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In the weeks and months since the “Asbury Awakening,” the move of God continues to unfold on secular and Christian college campuses, at youth events, and at churches across the country.
As CBN News reported, the Holy Spirit continues to spark fires of revival in the hearts and minds of young people.
Winterfest, an annual youth rally near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in February saw hundreds respond to the gospel call to be baptized.
David Schilling, the youth minister for the Hardin Valley Church of Christ, in Knoxville recently told The Christian Chronicle that, at first, the event seemed almost too laid back even for young people.
This year seemed “less grandiose,” he said. The sermons were great, though some sounded like they were intended for an older audience. The worship was powerful. But there wasn’t “that larger-than-life wow factor I’ve come to expect.”
Then, during Sunday morning worship service, minister Jeff Walling asked for those who had decided to follow Christ in baptism to stand up and come forward.
And people responded in droves. According to The Christian Chronicle, the stage was packed with nearly 200 souls.
As it turns out, “what was missing actually made more room for the Holy Spirit to permeate the experience,” Schilling told the outlet.
A second worship service would also see 200 people come forward to be baptized.
Dudley Chancey, Winterfest’s organizer, described to The Christian Chronicle the mass of people coming forward, saying, “This is my 36th year doing Winterfest, and I’ve never seen that.”
‘God Is Moving So Much Here’
Just recently, an outpouring among students has also been reported on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University, a small private Christian school in San Diego, California.
Cole Stark, who has several friends attending PLNU, told CBN News in a telephone conversation Monday that students began meeting together on Friday and Sunday nights. Stark said a couple of weeks ago one of the Friday night student gatherings went on for “24 to 26 hours with people just people just worshipping and praying.”
“It was awesome,” he said.
Stark also reported students have seen healings from diseases such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. POTS is a condition in which an excessively reduced volume of blood returns to the heart after an individual stands up from a lying down position, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“We saw a healed ankle after a girl struggled to use it properly for the past 15 years,” Stark said.
Point Loma Nazarene University students gather at the beach to witness multiple baptisms. (Photo by Cole Stark. Used with permission)
“On March 26, hundreds gathered on the beach at sunset cliffs as dozens got baptized,” Stark told CBN News in an email. “As baptisms were happening, an unrelated event released balloons into the sky. After looking at the pictures, we realized that there were 35 balloons, along with a total of 35 baptisms at the cliffs that day.”
Asbury Revival Subject of New TV Documentary
Meanwhile, the story of Asbury University’s revival in February which led thousands to the small college town of Wilmore, Kentucky, and drew attention from around the world is now being told in a new television documentary.
Christian Headlines reports the program titled Asbury Revival: Desperate for More will premiere on Redeem TV this weekend.
The documentary will highlight the story of the spontaneous event and will feature interviews with students, university staff, and other participants, according to the outlet.
Redeem TV is a donor-supported, ad-free, streaming service with no fees, according to the platform’s website.
As CBN News has reported, what some have referred to as a potential new Great Awakening within Christian history started as a spark on the campus of Asbury University, where thousands of Christians gathered for two weeks of Spirit-led worship, prayer, and repentance. That unplanned outpouring is raising hopes because a previous revival in 1970 on the Asbury campus was seen as a significant driver behind the Jesus Movement of the 70s.
“What the Holy Spirit started at Asbury spread to Lee University, Samford University, Baylor University, Cedarville University, Texas A&M, Oklahoma Baptist University, Louisiana State University, Regent University, Indiana Wesleyan, and in total over 30 other college campuses. It has also spread to other parts of the world including Korea and the Philippines and continues in pockets,” Redeem TV said on its website.
By Erik Tryggestad
April 2, 2023
Winterfest was different this year.
That’s what David Schilling thought anyway.
For nearly a decade, the youth minister for the Hardin Valley Church of Christ in Knoxville, Tenn., has led groups to the annual youth rally in nearby Gatlinburg.
It’s usually a Smoky Mountaintop experience, as thousands of kids hear “David and Goliath stories” delivered by dynamic speakers, Christian poets, even Flying Wallenda-style acrobats, Schilling said.
But this year seemed “less grandiose,” he said. The sermons were great, though some sounded like they were intended for an older audience. The worship was powerful. But there wasn’t “that larger-than-life wow factor I’ve come to expect.”
Then, during Sunday morning worship, minister Jeff Walling asked for those who had decided to follow Christ in baptism to stand up and come forward.
And they came — one by one, two by two, in groups of three or more. Soon the area in front of the stage was packed with nearly 200 souls.
As it turns out, “what was missing actually made more room for the Holy Spirit to permeate the experience,” Schilling said.
So far 11 Winterfest participants from his church have been baptized — including two adults who came as chaperones.
Abbey Roberson didn’t stand up at first.
“There was something holding me back,” said the 11-year-old from Hardin Valley. But as Walling spoke, “I looked through my teary eyes, and for a minute I think Jesus was there, reaching out to me, waiting for me to stand. So I did.”
About 200 miles south of Asbury University in Kentucky, where a marathon worship service sparked a revival that made national headlines, about 400 people committed to be baptized — 200 each in two Sunday morning services at Winterfest Gatlinburg. At least 100 more made the same commitment a few weeks earlier during Winterfest Arlington in Texas.
Dudley Chancey, Winterfest’s organizer, was perched above the Gatlinburg Convention Center in the audiovisual booth as the crowds went forward. It was “like a concert,” he said, “except they’re not, you know, doing mosh pits and passing people around.
“This is my 36th year doing Winterfest,” he added, “and I’ve never seen that.”
That is to say, he hadn’t seen that kind of response “without singing 75 verses of ‘Just As I Am,’” said Chancey, professor of youth and family ministry at Oklahoma Christian University.
Dr. Bryan E. Galloway
Pray for Revival! 
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