just give Jesus an offering of worship and to encounter Jesus and get your heart right with God if you’ve gone astray. So it was beautiful,” Coyne said.
BACKGROUND:
- Students and visitors at Asbury have been participating in around-the-clock prayer services, accompanied by worship music, personal testimonies, altar calls, and religious conversions.
- The movement began after a group of students refused to leave following a chapel service and has since grown to pack the school’s chapel with worshippers each day.
- “It’s praise and worship, honestly. Nobody’s snake-handling. It’s just praise and worship that’s going around 24/7,” said Jim Shores, an associate professor at the school.
- Pastor Jen Ramlet from Influence Church in Orange County, Calif., visited Asbury’s worship services, reminding believers of the true meaning of revival.
- “If you want revival because you want your church on the map it won’t happen,” Ramlet said. “Revival is not about you. Revival is not about being in the history books for your sake or for your ego. If you want revival you have to lay your pride down at the cross and want it because you genuinely want the move of God across your state and country.”
- “At the center of it all, it’s been a return to a whole-hearted commitment to Jesus and turning away from anything that distracts us from Christ. We are deeply grateful for what God is doing,” Sarah Baldwin, vice president of student life at Asbury said.
