Outpouring in Asbury Pete Greig, founder & leader of 24-7 Prayer shares some insights as he visits the college being transformed by God.
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22 February 2023
Outpouring in Asbury
Pete Greig, founder & leader of 24-7 Prayer shares some
insights as he visits the college being transformed by God.
Adapted from Pete Greig’s For a few extraordinary hours on Sunday the Kentucky police
instagram post 22nd Feb 2023 shut the roads into Asbury. The crowds coming into this tiny
town (pop’n 3,686, size 2.6 sq.miles), had finally hit some kind
of negative inflection point. One of the leaders reckons 100,000
people may have passed through in 13 days.
I’ve never seen anything like this. Worship rises into the night
from the vast crowd snaking around the park in front of the
Hughes Auditorium. They wait for hours in the cold to spend a
little time in the sacred atmosphere of gentle, low-key, student-
led worship within the auditorium and it’s three overflow
venues.
I am naturally skeptical. But something is taking place here
which I can’t explain. It may even be the sort of thing I’ve read
about in history books and that preachers in future generations
will one day recount with awe: “There was a day way back in
2023 when the police shut the roads because so many were
coming to pray.”
While I’ve been here, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and
praying privately with the leaders, but that’s not primarily why I
came. I came because I wanted to sit at the back and fall in
love with Jesus again. I came because I realised that my heart
had become a little calloused. I came (can I be really honest
with you?) looking for… hope.
This is personal. It’s holy and therefore not to be talked about
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22 February 2023
lightly, analysed too quickly or touched without a certain
reverence and awe. There’s already enough noise out there
and, as local law enforcement officers can readily confirm, the
Asbury outpouring doesn’t actually need any more publicity.
But then there was a moment on Sunday when a teenager
called Rose prophesied about taking the fires home and after
that someone invited anyone who wanted to respond to stand.
Pretty much everyone in that packed auditorium - and, no
doubt in the overflow venues too - immediately stood. I say
‘pretty much everyone’
because I noticed five
young men in smart
jackets on the back row
who remained firmly
seated and I retain a
certain respect for their
indifference.
After 23 years making lots
of mistakes leading a
night-and-day prayer
movement, I thought it
might perhaps be helpful
to offer a few pastoral
notes for anyone who
stood on Sunday and now
finds themselves back
home seeking to stir it all
up in a much less exciting
- or at least a much less
excited - environment.
1. KEEP AT IT!
Don’t be dissuaded or discouraged. Your commission does not
require permission. This thing is gloriously reproducible and
scaleable and people are palpably thirsty. We need a fresh
outpouring of the Spirit in this generation, especially on college
campuses. I’m pretty sure God wants to multiply this moment
into a movement of ten thousand Asburys around the world! So
just gather your friends and give it a try. And if you fizzle out
after a few hours or a few days, that’s really not the end of the
world!
2. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!
This is a low-key, un-hyped, unprogrammed phenomenon - an
adventure in analogue. I talked to Zach who preached at the
chapel service where all this began and he admitted “It wasn’t
a great message!” (I liked him a lot for this) “I hadn’t prepared
because…” he laughed “because I was being lazy!”
3. KEEP IT HUMAN.
This is intensive but it doesn’t have to be intense. Make it fun.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit in our midst. Intensity is not. Jesus
didn’t die to make us Christian, he died to make us human. So
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22 February 2023
don’t forget to do your washing. Make sure to guard your
sabbath. Don’t forget to feed the hamster. Don’t quit your jobs.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that an evening laughing with
friends is less spiritual than a night interceding for the lost.
Develop healthy rhythms. One of the tragedies of the great
Hebridean awakening (one that was hushed up for years) is
that the minister in the church where it began eventually
suffered a full nervous breakdown. He didn’t take care of
himself and in the end his system couldn’t cope. After 23 years
of non-stop prayer I can promise you that you’ll blow up unless
you do the work to make this both sustainable and enjoyable.
4. KEEP IT HUMBLE. One of the most beautiful things about
Asbury is the lack of ego. The only celebrity here is Jesus. Let
me tell you a cool little story:
One of the leaders here is a
seasoned musician called
Mark and last week he
offered to step in when there
was a gap in the worship.
The student in charge of
worship didn’t know who he
was and insisted he should
go out the back to receive
prayer for consecration first.
When he started leading the
student came up to him after
maybe twenty minutes and
asked him to stop. Mark
asked why and the student
said “I’m just sensing your
heart isn’t right”. Mark put
down his guitar without
objecting, left the stage and
asked for prayer about the
state of his heart. A little later
the student came up to him
to apologise “I didn’t know
who you were!” And Mark
replied “No you were right.
There was something I
needed to get sorted on my heart. Thanks for calling me out on
that.” Right there that’s humble leadership.
5. KEEP IT ON TRACK.
Don’t be afraid to lead. We are so burned out on narcissistic
power that we barely recognise leadership when it’s gentle,
self-effacing and humble. But make no mistake, this moment at
Asbury is being strongly led. In fact, the leaders are meeting
every three hours - sensing what the Spirit is doing - talking
and praying and making difficult decisions (like keeping the
focus on young people and turning away Fox News).
6. KEEP CONSISTENT
Don’t despise the day of small things. Your job is to prepare the
way of the Lord. His job is to show up when and how he likes.
The Asbury outpouring began tiny and in an unlikely place. But
322 February 2023
the twilight before the limelight is always when the real action
happens. The team at the heart of this outpouring have been
friends for years. They know and trust each other. They have
invested in relationship; they have done the hard work of
thinking hard and of preparing their hearts. When the
whitewater power of God comes it doesn’t solve anything. It
simply increases and accelerates what’s already there. By then
it’s too late to make many changes. And so, I’m watching these
guys operating out of deep muscle memory. With shared
values and a high threshold of trust.
7. KEEP IT CAMPUS.
I believe it’s significant that this outpouring has come to a
college campus and it’s now beginning to multiply on other
campuses. It’s a Gen Z outpouring. It’s under 25’s who are
taking the lead. At Asbury no one over 25 gets to testify.
Anyone with a heart for students should talk to Miriam
Swanson and read this https://www.amazon.com/God-
Campus-Sacred-Effects-America/dp/0830836314
8. KEEP YOUR EYES ON JESUS
I wrote some words on the first 24-7 Prayer room wall: “the
vision is Jesus!” Our vision is not revival. It’s the Reviver! It’s
not prayer. It’s the person of Christ! What’s happening at
Asbury will stop. It will fizzle out eventually. And that’s ok. My
faith is not in this, it’s in him. And in so far as people are truly
meeting Jesus at Asbury, lifting the name of Jesus, giving their
lives to him and falling back in love with him - as I did - then
what happens here will truly be eternal.
C’mon!
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