Kevin Brown, president of Asbury University, says his prayer is that within five to 10 years, Christians will look back on the Asbury revival as a tremor that preceded a global Christian awakening.
Recalling February 2023, Brown told delegates on day two of the World Evangelical Alliance’s General Assembly that what began as a “routine chapel service” became a 16-day revival drawing 50,000 people to Wilmore, Kentucky, including students from 287 universities worldwide.
Describing the experience as the most incredible experience of his lifetime, Brown said “But in the time since the outpouring, my prayer has been that in five, seven, 10 years, we would look back on what we saw in February of 2023 and say that it was nothing. That the outpouring would be seen as a mere tremor preceding an earthquake of holy Christian awakening across our globe.”
Brown characterized the move of the Holy Spirit as “powerful, truly a historically special moment for Asbury and our students,” and said he has been following the movement ever since.
He noted being encouraged over the last two-and-a-half years by renewed spiritual fervor in the U.S. and abroad—citing mass baptisms and worship gatherings such as Gather 25, Baptize California, Baptize America, and the Unite US movement.
Brown pointed to notable indicators: “In January of 2024, 55,000 college students filled a football stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, for a multi-day worship gathering,” and in September of this year, “the Baptize America initiative had over 650 churches participate and reported 30,000 baptisms,” alongside broader trends of increasing belief in America.
Brown said, “According to this year's religious landscape survey, the decline of Christianity in the United States has slowed and may have even leveled [off]. There's been an increase in the percentage of adults who say they made a personal commitment to Jesus that remains important. And millennial generations are attending church with greater regularity."
Calling these developments “a reversal of previous trends,” he added that the American Bible Society’s 2025 report shows “10 million more Americans have identified themselves as Bible readers,” the highest figure in four years.
Brown also pointed to momentum in Europe and the U.K., where he said people are witnessing a “quiet revival,” highlighting reports that church attendance “increased over 50 percent in England and Wales between 2018 and 2024.”
Reflecting on the Lausanne Global Congress in Incheon last September, Brown said he was “shaken, stirred and amazed” by the “visible heartbeat for renewal, revival and awakening,” as more than 5,000 Christians from over 200 countries worshiped “in one accord, unified in a shared vision and passion for Christ and for spirit-led mission.”
He said accounts of “renewal and awakening” are emerging from Africa, New Zealand, China, India, and beyond—especially among younger generations.
While not declaring a definitive verdict on whether a global revival is underway, Brown emphasized that in 2023 he witnessed “50,000 hungry-hearted people seeking Jesus in Asbury,” and that the same stirring continues among the nations.
Turning to a diagnostic question—“How would we know we have had a revival?”—Brown answered with a single word: unity.
Clarifying that he meant biblical unity rather than uniformity, Brown stressed that, “The unity Jesus prayed for is not simply respecting differences. It's not simply serving alongside one another. It is not simply intellectually ascending to share tenets of the faith,” noting that “When Jesus prayed for unity, He was praying for something more; something different.”
Brown emphasized that the unity among Christians is meant to "pattern the unity between Christ and God the Father.”
“The same self-giving reciprocal union in the Trinity. This is a heart matter. An allegiance to God that supersedes every other allegiance. Burning, holy love. Christ envisions oneness as unity of heart and spirit.”
