Taken by Surprise

It was an ordinary chapel service on February 8, 2023, in Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University. But what happened next was anything but ordinary, taking almost everyone by surprise. While most left for class, some students remained. Several gospel choir members stayed on, singing softly as a few dozen students lingered in prayer. Throughout the day something spiritually magnetic was underway as hundreds of students returned for unscheduled, unscripted worship. Before the day was out, accounts of what was transpiring started drawing students from the University of Kentucky and other nearby campuses. By the weekend, small-town Wilmore was inundated by thousands of pilgrims hungry for God. Before long, thousands morphed into tens of thousands. Through sixteen days of round-the-clock, continuous worship, participants recalled an extraordinary sense of the nearness of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There was no performance with celebrities or polished musicians and no comfortable, spacious venue. Yet an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 pilgrims came from at least 40 states, 286 campuses, and 40 countries. This work explores a spontaneous revival whose impact through social media continues to reverberate around the world.