Religious revival in Kentucky

[Skill and Chance]

It's always interesting coming here and hearing about things I otherwise would never have known about.

What makes this special though? I browsed the Wikipedia article about it and this event doesn't even seem significant enough to warrant its own article.

There was apparently a similar revival at the same college about fifty years ago that had a lasting influence on the direction of American Protestantism. It's also unusual to see this sort of thing so heavily prioritizing specifically young people's religious expressions, apparently at times to the point of barring people past college age from the auditorium.

Yes, the fact that it 1. happened spontaneously (we would say by the influence of the Holy Spirit) with no evidence of coordination or showmanship 2. is at a college and impacting primarily college-aged people and 3. is occurring within a tradition that has been struggling to retain members over the past 50 years makes it nationally significant. 

Revivals of this sort have had important impacts on American history.  They were instrumental in the Abolitionist movement, for example. 

[Skill and Chance]

It's always interesting coming here and hearing about things I otherwise would never have known about.

What makes this special though? I browsed the Wikipedia article about it and this event doesn't even seem significant enough to warrant its own article.

There was apparently a similar revival at the same college about fifty years ago that had a lasting influence on the direction of American Protestantism.

Can you link some articles or provide some references for this? I've tried checking the sources provided at the Wikipedia article but they only sparingly refer to the 1970 revival, and don't at all talk about any "national ramifications" that it had.

3. is occurring within a tradition that has been struggling to retain members over the past 50 years makes it nationally significant.

Which Methodist group are they affiliated with? Is there any indication the majority of members there are actually primarily focused on Methodism or whatever that entails, rather than a general Protestant Christian movement?

Asbury University is associated with conservative Methodist groups.  But, the revival hasn't been uniquely tailored to any one denomination.  People from all denominations have been going- and it's made pretty significant headlines in evangelical circles.

One of the pastors at my church visited this week.  He gave a quick report at the start of church today and offered a time for people to repent of sin like has been happening at Asbury.  It turned into a 90 minute worship service where no traditional sermon was even given today.  But, it was beautiful!

Yes, it's not a specifically Methodist thing at all now, but it's interesting that it did start with them. 

As you note, Asbury is far from the median Methodist group in the US, but in the theologically/culturally conservative right tail.  They don't seem to have shifted doctrinally over the past 50 years like the UMC has.  They aim to follow the original Wesleyan holiness tradition as closely as possible.  In this sense, they are probably more at home with Baptists and non-denominational Evangelical traditions that have generally avoided accommodating cultural change.

[Skill and Chance]

It's always interesting coming here and hearing about things I otherwise would never have known about.

What makes this special though? I browsed the Wikipedia article about it and this event doesn't even seem significant enough to warrant its own article.

There was apparently a similar revival at the same college about fifty years ago that had a lasting influence on the direction of American Protestantism. It's also unusual to see this sort of thing so heavily prioritizing specifically young people's religious expressions, apparently at times to the point of barring people past college age from the auditorium.

Yes, the fact that it 1. happened spontaneously (we would say by the influence of the Holy Spirit) with no evidence of coordination or showmanship

I have my doubts about that, as this college has Very frequent "revivals", with previous ones in 1905, 1908, 1921, 1950, 1958, 1970, 1992, and 2006. By now, I'm pretty sure the execs know full well how to exploit them

Valid point that this isn't unprecedented, but 17 years is a long time, and there hasn't been one on this scale since 1970.  I could be wrong but it doesn't strike me as something scheduled at all.

[Skill and Chance]

Generation Z living up to their Artist archetype!

Didn't Strauss and Howe have Millennials ending up as conscientious civic traditionalists, though?  That's a pretty clear red flag for their cyclical system.

[Skill and Chance]

Generation Z living up to their Artist archetype!

Didn't Strauss and Howe have Millennials ending up as conscientious civic traditionalists, though?  That's a pretty clear red flag for their cyclical system.

I think you actually can massage the definitions of "conscientious", "civic", and "traditionalist" so as to make this make sense, but that says more about how vague and confirmation-bias-prone the model is than it says about anything else.

The comparison would be to the people who fought the American Revolution or WWII, with the emphasis being willing to work yourself to the bone and maybe even die young to establish/preserve an institution.  I just don't see it.  The most plausible argument would involve civil rights activism, but that actually fits at a different point in their generational cycle.