Around-the-clock prayer services that have lingered for a week at a Christian university in Kentucky have drawn national attention as participants have flocked nationwide to experience what some are calling a spiritual revival.
Students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, have engaged in continual worship services in the school's chapel since Feb. 8, which have reportedly been marked by prayers, worship music, testimonies, altar calls and religious conversions.
The movement began after students refused to leave following a chapel service last Wednesday, and the services have since grown to pack the school's chapel with worshippers from all over the country, according to Christianity Today.
"It's praise and worship, honestly. Nobody's snake-handling. It's just praise and worship that's going around 24/7," Jim Shores, an associate professor at the school, told Fox News Digital.
Shores noted that members of the local community have poured in for the services he described as "very sweet-spirited" and that some have driven hours from out of state to participate.
"It's really been student-led, but now the world's coming in to be like, ‘I want to experience this.’ People are just hungry to have an experience." He said some are coming simply because they are curious, but many have come searching for hope and connection.
As of Tuesday, groups of students from 22 other higher-education institutions have traveled to the school to partake in the revival, according to Kentucky Today.
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"We would say there is just a spirit of the Lord in this place, really [burrowed] its way into the hearts and minds of our students, staff, faculty and our community," Asbury president Kevin Brown told local WKYT.
Asbury University, which was founded in 1890, is not formally affiliated with any Christian denomination but has its roots in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement that emerged from Methodism in the 19th century.
Revival famously swept its campus for weeks in February 1970, during which time classes were canceled and services extended into the night and spread to other schools.
Abby Laub, who serves as director of communications for Asbury University, echoed Shores.
"If you look at the world, and you look at what is going on and what Gen Z is facing, I just think they are absolutely desperate for something other than what the world is giving them right now," Laub told Fox News Digital, adding that Gen Z has suffered much during the past few years.
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Laub, who noted that the school has been receiving messages "from literally all over the world," said some of the students who emerged from the services were moved after having offered testimony regarding spiritual darkness in their lives they had never spoken of before.
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Mia Lush, a student who spoke to local NBC affiliate LEX 18, said, "People are coming from all over, and they don't want to be anywhere else but here. Like, I'm a big Eagles fan, and I didn't even watch the Super Bowl. I've been able to surrender things that I didn't even know I would be able to surrender."
Shores noted that one speaker who spoke during the service was also present during the 1970 Asbury Revival.
"She said, 'I never thought I'd live to see this happen again in my lifetime, but here it is. And it just gives me so much hope that this next generation, this Gen Z generation, does not have to be defined by anxiety, but they can be defined by hope.'"
Sarah Baldwin, vice president of student life at Asbury, described the revival to Fox News Digital as "an outpouring of the love of God, starting with Generation Z and overflowing on the rest of us to bring healing, joy and unity."
"At the center of it all, it’s been a return to a whole-hearted commitment to Jesus and turning away from anything that distracts us from Christ. We are deeply grateful for what God is doing," Baldwin added.
Tim Beougher, who serves as pastor of West Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville and evangelism professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has written extensively about the 1970 Asbury Revival and similar movements, according to Kentucky Today.
"What every believer should be doing right now, regardless of what you think about the early reports out of Asbury, is praying," Beougher wrote in a recent social media post that cited Jonathan Edwards, a major figure during the First Great Awakening in the American colonies during the 18th century.
"Who would deny that we need revival in our churches and spiritual awakening in our land?" he added. "God has visited this nation with powerful awakenings before — we study those great movements of revival in church history classes. Is Asbury the spark of another awakening? I don’t know, but I’m praying, and you should be, too."
