Revival

There is a revival going on at Asbury University. Still going on. I think it is a solid week of continuous worship at this point. As has been the case before when this has happened at Asbury, it was not planned in advance but grew slowly, in this case of some people sticking around for prayer after regular chapel, some coming back to join roommates or partners, and then it's late but no one is leaving, some of them feeling impelled to remain.  The live feed is here. 

There have been several similar revivals at Asbury over the years, with the longest-lasting and most famous being in 1970. When they describe the chapel that is the center of the prayer and singing (though they are spilling over into nearby buildings) there's a story about that. There have been suggestions over the years that Asbury expand its enrollment beyond 1300+, but these have been consistently turned down because of the certainty that the community needs to worship together regularly, and that's all the chapel holds. 

Two of my sons and one of their wives attended Asbury.  A revival occurred during Ben's senior year, but it was while he was working the 2006 Torino Olympics (the Asbury communications department is one of the three schools have have contracts to provide interns for the Olympics, so every comm major gets to work on one) and he missed it. They have been in contact with lots of old friends about this.

It has spread to other colleges, and people from all over have come to be part of it. The NBC story above notes some sticklers who call this extended worship instead of revival because the latter should include many conversions. I see the point.  I don't think it matters much what you call it.