A college chapel’s recent service has turned into a prayer “revival” after it went viral on TikTok.
On 8 February, Asbury University, a Christian college in Wilmore, Kentucky, held a prayer service in the school’s chapel. What started as a routine service has turned into a days-long worship session involving 24-hour-a-day participation from thousands of attendees.
University president Dr Kevin Brown told NBC News that the initial service took place on the morning of 8 February and was followed by a gospel choir performance.
“The first day we had a very ordinary service, I would call it unremarkable,” Dr Brown said.
After the service ended, some Asbury University students stuck around to continue their worship. By the end of the day, the number of students had grown, Dr Brown said.
The ongoing worship session ultimately made its way to social media, with videos of the packed college chapel going viral on TikTok.
In one TikTok video, which has been viewed more than 89,000 times since it was posted last week, the chapel could be seen packed with individuals praying together.
“Update!! We have been going strong for 60-plus hours now!” the caption on the video reads. “Revival is still going strong! Please come to Asbury and see what the lord is doing!”
In another video, uploaded by Christian social media influencer Jordan Whitmer, who goes by @RevJordanWhitmer on TikTok, it showed another angle of the packed chapel.
“Day four of revival at an absolutely packed house at @asburyuniversity in Kentucky - this Gen Z student revival has now turned into multiple generations worshipping, repenting, and praying together!! Revival starts with prayer and repentance. May this happen and spread all across America and the nations of the world!” he wrote in the caption, along with the hashtag #AsburyRevival.
“God is moving - revival is happening in Kentucky,” he added.
As of 16 February, the hashtag #AsburyRevival has been viewed more than 33.5m times on TikTok.
The social media interest has translated into participants and the number of attendees has entered the thousands, according to university officials.
“It has absolutely been social media that is the mechanism that people found out about this,” Mark Whitworth, Asbury University’s vice president of communications, told NBC News, while Brown said that at least two thirds of attendees are from out of state.
A significant number of worshippers are even from other schools. Groups of students from at least 22 higher education institutions have journeyed to Asbury University to take part in the ongoing service, Kentucky Today reported.
The biggest night took place on Tuesday 14 February when the university hosted 3,000 attendees inside its chapel and overflow facilities, per NBC News.
“We would say there is just a spirit of the Lord in this place,” Dr Brown told WKYT.
As noted by Encyclopaedia Britannica, revivalism is “generally, a renewed religious fervour within a Christian group, church, or community, but primarily a movement in some Protestant churches to revitalise the spiritual ardour of their members and to win new adherents”.
Although the university did not expect its recent service to turn into the widespread event it has become, it is not the first time that Asbury University has been the location of a “revival”.
In 1970, the school also became the location of a similar prayer session, which reportedly lasted 185 hours.
The Independent has contacted Asbury University for comment.
