While secular colleges and universities were experiencing unprecedented protests, marches, riots, and sit-ins during the early 1970s, students at Christian schools were experiencing spiritual renewal. Perhaps the most profound awakening began on February 3, 1970, at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. The college dean began chapel with a personal testimony. At the conclusion of his presentation, he invited others to come to the front of the auditorium and share their own testimonies. Students began giving personal testimony of the changing power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. At the conclusion of the chapel time, the dean invited students to come to the front of the auditorium and pray. Immediately students moved forward from all parts of the building. Revival chronicler Wesley Duewel tells the story:
Those who had come forward and knelt at the … Asbury altar joined those on the platform to make humble and tearful confessions of their needs. Some went to individuals in the congregation, asked forgiveness, and became reconciled. A long line of students began to form, each waiting to tell what God had done. As confessions were made, other students came forward.… Intense divine manifestation continued into the noon hour.26
Classes were adjourned. The 1,550-seat building was filled to capacity. Faculty and students shared testimonies and sang praise to the Lord in duets or solos. The revival continued for six days.
Soon, news of the happenings at Asbury College spread to Asbury Theological Seminary across the street. Students and faculty met for an all-night prayer meeting. The next morning, seminary chapel turned into a time of revival. When the bell rang for classes to begin, most students and faculty remained in the chapel. Classes were officially canceled the next morning as married students knelt with their spouses in times of confession, repentance, prayer, and praise to God.
By the weekend, the undergraduate college and seminary merged their times of worship. The revival continued around the clock. As late as 2:30 a.m., more than 300 students gathered for prayer in the chapel. Then at sunrise, the chapel was full again with students seeking revival.27 Duewel explained the impact of the revival on other universities and colleges:
Appeals began coming from other campuses across the United States … asking for student delegations to come and share the news of the revival. By the end of May 1970, at least 130 colleges, seminaries, and Bible schools had received some revival blessings through the witness of the Asbury students.28
“Witness teams” from Asbury College traveled to scores of Christian colleges, universities, and Bible institutes across the country.29 The night before a team arrived at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, faculty met for an all-night prayer meeting. At chapel the next morning, the “witness team” told about the events at Asbury. Before the team finished speaking, Azusa students made their way to the front of the room to confess sins and pledge repentance. The time of revival was so powerful that afternoon classes were called off. A student prayer meeting continued in the dorm rooms that night and through the next week, and spread to other secular schools and Christian institutions in the Pasadena area.
In Kankakee, Illinois, at the Olivet Nazarene University, hundreds of students repented of their sins when they heard the testimony of the Asbury students. Again, classes were canceled and hundreds of students dispersed across the nation to their homes and churches with the revival news.
In Greenville, Illinois, students from Asbury drove through sleet and snow to share their testimonies at the Free Methodist Greenville College. According to Duewel,
They shared the revival and immediately individuals were humbled before God, public confessions of wrong attitudes began, and revival continued through early Saturday morning hours. Numerous teams went out from Greenville College to most of the churches of the Free Methodist conferences, and the spiritual tone of those churches was transformed.30
In Fort Worth, Texas, students at Southwestern Southern Baptist Theological Seminary had been praying for two years that God would move on their campus. When the Asbury Awakening was reported, students began confessing sin and repenting. All the students in one class fell on their knees in repentance. Prayer meetings continued through the night. The next morning, more than 1,200 students stayed in the chapel after Founder’s Day activities to hear testimonies, pray, and ask God for revival.
In Georgetown, Kentucky, six Asbury students shared their testimonies. More than 700 students, faculty, and administration experienced revival at Georgetown College.
Revival spread to the University of Tennessee, Texas A & M, the University of Texas at Arlington, and institutions in Oklahoma.31 By 1971, revival fires were burning in Troy, New York, and at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As Asbury College and Seminary “witness teams” shared their stories, students repented and turned to Christ at Harvard University, Stanford University, Eastern Illinois University, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and North Park College in Chicago, and at more than 30 other colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The campus revivals lasted about three years.32 In all, about 2,000 “witness teams” from Asbury College told their stories:
Hundreds of other teams went out from other colleges and local churches that were impacted by the [Asbury] revival. The little town of Wilmore, Kentucky, became the center of a network of revival that touched and brought new spiritual life and blessing to thousands of individuals in several thousand towns and villages in the United States and in other countries.33
The Great Awakening: The Canadian Prairie “Restitution” Revival
Duncan Campbell, leader of the New Hebrides revival in Wales, went to Winnipeg, Canada, and in a meeting asked, “If God could do it in Scotland, why not Canada?”34 That question made a deep impression on many, including Bill MacLeod, pastor of a General Conference Baptist church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, who asked, “Why not Saskatoon?”
Saskatoon was a quiet prairie town in the heart of Western Canada’s Bible Belt. Families often attended the same church for generations. As students graduated from high school, it was customary for them to spend at least a year in one of the many Bible schools that dotted the prairie landscape.
At the invitation of MacLeod, twin evangelists Ralph and Lou Sutera were invited to conduct revival meetings at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. MacLeod had been praying for revival for some time, and the Sutera twins shared his desire. Recent meetings caused them to believe that God was preparing to accomplish a powerful work. As preparations for the Saskatoon Crusade were finalized, expectations were high. Very early in the crusade it became clear that expectant believers would not be disappointed.
Though the meetings lasted longer than typical Saskatoon church services, no one seemed in a hurry to leave. When the preaching concluded, people flocked to the prayer room in response to the invitation of the evangelists. “What is God pointing his finger at in your life?” they asked.
People were encouraged to examine their lives in light of the Scriptures. If in doing so God “pointed his finger” at something, they were encouraged to repent, confess their sin, and make restitution when appropriate. One oft-quoted verse during the meetings became a theme Scripture of the revival: “Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you” (Prov 1:23 NKJV).
The revival meetings soon outgrew the facilities at Ebenezer Church, filled the larger United Church, and finally moved to the city auditorium. Shortly, revival spread across the Canadian prairies.35
The Saskatoon Revival proved a challenge for business in a strange way. As people repented of their sins, they began offering to pay for merchandise they had stolen years earlier from local businesses. Businessmen had already written off the losses, so most simply forgave the debt. Then people began returning the things they had stolen to store owners. This action was so widespread that many stores became overstocked.
One person touched by that revival was Henry Blackaby. Based on his encounter with the Lord, he wrote the best-selling book Experiencing God, which brought renewal to many churches in America, including many in the Southern Baptist Convention.
In our next chapter, we will introduce strategic personalities used by God to bring innovations to worship during this baby boomer awakening. We will also document those innovations and how they shape our worship services today.
Towns, Elmer L., and Vernon M. Whaley. 2012. Worship through the Ages: How the Great Awakening Shape Evangelical Worship. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic.
