Asbury revival: 12-day non-stop worship in Kentucky halted after thousands attend

A non-stop group prayer session in Kentucky that lasted 12 days had to be halted after the event went viral on TikTok and tens of thousands attended.

Asbury University, home to fewer than 1,700 students, attracted “tens of thousands of visitors” to Wilmore, Kentucky, for an event many are calling “a revival – a religious service that can stretch for a prolonged period”, reported Insider.

On 8 February, students of the Christian college gathered for a regular scheduled service that, over the course of two weeks, grew “to pack the school’s auditorium and spill out into parts of the community”, said the Daily Mail.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Videos of the spontaneous revival gained millions of views on social media, specifically TikTok, showing thousands of people gathered at the university swaying and holding each other in prayer.

People came from all over the US to the small college to join in on the group prayer that had its last public service on 20 February, according to the university schedule. The decision to end the spiritual session was due to “the strain” the town felt “as thousands came to pray”, said the Mail.

The town of 6,000 has “no more room or resources to accommodate the visiting worshippers”, said the president of the university, Dr Kevin J. Brown.

The effects of this religious outpouring have also been felt by the university’s students, said Brown. “Students have not only had to juggle various campus commitments, but also the throngs of people who have entered the dimensions of their space,” he added.

Many students at the university expressed concern for their wellbeing, reported The Washington Post. “Our safety is becoming a risk,” wrote Alexandra Presta, the editor of Asbury’s student newspaper.

This “revival” was not the first at Asbury. Since its founding in 1890, the university has seen two other revivals. The first, in 1970, spanned 185 hours, and the other “lasted for four days in 2006”, said the Post.

The main purposes of revivals, according to Christian Ministry, is “(1) to revitalise the spiritual life of its members and (2) to gain new followers”.

The event was a “beautiful, historic moment of spiritual renewal”, Brown wrote in a letter to parents, that will continue at a later date for students at the university.