Over the course of two weeks, Gen Z college students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky have remained in chapel for a series of revivals. Their unending gatherings garnered millions of TikTok views and extensive media coverage, from CNN to the Washington Post, Fox News, and the Christian Broadcasting Network. What’s so special about the Asbury revivals?
In many ways, the #asburyrevivals are a familiar scene in America. They remind me of growing up in California, where we regularly anticipated revivals at my youth group’s summer camp—large gatherings, spirit-filled singing, youth walking up to the altar to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for the first time, and praying for healing. For our immigrant Korean American Methodist church, revival usually peaked the last night of camp, when the preacher led us in an extended time of worship or preached an…
