Over the weekend about 100 people gathered in the Brown Ballroom to worship, this is amidst a massive revival happening in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Bloomington resident Carol Anderson was in attendance and she said the younger students were up front throwing their palms up into the air and singing praises. The event at Illinois State on Saturday night was put on by a group of about 20 young adults that have come together from all over the nation and believe that ISU could be another place where revival will happen.
A Bloomington-Normal mom took her two daughters out of town and traveled to Asbury, Kentucky where she saw thousands of people.
“The day [late Saturday night] we got there they said the line to get into the chapel was a quarter-mile long,” said mother Brein Stinson. “It was longer than that by Sunday.”
Her daughter, only 15-years old, saw an influencer on social media at the chapel in small town Wilmore and she said her daughter felt called to go to The Asbury Revival in Kentucky which has inspired similar movements at other college campuses, like ISU, after the around-the-clock prayer service went viral on social media.
“How often do 15-year olds… beg to go to revival. I said, ‘I have to make this happen.’ They gave anyone under the age of 25 priority to be close to the stage where the testimonies and scriptures were being read. Seeing as this was very much a gathering of Gen Z, I knew a trip for these girls to see so many young people praising His name would be 100% worth it,” said Stinson.
In Bloomington-Normal, The Tabernacle congregation has been fasting and praying for revival to come to the town and to the state. Normal, Illinois Pastor Timothy Ferrill, who recently started a radio show, went to seminary in Wilmore at Asbury University.
“I’m receiving reports that people from all 50 states have been to The Asbury Revival. I have close seminary classmates, in fact the Dean of the Chapel is a good friend of mine and has been leading worship in the chapel, and he’s told me that they shut the entire town down,” said Ferrill. “Every sanctuary in Asbury is packed and the revivals are starting to spread everywhere in all kinds of universities. The Church is next. We are on a 28-day fast and we are preparing for revival.”
Revival is different from an Awakening, according to Ferrill. Asbury saw a revival in the 1970s and that began in a chapel service, just like this recent one, there were students who were fasting and praying and repenting. The 1960s were very turbulent times and the culture now is very similar to what we have today. Colleges would send delegates to experience it then they would bring it back to their universities and share Jesus. That birthed the “Jesus Movement” and ironically there’s a movie coming out this week called Jesus Revolution and is based on Pastor Greg Laurie and his book with the same title, which tells the story of the Jesus Movement in California in the 1970s.
“A lot of Christians have become cold and they are in need of revival,” said Ferrill. “That is what is happening is Asbury. An Awakening is for the world and for secular culture and for people have never gone to church. Before there is an Awakening there has to be a revival.”