lent day 4 - Asbury

 Something happened today ( yesterday) and Im bursting to tell you about it.

I was scrolling Facebook and someone had posted this.

When we were at Asbury last week I was trying to figure out who was leading and how- this blew my mind, copied from Mark Swayze.

Behind the Scenes of Revival

Confession: I went to Wilmore ( Asbury Uni)

I didn’t feel I needed to go but some close friends at the University/Seedbed asked me to help. When they called, I knew God was inviting me.

Help with what?

For 9 straight days at 2 hour increments, college students have led worship at Hughes Auditorium in Wilmore, KY.

That’s been about 100 worship teams this far. And they don’t seem to be ending anytime soon.

The team organizing all of this needed help. So Brenna and I went to serve.

Hear me. The 1970 Revival was centered on student testimony. 2023 is centered on worship. Ministry to Jesus through song.

(Though a student in 1970 said music was just as prevalent)

Here is what I found behind the scenes:

A 24 year old woman who is a military sergeant.

She has organized all of this with a small team of college students and her “servant of a husband.” Their iPhone text group is named the “Worship Stewards.”

They are a force.

They operate out of a storage closet called “the Messy of Messies” because of course, it’s messy and cluttered.

Brenna and I felt like we were called to triage, helping physical bodies keep up with spiritual power.

Our first morning, we were invited to join the team. We arrived to their early morning meeting and experienced what seemed to be a military operation.

Everyone is physically exhausted but spiritually on absolute fire. They ask Jesus for wisdom in every decision. No decision for worship is human strategy or planning. They pray, ask Jesus and then discern together.

They speak in turn by raising hands and submitting to one another as they make decisions. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. All five of them were united when a decision was made.

This 24 year old woman is brilliant, humble and wise past her years (Like decades.) Love you M.

Furthermore, they have a process for collecting worship teams.

Ready for it?

The Holy Spirit highlights people in the room. The “Worship Stewards” then ask those students to lead in a worship band.

You will love this next part:

This newly formed worship band gets prayed for in the outside hall and then goes to the consecration room.

Yep. Consecration room.

This is where Spirit-filled hidden “prayer warriors” pray over this newly formed team. This goes on for 30 min or more.

(This consecration room is for any person who will step on the platform, speakers included.)

Then the worship team comes back down the stairs, acclimates to the room and finally, after an hour of preparation behind the scenes, switches out with the team on stage that’s been leading.

The “Worship Stewards” do not want any team to lead worship that has not been prepared in this way. No platform given until ready. This “ready” can take more than an hour.

As I said, this has happened to 100 college worship teams thus far.

So who are these college worship leaders at the Asbury Outpouring? Who sits on the “Worship Steward” team?

You will never know.

They are a nameless and faceless generation.

They are rebelling against the celebrity culture infiltrating the church.

They choose to remain hidden with no live stream, visible lyrics, moving lights or big screens.

Their motto is: “Radical humility, ethnic unity.”

They hope to steward well one thing: a simple offering of song represented by every ethnicity.

But what I have learned most about them:

They are supernaturally hungry for God.

This comes naturally from an outpouring of God's Spirit. The gift of faith and a growing hunger with every taste of God's goodness. And, my guess, this outpouring will truly wreck them for life. (In the best way)

They wonder why the older generations have gatherings where ministry time is for members when they want to be a church that 'ministers to Jesus.'

This is not a judgment but an observation from them.

Can I be honest after very little sleep?

I’m wrecked, also.

Church, there is a hidden generation of Gen Z leaders rising up before your eyes.

We must quickly wake up to the fact that an emerging generation hungers desperately for the supernatural and rebels against any form of religious entertainment.

What will this mean for what’s next?

No idea. I can barely comprehend what I’ve experienced.

But this Asbury Revival (outpouring) sort of changes everything for us.

This emerging generation expects something now: They expect heaven on earth to be the norm.

As I read this I felt my spirit leap but then I had to go to work so off I drove 30 minutes to another town. On the way I was thinking about how this new generation of young people have decided not to put the new wine into old wineskins. And I felt so convicted to pray for them and for all our youngsters ( among whom are my own three worship leading sons) I was wrecked by the outpouring that came from Toronto and spilled over the world decades ago. I have seriously never been the same since - mostly left with a deep longing to see God move again. And now He is moving. And this move needs to be cared for and protected and embraced and enjoyed. God is coming to Belfast. He is coming to Queens University and the Hub. To Jordanstown and Coleraine. He is coming to Edinburgh and Dundee and Cardiff and London too. We have a huge opportunity to tell our young people to get ready. And to get ready ourselves. We are going to need to open our homes to those who come to visit. Make meals for weary worshippers who dont want to go home or even go to McDonalds in case they miss anything. We need to pray and uphold and defend our young leaders who, like those in the states, will take a stand against religious church. What it appears we dont need to do is organise ministry teams to pray for people. Its not about people ministering to people. Its about people ministering to Jesus. If we focus solely and only on Him all these other things will be added to us. Strength and help and hope and healing.

Im about to phone my sons in Belfast and in Edinburgh to encourage them to get ready. The model outlined above of teams of people working in unity with the Holy Spirit to make every decision is crucial. Soaking everyone in prayer is crucial. Not allowing the ' grown ups' to set the agenda is crucial. Keeping the media and well known churchy people out is crucial. Being real , humble, wise and discerning is crucial. As an old bird in the church my heart is so excited at the thought that Jesus is doing it again. Refreshing, restoring, renewing, envisioning, convicting, challenging, calling, saving, healing........ on and on it goes. Check out the testimonies coming out of Asbury because by their fruit shall you know them.

We oldies ( Im guessing most of you reading are at least as old as me 😁 ) need to start batch baking cookies and soup so that when people start wanting to stay all night in church we are ready to feed them. We need to have stuff ready to give to new Christians - books and alpha courses and the like. We need to make sure our worship teams have guitar strings and spare drumsticks and whatever else they might need. He is coming over the water and He is coming quickly. We have the advantage of some forewarning. So get some sleep in the coming days so you are ready to pull a few all- nighters when He comes .

( Oh, and I forgot to say that later in the morning yesterday I visited a friend who has been caring for her parents who are both in their 90s. Mum is bedbound. As I was reading out the above message from the revival to my friend I started to cry. I have no idea why. I just feel the Holy Spirit is all over those words. I visit my friend and her parents every week and for a while now Ive been thinking Id like to sing in the house. Yesterday I did. I stood at the foot of Mum's bed with Dad sitting close by and sang ' As the Deer' and 'Be Still for the Presence of The Lord.' Dad shed a tear. Mum opened her eyes and smiled. It was a lovely moment. God has done something in me in the past 24 hours and I cant tell you how excited I feel and how strongly I believe that we are on the verge of something new and wonderful and holy. Come Lord Jesus! )