Holy Disruption, and the Afterward Knock-Offs

The spontaneous revival-like services on the campus of Asbury University began on February 8 and continued for sixteen days straight. I recall first hearing of this outpouring through a church’s email mentioning the event and encouraging members to possibly pilgrimage (my word) to Wilmore, Kentucky to “test” this thing, as I recall.

For a variety of reasons, I didn’t give much of my attention to this email, but noted a few things that triggered discomfort, based upon observance of past negatively associated experiences.

Then, a couple weeks back, I read about this revival from another source and my interest became piqued. I found myself in some discussion/thoughts over things such as what constitutes true revival and moves of God and how might we determine a revival’s authenticity.

I turned to my favorite news source these days…YouTube…and found a livestream of the event (which at that point had been going on about 130 hours straight). Now that I am more clear about when the campus President called for an end to it and a resuming of classes, it may have been that what said “Livestream” was actually replay from days earlier, but I am uncertain.

When I first tuned in to it I observed a large gathering of students in a chapel service with what struck me as the type and flavor of praise and worship that can typically be heard in a number of Christian gatherings. I was familiar with some of the songs, and, I noticed somewhat (as I recall) that some students seemed to be looking around.

This also seems typical at these types of services, at least in my observation. (I suppose that means that I look around, as well.) And sure enough, as I read more, it was mentioned that many of the students (and others from further places) had heard about the spontaneous, intense non-stop revival service/worship/praise and came to see what was happening.

I gave an amount of thought to this event on and off that day. I went to bed late, as seems to be my habit recently.

Then, I remember waking up around 3 am and reaching for my phone, and I tuned in again to the livestream. Perhaps it was the night-soul-space I was in at that hour, but perhaps it was what I actually heard…or…both.

What I heard was the sound of unified, clear, sweet voices singing the hymn-song 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord). I listened, and within seemingly moments I felt spiritually caught up in it. I soaked it in, and I felt tears spontaneously streaming from my eyes. I thought to myself, “Wow…this is so beautiful.”

I dozed back off and awoke again around 5 am and tuned back in, and it was still going on just as beautifully. I remember observing a few students quietly kneeling at the altar–some for quite some time–and other students coming alongside of them to talk and to pray.

That day and the next, I tuned in here and there. I found it interesting for several reasons, and I took note that this was happening among students on a college campus, knowing the types of dark and opposing things that seem to be gripping secular campuses.

I thought about various protests that have, at times, completely shut down college campuses (ex. the Evergreen situation in 2017) and in contrast, I thought about holy disruption. Many times in life, positive changes occur through needful disruption to the status quo. I even wondered what might happen if the President of Asbury University allowed it to continue without obstruction.

Of course there were pragmatic reasons why this likely could not be permitted and especially because people from all over were flocking there and there were safety concerns. I wonder what would have happened had we not been in the age of internet…that said, part of me wondered to myself what might it be like to spontaneously decide to take a road trip to a service like that.

I admit, out of curiosity I Google-Mapped the distance. Even if I had a vehicle up to that trip, it was far. But part of me imagined…for some reason. Not that it is at all like me to do something like that, but I seem to be somewhat more open to new experiences these days.

When I first tuned in during the day time, I noticed there was a live comment feed and I was reading. It seemed some were already discussing theological things and the meaning of the event, and there were undercurrents of clashing viewpoints. Later at some point I tuned in and they were asking anyone who had a prayer need to feel free to comment.

I found myself caught up in that moment as I watched others typing requests and they were rapidly disappearing into the comment feed. It struck me with an abstract image of words and prayers from all over being thrown up into this online livestream-feed–perhaps seen by someone and prayed for/agreed with and then slipping into cyberspace. I found myself typing up a personal request, feeling a burst of heartfelt faith in that moment.

Initially I felt put-off by the livestreaming of this event, but later I re-thought. We live in a world where much darkness is spread via the internet and especially things like Tik-Tok (did you know that China owns the TikTok platform and uses it in their country for math problems and such, while we use it in the United States for extremely damaging and ungodly propanda?) so why wouldn’t/couldn’t God send forth a cleansing outpouring through this same vehicle?

It was just another thought that I had.

_____

It feels a bit weird to write this piece weeks later. I see how up-and-down and in-and-out I (and we humans) seem to experience God’s presence and close intimacy, and then how easily and quickly I can go back into a more numb hum-drum state of being.

Which leads me to mention manna, and our constant need for fresh things of God (rather than stale things) to keep re-kindling us throughout our hours, days, weeks, years and lifetime.

I had thoughts along the lines of it not being good to try to replicate specific, unique experiences in God–neither in our own lives nor by trying to ignite by some formula or other off-base means a replication for others.

As I find myself using the word replicate here, I wonder (and Google) to make sure I’m choosing the right word. I think I am. Additionally, I should note that it is human nature to want to replicate experiences, and that isn’t always a bad thing.

I’m certain that my experience at 3 am when I heard 10,000 Reasons being sung produced tears in me because I knew the song, and because I had associations with where I first heard the song, and surely neural pathways of other times I had heard it which essentially replicated within me whatever experience I was having while listening to the Kentucky livestreamed event.

That said, it was not a duplicate experience of any of the other experiences, it was simply that I had some basis for connection and expectation. That’s not a bad thing, per se.

I did feel/sense that there was something authentic that had spontaneously erupted at the end of their chapel service on February 8 that had caused students to linger into this ongoing worship event. I feel a bit dry as I write this however, but, I write from my mind (intellect) in retrospect, because I felt it worthy of mention here.

What I notice now and find typical and disappointing are what I would call the knock-off mentality. As I painted tonight and was looking for things to listen to, I thought I would tune in to see what might be on YouTube.

Well, there’s all kinds of stuff there now, and sadly, many of it says “livestream.” I don’t even know if it is old footage from Kentucky, or livestream from the nearby alternate location that I read the college wanted to migrate services to after the 16 days…or what/where these services are. Additionally, one can find numerous videos of people ready to comment about this event.

I shouldn’t talk, because I’m doing that, too.

I did tune in to one or two of these “Asbury Revival Livestreams” and what I saw was much different. I watched long enough to form an opinion. What I see now are the more slick-seeming, glitzy-ish, performance-like worship “teams” with the typical speeches, calls, verbiage and more that tend to (personally) turn me off to this type of Christian gathering. I just don’t easily connect with it–oh maybe parts–since God can always surprise us.

What I found bothersome was one leader calling for others to use an app and “adopt-a-campus.”

This call to mobilize and capture/replicate reminds me of manna, somewhat. The followers of God were not supposed to gather up the supernatural bread/food for another day or time. They were to expect it to come again in each future day in a fresh way.

Sure, my thoughts here might be a stretch and I don’t intend for a literal analogy to the nth degree in parallel details.

Perhaps I should just get back to my original thought about knock-offs. We live in a time where replication of a number of things seems to be the fast-track. I think that true forms of revival stand the test of time and fruit-bearing; and good fruit-bearing is a slow-track process.

While we should indeed hope for the goodness of God and the good things of God to go viral, so-to-speak, we must remain on guard for the aspects of less pure virus-contagions.

I am grateful to have added several more worship/praise songs to my personal Spotify playlist that I found meaningful, through this experience, such as those below. For me, there is a difference in my response to such pieces in a live worship experience than when I try to find a YouTube/Spotify artist that makes the piece available in a way I respond positively to.

So I’ve picked the closest versions below, but they are not perfect. I often dislike live YouTube versions since they appear/feel too much like a performance and have musical qualities/sounds I do not care for. These were the closest versions of what I heard in Kentucky that I felt I might add into my playlist and enjoy for another day…