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Boston, MA (Oct. 28, 2025) – In a bold move toward what organizers are calling a “next Great Spiritual Awakening,” the AWAKE America movement in partnership with Boston-area churches held its first city-wide rally in Boston on October 24-25 at the historic Tremont Temple Baptist Church (88 Tremont St., Boston, MA). The gathering united students, seekers and believers from across denominational lines for worship, preaching and prayer.
Revival in a Secular City
Boston has long been considered one of America’s most secular major metros. According to a recent analysis, fewer than one in four adults in the Greater Boston area say religion plays a “very important” role in their lives, down from 36% a decade ago. That context frames the urgency behind AWAKE America’s strategy.
“We’re praying God will do it again,” said Dr. Michael Youssef, founder of AWAKE America. “Nearly 300 years ago, the First Great Awakening swept through Boston. It began in the church and turned into a nationwide awakening. We’re praying God will do it again.”
While tens of thousands flocked to campus, school officials met in a storage closet to make decisions that would “honor what is happening.”
Image: Asbury University
The shofars didn’t start until Saturday. With them came the would-be prophets seeking to take center stage at the Asbury University chapel where students had been praying and praising God since Wednesday morning; the would-be leaders who wanted to claim the revival for their ministries, their agendas, and celebrity; and the would-be disrupters, coming to break up whatever was happening at the small Christian school in Kentucky with heckling, harangues, and worse.
But by Saturday, Asbury University was ready.
The school had not planned an outpouring of the Spirit. But when something started to happen in the middle of the first week of February—the middle of the semester, a few days before the Super Bowl—an impromptu mix of administrators, staff, faculty, friends, and university neighbors quickly mobilized. They gathered in a storage closet off the side of Hughes Auditorium and then repurposed a classroom to facilitate and support whatever it was that God was doing.
As word spread, the crowds came, and debates raged online about whether this was a “real” revival, these men and women worked untold hours to make sure that everyone who sought God had food and water and restrooms and everyone was safe. Part of the story behind the story of the revival is the almost invisible work that went into protecting it.
“There were 100 people volunteering at any one time, just to make these services work on the fly,” Asbury University president Kevin Brown told CT. “There was a classroom that got redeployed into almost a command center. If you walked in, there were flow charts on the wall and the whiteboards were covered with information. There was a volunteer check-in station. … It was one of the most impressive technical feats I’ve ever seen.”
The revival began at a chapel service on February 8. Zach Meerkreebs, the assistant soccer coach who is also the leadership development coordinator for the missions organization Envision, preached about becoming love in action. His text was Romans 12.
As he started, Meerkreebs told the students, who are required to attend three chapels per week, that he wasn’t aiming to entertain them. And he didn’t want them to focus on him.
“I hope you guys forget me but anything from the Holy Spirit and God’s Word would find fertile ground in your hearts and produce fruit,” he said. “Romans 12. That’s the star, okay? God’s Word and Jesus and the Holy Spirit moving in our midst, that’s what we’re hoping for.”
Meerkreebs also talked to them about the experience of God’s love, in contrast to the “radically poor love” that’s narcissistic, abusive, manipulative, and selfish.
“Some of you guys have experienced that love in the church,” he said. “Maybe it’s not violent, maybe it’s not molestation, it’s not taken advantage of—but it feels like someone has pulled a fast one on you.”
No one came forward at the end of the service, though, and Meerkreeb was convinced he “totally whiffed.” He texted his wife: “Latest stinker. I’ll be home soon.”
A Black gospel trio sang a final song and chapel ended—but 18 or 19 students stayed. They sat in several clusters: a few along the right wall, a few in their seats, a few on the floor in the aisle, a few at the foot of the stage. They kept praying.
Zeke Atha, a junior, told a documentarian a few days later that he was one of the ones who remained in the chapel. He left after an hour to go to a class, but then when he got out, he heard singing.
“I said, ‘Okay, that’s weird,’” Atha said. “I went back up, and it was surreal. The peace that was in the room was unexplainable.”
He and a few friends immediately left, sprinting around campus, bursting into classrooms with an announcement: “Revival is happening.”
The Wesleyan-movement school has a tradition of revivals and a theology that teaches people to wait and watch for a divine wind to blow. The university is named for Francis Asbury, the early American Methodist bishop who encouraged and celebrated revivals from Maine to Georgia and Maryland to Tennessee.
There are also people in the Kentucky community who have long prayed for fresh revival at the school, including a Malaysian theology teacher who sometimes walked the streets with a cardboard sign that said, “Holy Spirit, You Are Welcome Here.”
Administrators, however, did not immediately assume a revival was starting, even as young men ran around campus shouting it was. Only as the spontaneous prayer service stretched into the afternoon and then evening did school officials realize they might have to make a decision about how to respond.
Meeting in a closet
An ad hoc revival committee of about seven people gathered in the one quiet space in Hughes—a storage closet. According to several people who were there, they pushed aside a drum kit and keyboard and sat knee to knee. Someone found a dry erase board, and they asked each other, “What are we going to do in the next two hours?”
Then they started thinking slightly longer term: “Will students stay all night? What does that look like? Should we leave the sound system on? Should we let students keep bringing guitars into chapel?”
The group decided to have ministers stay in Hughes and have security watch the building but keep it open. They would let the students stay and pray and sing as long as they wanted.
Other decisions they made in the next few days seem, as the ad hoc committee reflects on them now, almost like they happened by instinct. There was no time for drawn-out discussions. They would meet in the storage closet and make decisions minute by minute. Did they want to put up screens for the lyrics of the worship songs? No. Should ministers who spoke on stage stop to introduce themselves? No. Should they put up signs asking people not to livestream? Yes.
“We were just trying to keep up,” student life vice president Sarah Thomas Baldwin told CT. “There are people and they’re showing up and they’re desperate for God. We’re just trying to stay alive and trying to honor what is happening.”
Image: Lisa Weaver Swartz
By the second day, word had spread to the seminary, about a football field away, which shares a namesake and tradition but is a separate institution. People started to come from the town of Wilmore too and then the greater Lexington area.
Alexandra Presta, editor of the student newspaper, posted a report online.
“During a call of confession, at least a hundred people fell to their knees and bowed at the altar,” she wrote. “Hands rested on shoulders, linking individual people together to represent the Body of Christ truly. Cries of addiction, pride, fear, anger and bitterness sounded, each followed by a life-changing proclamation: ‘Christ forgives you.’”
Friends from other states started texting Presta, asking her what was happening and also why. She told them she didn’t know. But God still moves.
‘All the Chick-fil-A’
On Friday afternoon, groups of students started to show up from other parts of Kentucky, as well as Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, even Michigan. Some came from Christian schools. Some from campus ministries. Some just came.
By evening the crowd had grown to about 3,000, and the university had to set up overflow rooms. At the same time, an uncoordinated infrastructure of support began to appear. An Asbury student set up a table and started handing out tea and coffee. She said Jesus told her to. A woman in Indianapolis baked chocolate chip cookies for a full day and then drove down to give them away. A professor went and got cases of bottled water.
Taken by Alexandra Presta
When the dust settles
February 15, 2023
I sit in the back row of the Hughes balcony. My legs are starting to ache from stiffly sitting in the same position for so long. Voices echo throughout the high ceilings as the pounding beat of a drum rattles my bones. The light shifts with the sun through the yellow, artfully crafted, stained-glass windows facing me.
“Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus.”
Over and over again, this refrain repeats.
I sat here on Wednesday, I sat here on Thursday and I sat here on Friday. Hopeful to connect with Jesus in the earth-shattering way it seems everyone else has. Or at least in the way their Instagram stories make it seem.
After my 1 p.m. class on Wednesday, I felt called to go to Hughes. Lately, my heart has been incredibly hardened. It was full of frustration due to so many situations in my life that I felt unheard and unvalued. For the sake of complete transparency, it had even been impacting me physically with a tightening in my chest, a bodily response from being unable to access my emotions. When I arrived at Hughes, my immediate inclination was to take photos and record what was happening through interviews, as my job typically requires. In my heart, I felt an outer nudge to be still. And so that’s what I did.
Nothing immediately happened to me or changed in my heart. A beam of light did not cast itself upon me, and thank goodness, the Lord did not immediately smite me out of existence even though I deserved it. I did not let the lack of immediacy deter me, even though I thought about leaving. All that mattered at that moment was our Creator. The transfer of my focus nudged me to ponder how infinitesimally small we are. The situations that enraptured my mind were mere specks on the horizon compared to eternity.
My heart shifted, and a resentment that had followed me for months was lifted by the grace of God alone. Walls of bitterness and agitation released themselves from my mind. I felt them cast out of my mind and heart to the point where I have almost completely forgotten the prior feeling. Knowing myself, I am confident this shift is not of my own volition. I was set and satisfied in my resentment, but God had different plans for me.
This moment of absolute peace shifted my reality. My conversations with friends are deeper. Reconciliation is genuine and pure in heart with no intent to harm. God-prompted, open discussions are strengthening beliefs in ways I never could achieve on my own.
But I am still apprehensive and cautious regarding some aspects of this revival.
Revival is a gift from God. He takes the initiative, which means we must be careful when assigning credit for what is taking place. Across campus, there is already a toxic stigma of “revival shaming.” I’ve heard things such as, “How many hours have you been here? I’ve been here all day. I am sooo exhausted. I even skipped class.” What do you notice in these comments? Jesus is usually not mentioned. We must be careful with self-centered responses based on who is “showing up for Jesus” and who is not.
My goal is always to report the truth, not making assumptions about anything, much less someone’s profession of faith.
But I have been to many a summer camp in my life, some fully present, others not as much. One concept constantly discussed before, during and after each camp is the idea of a “Jesus high”: an adrenaline rush from lack of sleep, excitement from newfound knowledge and the fulfilling promise of the Holy Spirit.
The most dangerous aspect of this Jesus high is that it wears off.
Once the dust settles, there is exhaustion from lack of adrenaline, agitation from disagreements and overall burnout from the lack of community encouragement. And eventually, I forget everything I learned until I am reminded again in this toxic and tiring cycle.
We must ensure that our community does not drift in a similar direction.
When the dust settles, and Hughes is empty, what will remain?
We must answer honestly, are we pouring out our affection and devotion on the feet of Jesus or onto ourselves?
Jesus is working, and the Holy Spirit is moving in Hughes. But He is always moving everywhere. God is using this revival in incredible ways. There is reconciliation, confession and soulful worship. But I pray we do not turn this revival into a prolonged event for its own sake and forget that genuine revival is initiated and sustained by the living God.
There is a deeply rooted history of revival in our community.
Asbury University has been known through the years for its history of great revivals. There have been several occasions when significant moves of the Holy Spirit have swept the campus and reached across the nation.
In February 1905, during a blizzard, a prayer meeting in the men’s dormitory spilled out to the rest of campus and the town of Wilmore.
In February 1908, revival broke out while someone prayed in chapel; the revival lasted two weeks and was signified by prevailing prayer and intercession.
In February 1921 the last service of a planned revival lasted until 6 a.m., and services were extended for three days.
In February 1950 a student testimony led to confessions, victories, and more testimonies. This went on uninterrupted for 118 hours and became the second leading news story nationwide; it is estimated that 50,000 people found a new experience in Christ as a result of this revival and witness teams that went out from it.
In March 1958 revival began in a student fasting prayer meeting that spilled over into chapel and lasted for 63 hours.
On February 3, 1970 Dean Custer B. Reynolds, scheduled to speak in chapel, felt led to invite persons to give personal testimony instead. Many on campus had been praying for spiritual renewal and were now in an expectant mood. Soon there was a large group waiting in line to speak. A spirit of powerful revival came upon the congregation. The chapel was filled with rejoicing people. Classes were cancelled for a week during the 144 hours of unbroken revival, but even after classes resumed on February 10, Hughes Auditorium was left open for prayer and testimony. These sessions were presided over by Reynolds, Clarence Hunter and other faculty. Some 2,000 witness teams went out from Wilmore to churches and at least 130 college campuses around the nation.
In March 1992 a student confession during the closing chapel of the annual Holiness Conference turned into 127 consecutive hours of prayer and praise.
In February 2006 a student chapel led to four days of continuous worship, prayer and praise.
Time will tell is what is currently happening at Asbury University is a genuine revival. I pray that it is and that is spreads throughout our nation.
Revival Underway at Asbury University in Kentucky: ‘The Holy Spirit Was Tangible in the Room’
02-13-2023
Benjamin Gill and Steve Warren
A revival has begun at Asbury University (Photo: Sheldon Livesay/Asbury University)
A revival is taking place on the campus of Asbury University in Kentucky.
The Asbury Collegian reports that during a call to confession last Wednesday, Feb. 8, at least 100 people fell to their knees and bowed at the altar. Since then it has turned into a Holy Spirit outpouring that shows no signs of stopping.
(Photo: Sheldon Livesay/Asbury University)
For days, people have been giving testimonies, reading scripture, worshipping God, and praying in the ongoing revival. Students, professors, and local church leaders have taken part.
Alexandra Presta, the editor of the student-run website The Asbury Collegian, wrote in an article published on Feb. 8, “As a senior, I have never witnessed anything like this.”
Presta described the scene for her readers inside the university’s Hughes Auditorium.
“Peers, professors, local church leaders, and seminary students surround me— all of them praying, worshipping, and praising God together. Voices are ringing out. People are bowing at the altar, arms stretched wide,” she wrote. “A pair of friends cling to each other in a hug, one with tears in her eyes. A diverse group of individuals crowd the piano and flawlessly switch from song to song. Some even sit like me, with laptops open. No one wants to leave.”
“The Holy Spirit was tangible in the room,” Anneli White a student at the University of Kentucky and a member at Immanuel Baptist Church told Kentucky Today. “Chains were broken, confession happened, and God was praised as holy, holy, holy.”
07-22-2020
The state of California is making it very hard for Christians to worship like they used to do. First, the government banned singing in churches to slow down the spread of the coronavirus, and then came the recent order to ban indoor church gatherings which has put a halt on church services.
Some faith leaders believe the lockdown orders have been unfairly and aggressively applied to houses of worship, but Pastor Mickey Stonier of Rock Church in San Diego says the ban is forcing the church to minister outside its four walls.
“During times of persecution, the church grows. Our church is growing, the influence, the impact of the church is growing,” he said.
Stonier told CBN’s The Prayerlink that since the start of the pandemic their church has quadrupled in size.
“We put our emphasis on being out in the community and serving a lot of the needs. We’ve put together 307,000 N-95 masks and we are feeding those in need,” Stonier explained.
Rock Church has recently focused its efforts on providing pastoral care for emergency workers.
“We are serving the fire departments, the police departments. There’s a growing impact on emergency responders that are getting COVID. We have chaplain corps that are there and actually coming alongside each individual to provide support, guidance, counsel, and so many ministry opportunities,” Stonier shared. “We have been blessed to provide over 9,600 meals to medical personnel, nurses, doctors as they are being busy.”
And Rock Church is taking to the streets of San Diego to pray and minister to people.
“We’ve had 135 churches in San Diego come together, we had a prayer event – 11 different locations. We had over 15,000 people around San Diego or online. We called it ‘We Pray San Diego’. People prayed for an hour for the Lord’s work, for revival to take place in San Diego,” he said.
Several other ministries in California see the lockdown as an opportunity to reach people through street and beach evangelism.
“There is a breaking out of worship services in beach communities outdoors that are down the coast right now with thousands of people gathering to worship, people repenting, getting baptized, and coming to the Lord,” Stonier added.
Bethel worship leader Sean Feucht recently led worship services on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Huntington Beach in California.
Hundreds gathered at the beach to give their lives to Christ.
“The Gospel was preached with power,” Feucht said in an Instagram video. “People stood up to give their lives to Jesus and now we are here baptizing people in the Pacific Ocean. God is moving in California. I believe that we are on the verge of another ‘Jesus People’ movement…you can’t unsee what you are seeing right now.”
News Nov 22, 2018 by Alyssa Duvall
“Awakening Australia”, Bringing Revival To A Massive Mission Field
“Awakening Australia”, a mission to reach thousands of Australians with the gospel, brought powerful revival to the predominantly atheist country this week. The event featured powerhouses of faith like Bethel Music, Todd White, Heidi Baker, Jake Hamilton, Daniel Kolenda, Bill Johnson, Awakening Music, Jeremy Riddle, Lindy Conant, Nick Vujicic, and many more.
The weekend-long event was organized by Ben Fitzgerald, leader of Awakening Europe and former Bethel staff member. Awakening Australia staff spent the weekend preaching the gospel, leading people to Christ, baptizing them, and commissioning them to share what they’d just learned with other Australians.
“Hundreds were born of God as they responded to Jesus tonight There is truly something remarkable happening in Australia!! There is an Awakening, a sound in God’s people here that will shake the nation,” Fitzgerald posted on Facebook.
Dr. Bryan E. Galloway
Pray for Revival! 