ASBURY & CHURCH PLANTING
Photo By George Oliveria
Some would call what happened in Asbury a revival, others would say it is just emotions and social media, others would call it a spiritual awakening but are hesitant to call it a revival, and they say we should wait to see the fruits of it. I don’t know where you stand, but let me urge you to neither be skeptical nor embrace everything you see on social media as true. Being there myself gave me the freedom to see what the Lord is doing. Certainly, something is happening in the US.
The story we heard there was that it started on February 8th, 2023, after a regular day on the Campus of Asbury University, Kentucky. The teachers were looking for their students, and it turns out they heard that a group of 19 students stayed after the chapel. One of the students started to confess her sins. What we heard from her testimony was that she expected to be rejected by the group after sharing how sinner she was. The opposite happened. The students there embraced her and told her about God’s grace. That was when other students started repenting from their sins, and they were crying, others praying, and others singing to God. That is how the non-stop worship service started, and there we were ten days after that witnessing thousands of people in line trying to get into this 800-1000 seat university chapel. People lined up outside in the cold of 25ºF(ish) for hours. We waited almost 3 hours. And a friend in the following day waited nine hours to get into the main chapel.
I remember when we were in the campus hotel last month, Samuel Vitalino, pastor at Esperança Bible Presbyterian Church in Orlando, saw two women hugging each other and crying together. He was worried that something bad had happened to them and went in their direction to find out if they needed any help. When he almost reached them, someone pulled him aside and asked him to leave them there. That was a mother and a daughter who did not speak to each other for more than six years. They were reconciling in the hotel lobby. This is just one of the stories we witnessed while we were there.
Revivals are in moments of darkness in the society, so the Spirit moves and awakens the church. These are the moments that we see the Spirit leading the church to exalt the person of Christ, true repentance, vibrant worship, and change that not only reaches the place where the people of God is gathered but breaks into their ordinary everyday endeavors. Why is Asbury important for church planting? Because we need to desire that in our churches. We need the revival of God in each church planter’s heart, so it will lead him to go where Christ is not known.
A wise pastor once said, “Our job is not to schedule or cause a revival. Our job is to ‘prepare the field’ for the revival, i.e., repent of our sins, have a vibrant prayer life before the Lord, and desire holiness. We need to delight in Christ. Start with your local church.” I think this is what we are called to do and be. Our passion for church planting is a natural result of our passion for Christ.
Remember that God is not bound by systems. The Spirit of God moves how it wills and where it wills. That is what Jesus means when he says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (John 3:8a)
This is a great reminder that what we do is a supernatural task that can only be fulfilled by the Spirit of God. May the LORD help us desire more awakenings in our local churches, more people responding to the proclamation of the Gospel, and may we join in that cause together, so the world will know that Christ is LORD.