Asbury Awakening

I want to close out our focus on the Asbury Outpouring with two items:

1. An article from Jo Saxton which expresses my hope.
2. A short documentary film on the Asbury Outpouring.

Grace + Peace,

Pastor Craig

Hey Leaders,

A few nights ago, I've couldn't get to sleep. It wasn't caffeine. It wasn't that insomnia that comes from having too many things to think/feel/worry about. It wasn't even that pesky perimenopausal sleeplessness.

This time it felt different. Instead of an interruption it felt like an invitation to steal away into the night and pray without distractions. There was a song, a hymn I'd been humming that day, drawn from the recesses of childhood memories. The chorus:

“Savior, Savior

 Hear my humble cry.

 While on others thou art calling

 Do not pass me by."

By the middle of the night the hum had become my prayer. For each member of my family, for our lives and longings. For my church, for the Twin Cities, I call home. For my friends. For my calling.

Lord do not pass us by.

There have been multiple think pieces, podcast episodes and articles in recent weeks about an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Asbury University, and at multiple other gatherings. I've heard poignant testimonies of deep transformation and healing. Alongside that there's been the questions and critiques, the weary cynicism, and the challenging questions. All I have in response to it all is a prayer in the night:

Lord do not pass us by

• When You're healing lives, when You're breaking chains that have held people back for years…
•  When You're opening new doors of opportunity, when You're transforming communities…
•  When You're restoring souls and reviving hearts, when You're rebuilding relationships.
•  When You're moving in power...

Do not pass us by.

I returned to sleep later that night, but I don't want to sleep on this prayer. This is my ongoing Lenten Prayer, that God would meet us, on the mountain trip, in the wilderness and everywhere in between.

In what area of your life and leadership are you praying, crying out to God Do not pass me by?

May our prayers start little fires of his presence everywhere.

Jo Saxton

Dear South Reno Church Family, 

The Asbury University outpouring has attracted attention around the world. And while I have not experienced it in person, I have been in contact with those who have, and they have confirmed that this is a true move of God. From afar, it appears that way to me, too. 

If you are not familiar with what is going on, 9 days ago (Feb. 8), after a routine chapel service, about 15 students stayed behind and continued to seek God. Soon, other students were drawn to return to the chapel. The room filled, and the worship and prayer have continued non-stop since then. As an exceptionally strong sense of God’s presence filled the auditorium, students repented, prayed with each other, and worshipped wholeheartedly. The move of God has spread. Over 5,000 spiritually hungry people have been filling the college and the seminary chapels. Other universities in neighboring states have been experiencing their own awakenings. 

I believe this is an authentic move of the Holy Spirit, and that it bears the marks of the widespread spiritual awakening God wants to bring to His whole Church (including South Reno). Here are a few of those traits: 

• It is marked by a hunger for His Presence. The Asbury revival is a response to the Manifest Presence of God. People are staying at the chapel because they are hungry to experience the living God, and He is making His Presence known right now. Though there are moments of exuberant praise, much of the atmosphere is marked by deep, soul-level peace—even stillness. 

• It is led by ordinary people, not superstars. No one is coming to see a famous leader or preacher. No one planned or orchestrated what is happening. A nationally known worship leader called the University to ask what he could do; the school responded that they had worship covered—the students are leading it. They aren’t exceptional musicians. The instrumentation is simple, there are no lasers or special effects. It is just raw, real worship of the Lord who is making Himself known. 

• It is marked by repentance and holiness.  Students (and guests) are confessing their sin publicly and privately to each other. Moves of God are marked by repentance because when God shows up, we realize how unlike Him we are and our response is to adjust to His reality. If we don’t, we miss him. People are confessing and finding grace, mercy, and healing of both body and soul. 

Through the Asbury awakening, I believe God is inviting His Church to experience His Presence and to find times of refreshing. We don’t dictate what that will look like here, but let’s pray and seek God for it. 

Grace + Peace,

Pastor Craig

P.S. I have gathered the following resources to provide you with greater context as to what is happening. Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.

I set my mind on you.

I fix my eyes on you.

I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.

Jesus, We belong to you.

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

WORD

About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

Luke 9:28–33 (NIV)

CONSIDER THIS

I have been in Wilmore, Kentucky, all week and unsure of when I will leave. The team from Seedbed has been on site supporting the university leadership, standing in the gaps, serving, praying, ministering, being present in the war room as shepherds and stewards. Thank you for praying for us. And thank you for sowing with us for these past ten years. So many hands have been and continue to be to the plow in this work from so many places and churches and different ministries and for decades. People want to know—is this real? It’s a complex question and many point out this will not be settled until well into the future. I can only bear witness to what I have seen and heard and touched and personally experienced. I can say unequivocally that what is happening is as real as real gets. What it will become is only known to Jesus. But what is unfolding right here and right now is real.

Here is the most compelling evidence of the uncontrived, unforced, unplanned and unexpected authenticity for me: (click here)

This was the chapel after chapel service ended last Wednesday, February 8, 2023. Just another day. Only a handful of students stayed behind to pray for one another. Then it began to happen. Students, for no reason other than the beckoning of the Spirit, began to come back to the chapel. They asked their professors if they could return—uncharacteristic to say the least—and going on nine days later it is like this: (click here)

It hasn’t stopped since then—24/7. People are coming here from all over the country and world. We have opened up four overflow buildings and all stay filled. Student groups from many campuses across the country have come here. This is beginning to kindle and burn on multiple other campuses.

We are reticent to call it anything. It is clearly an outpouring and an encounter with the Lord of the church, Jesus Messiah. History can define it as it will. It is extraordinary and yet nothing new. Many of you have seen and experienced the kind of things that are happening here. And yet none of us really have been in this kind of concentrated and sustaining move. The hunger of people coming from everywhere is enormous. It is characterized by exuberant worship, empowered by the Spirit, led by students, no production whatsoever, no screens or words projected, seemingly no song lists—they sing until the Spirit seems to give another song. There is a lot of prayer being led all over the house, there are testimonies given throughout the day. It is the holy love of God rising like a tide and rolling like waves. Herrnhut like.

Jesus is the only celebrity here. David Thomas, from the Farm Team at Seedbed and New Room has been providing strong shepherding leadership among a number of other leaders from the University. No one even remotely considers the names of anyone in leadership here. They are not unseasoned, just unknown . . . and they will to stay that way. Incredible humility characterizes this whole move. The leadership at Asbury University has been an extraordinary servant to Jesus in this. Kevin Brown, the president, is its chief champion. And while this has been enormously disruptive to the life of the school, no one seems to care. There is a vigilance of love from the school for these students, though it has been challenging for them, as they have at times felt displaced by all the outside crowds coming. and yet they are so hospitable.

The night before last a student from Brazil came to stage offer a testimony. He had recently graduated. In his sharing he mentioned how much Jesus had been moving in his life. He remarked how lost he felt as a graduate, alone—no family and now out from college, and he had been unable to get a job. He spoke of how discouraged he had been and then this happened and how he had been drawn to return to the campus—and how Jesus was meeting him here. It was a precious sharing—as riveting as it was unspectacular and humble. He then led a prayer for Brazil in Portuguese—as heartfelt as I have ever heard a prayer and yet couldn’t understand a word.

As he was finishing someone from the balcony shouted his name and tossed something on the stage. It was money. Suddenly people began to run from the crowd toward the stage all bringing money and putting it on the stage—some tossed stacks of money into the air around the stage like confetti as it fell. I have never witnessed the kind of spontaneous generosity; true fruit of the Spirit—instantaneously. It was overwhelming. It also happened the same way in the multiple sites across town where the meeting was being simulcast. We have no idea of the amount of money but it had to be a lot. I had the sense of Peter and James and John hauling in those boatloads of fish tearing the nets and almost sinking the boats!

Students line up to share and bear witness to what Jesus is doing in their lives and it keeps on happening (more on that tomorrow). This is a very significant event and will mark history. The beautiful thing is the simplicity of it, as well as its transferability.

I joined a zoom call yesterday with about two hundred prayer leaders from across forty countries in Europe convened by our dear friend Pete Greig in England. The faith and hunger was as palpable there as here in Wilmore. Europe is the only continent in the world in which the church is shrinking. They are so desperate for an awakening to Jesus to stem the tide of decline and bring forth the kingdom of God and a renewed church.

The greatest response you could make is not to come here but to sow there—to meet up with whoever will join you and welcome this move of God to your heart, your home, your church, and your city.

Friends, this is what we are sowing for. We are in awe to see these first fruits unfold. And this is only the beginning.

Pray for us as we pray for you.

I love you all.

PRAYER

Thank you Jesus. Thank you. Amen.

QUESTIONS

• Will you consecrate yourself—make your heart pliable and ready to receive what Jesus is bringing?

THE HYMN

In one of the late night sessions one of the students began to lead the house in singing the simple chorus, "Sanctuary." We will sing it together again today: "Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for you."

For the Awakening,

J. D. Walt

Sower-in-Chief, Seedbed