This year opened with 100,000 young people gathering at various events to worship the Lord, revival sparked on a dozen university campuses (all but one secular), and many events across the country and around the world give hope there’s more to come.

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Even secular political commentator Tucker Carlson believes we’re seeing revival.

I asked Dr. Vernon M. Whaley, Associate Provost of the School of Music and Worship Arts at Trevecca Nazarene University, if he believes we’re seeing another Great Awakening. He quoted the secular, liberal, and cultural political writer for the Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times Lauren Sandler from her book Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement: “We are poised before the next Great Awakening in American History.”

As I was pulling together evidence that revival has been growing in 2024, it was so encouraging! I found a list of schools where revival had broken out and scanned down it. I was praising the Lord… but I was on assignment.

The more I investigated each story the more the praise just came bubbling up, and I reminded myself of Judge Tim Philpot. He experienced the 1970 Asbury Revival and chose not to drive to Wilmore, Kentucky, for the Asbury Outpouring during February 2023 because, “I felt like I was experiencing some revival right here in my little chair.”

So take your time as you go through these lists. Click through to some (or all) of the stories. Invite the Lord to use them to bring revival to you in your chair, little or large!

“Universities are pregnant with revival.”

That’s what Pastor Jonathan Pokluda said, and here’s the evidence…

• In February (the month most of the nine revivals broke out at Asbury College/University) 4,500 gathered to worship at Florida State University, reportedly the second biggest “party school” in the nation, and the biggest in Florida. They baptized hundreds in a fountain!

• Sparked by the Collegiate Day of Prayer on February 29, 24/7 prayer shocked the campus of Liberty University.

• There were 260 baptized at the University of Alabama in March.

• In April 150 were baptized in the beds of pickup trucks at the University of Georgia.

• Eight thousand young people gathered at the University of Tennessee on April 30, and 150 were baptized.

• In August revival sparked at Ohio State University when some of their football players gathered thousands and led an event where more than 50 were baptized.

• On August 29 students led an event at Texas A&M Corpus Christi that attracted nearly 1,500 students. Leaders baptized 62.

• About 10,000 from 67 universities gathered at the University of Arkansas on September 19 to seek the Lord.

• October 1, 6,000 gathered at Mississippi State University to pray and repent.

• Of the 6,000 who gathered at the University of Florida on October, 1,000 of them committed their lives to the Lord!

• Nearly 6,600 worshipped at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi), another top party school, on October 10. Many were baptized in the back of a pickup truck.

• In October 10,000 gathered to worship the Lord at Texas A&M.

Many of these events were organized by Unite US. The founder Tonya Prewett said it’s “all a move of God.” They collect names and contact information for each student who is baptized. Prewett said:

Our organization will follow up with each student and will provide a list of every church and campus ministry in the area. For students who requested to be connected with a local church or ministry we will send their name to that ministry.

Here’s one video (from many online) taken at the University of Florida:

‼️REVIVAL CAME LAST NIGHT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Last night 1000 students flooded the altar for salvation.

4 members of #FloridaGators Football team were baptized

Thousands worshipped Jesus Christ!!

Party schools become places of Presence #UF #GatorNation pic.twitter.com/WXl2BysNSN

— Dr. Malachi – (Dr. Run) (@malachiobrien) October 24, 2024

Beyond the Universities

At Pirate’s Cove, California, where many were baptized during the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, 65 pastors baptized 2,000 on July 27.

Ross Johnston was conceived by artificial insemination and raised by two lesbian moms. He now runs California Will Be Saved and speaks at outdoor revivals throughout that state and beyond.

Sean Feucht and Let Us Worship finished out their Kingdom to the Capitol tour, bringing worship and repentance to all 50 state capitols and ending on the National Mall.

Another gathering at the National Mall went seven hours on October 12, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). Lou Engle called for Esthers and Mordecais to come together, and as many as 300,000 answered the call in person with 10 million online.

Similar events are happening around the globe in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoir, Uganda, Holland, France, Papua New Guinea, Iran, to name a few!

IFA posted 168 articles that mention “revival” in 2024. That’s down from 181 in ’23, but in 2022 we posted 129. I believe this should encourage us because we were praying for revival before it went 374 hours straight at Asbury University, starting February 8, 2023.

It was 16 months after the 185-hour 1970 Asbury Revival that Time Magazine published its Jesus Revolution cover. This June would have been the same time frame. Though Time didn’t publish anything of the sort this summer, and though we shouldn’t expect any revival to look exactly like one that came before it, it leaves hope that we’re not seeing the end of revival.

Help usher in the next awakening!

In his book Worship Through the Ages: How the Great Awakenings Shape Evangelical Worship Whaley wrote that there are lessons we can learn from past awakenings:

1. Worship is at the heart of every Great Awakening and movement of God. It always includes recommitment to God, repentance of sin, and believers living in personal holiness. Such worship often is accompanied by a commitment to social ministry (feeding the poor, reaching out to the marginalized, etc.).
2. God always provides opportunity for people to understand and communicate worship in their own vernacular and culture.
3. God always uses people to proclaim his wonders. In great awakenings, highly energized, college-age students often have been God’s chief instruments.
4. God is in the business of changing people, and worshipping him as sovereign is at the heart of this change.
5. Prepare for it. The next awakening will be met with serious criticism from within the church and the surrounding culture.

Whaley expanded on that last point:

While the secular humanist is threatened by the sheer notion that another Great Awakening is on the horizon, those of us who worship Jesus Christ can take courage that the story of God continues.  What secular liberals call anti-intellectualism and backward looking is in reality a working of the Holy Spirit. God is moving in a mighty way to draw this next generation — The Disciple Generation — to himself. And, He is doing this through worship of Jesus.  And, when He does . . . and, He surely will . . . chances are the next Great Awakening will be known as the Great Worship Awakening.

We were in Wales a couple of months ago, touring the hot spots of the start of the Welsh Revival of 1904/05. Someone told us that at its height, people would travel to Wales by train and ask where they should get off to experience the Revival. The answer? “Oh, you’ll know.”

Are we there yet? You know we’re not, but let’s keep praying for it!

Experiencing revival in your chair? Post about it, share evidence of revival I’ve missed, and your prayers for more to come!

Rich Swingle has presented in 42 nations on six continents, mostly with his own one-man plays. He and his bride Joyce Swingle have 41 screen children. They have developed a “singing play” with Mercaldo about the Welsh and Asbury Revivals. The Swingles live in New York City. www.RichDrama.com. Photo Credit: Jo Jo on Unsplash.