Igniting Campuses - History Changing Prayer by Trent Sheppard

Published: November 1st, 2007

The last couple of days I’ve been devouring a book called Campus Aflame.  In fact, I finished the last page just before lunch today.  The book is a scholarly account of collegiate awakenings and their global influence, especially focusing on the 150-year stretch from 1800 – 1950.  I must confess, it’s a pretty dense-read, almost overwhelming in the amount of historical details packed into 286 pages.  At the same time, though, the core message of Campus Aflame is simply electrifying: students shaping history through prayer, humility and action.

I decided to read the book for two reasons.  The first is because the author, Dr. J. Edwin Orr (1912 – 1987), a rather slight Irish man with an exceptionally sharp mind, mentored my dad.  (I never got the chance to talk with Dr. Orr about his experience and research regarding campus awakenings, but I’ll never forget the rare lilt in his rich Irish accent every time he greeted me when I was a little boy, “Hi Chum, how’s your thumb?”)  The second reason I read Campus Aflame is because I’m convinced God intends to change the world through students.

There’s neither time nor space here to give a proper sketch of campus awakenings, but we can at least consider one extraordinary moment in collegiate history that shaped the world.  In New York City, lower Manhattan specifically, a noon-time prayer meeting in September 1857 created sacred space for people to meet with God.  What started with a few desperate individuals soon escalated to more than 6,000 people praying together daily during their lunch hour.  God responded and the astonishing result was citywide and campus spiritual awakenings across the entire country.  

To understand how far reaching this movement was, consider that the population of the U.S. was about 30 million at the time.  In the course of the awakening, more than one million people in America joined churches to grow in their newfound faith.  At the center of this contagious movement was the campus.  New England campuses like Yale and Amherst, southern schools like Emory and Oglethorpe, and all sorts of educational environments in between and further west experienced the profound and lasting effect of a few people praying in New York.  Had it not been for the outbreak of the Civil War, who knows what transformation this movement may have ultimately produced, challenging the social sin of slavery and perhaps even averting the flashpoint of conflict between the States?  Indeed, as the awakening spread across the Atlantic to England, one of the first effects was a revived compassion for the poor and suffering.

Dr. Orr reflected on the vital role of prayer during this awakening, explaining that, “No single (person) was responsible, nor did any visiting clergy initiate the campus movements.  The biggest single factor was the services of (prayer) going on all around.”  How I wish there was space here to explore what followed with the Student Volunteer Movement, the global awakening sparked by a Welsh student named Evan Roberts in 1904, the dynamic campus surge of the 1950’s in which Dr. Orr played such a vital role, and the collegiate revivals of the 1970’s that transformed places like Asbury College.  Maybe there will be more time to tell a few of those stories in the future.  

For now, though, I must tell you this.  What seems to be essential to every awakening that Orr describes in Campus Aflame is a three-part initiative of prayer, humility, and action.  Students create sacred places for prayer: students get real with each other and God about what is holding them back: and, finally, students practically respond with action that transforms the planet.  24-7 is a global movement of friends and ministries convinced this generation is on the edge of a campus awakening: an awakening that will result in Jesus-like living through mission, mercy and marketplace.  Are you up for it?  I know I'm in...

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