what's the big idea?

I believe most of you know what Tech 24-7 does on a monthly basis, but I am not sure you understand the significance of it. There is a saying, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  My prayer is really similar, that as we remember, we will repeat history.  Graham Cooke, says,  "We become what we behold."  While ultimately beholding Jesus, it is my hope that as we re-visit these stories of old, they will fuel a fire in all of us to pursue a 21st century revival among college students. 

So join me, as I take us on an extremely brief history of revivals in America and their connection to college students praying.  It's my prayer that as you read these stories, the weightiness of what we are doing at Tech 24-7 will be revealed to you.  I also pray that you realize that you have a part to play in this journey.  Birthing a revival among students at Texas Tech requires adults, family members, professors, employers, college pastors, friends, loved ones, and intercessors to pray, give, serve, invest and believe that God can and will do this again. 

Ten years ago Pete Greig, one of the founders of 24-7 Prayer, sat in the first prayer room at 3am and scribbled a poem that would help define the 24-7 movement. 'The Vision Poem', as it became known, spread like wildfire. I honestly, deeply, full heartedly believe that God wants to loose a prayer movement here at Texas Tech, which will in turn change the lives of thousands if not millions.  You can be a part of bringing that into being.  Join with us.  For more information on how you can connect with us, visit our website.

In the 18th Century, a group of young men began gathering on the campus of Oxford University in England. This group consisted of a small group of young men who called themselves the Holy Club. This club gathered together regularly for the purpose of prayer, confession, exhortation, and Bible study in order to challenge one another in their holiness and pursuit of God.

The Lord began to breathe upon two men in this group in particular, George Whitefield and John Wesley. Through the ministry of these two men, the Lord began to revive hearts throughout both England and America, as well as cause the word of the Lord to prevail in entire geographic regions as many would be convicted by the power of the gospel and repent unto salvation. It was also through John Wesley that the Methodist Church was started. In the early days of America's history, the Methodist Church served as one of the most fervent vehicles of missions activity and church planting, the fruits of which would dramatically affect the early history of America.

All the universities in America at this time had been founded through the Church and therefore were expected to supply the next generation of evangelical leaders. The American churches viewed these student communities as the coming future of their congregations, culture, and society. They believed that the direction of their churches and that of the whole nation would soon follow the spiritual bent and character of America's college students - As the students go, so goes the nation. It was this kind of farseeing perspective about students that made the American Church quick to answer the call to a national day of prayer for colleges.In 1806, Samuel J. Mills and five other students at Williams College began to pray for the Lord to visit their university. This prayer meeting is affectionately known as the 'Haystack Prayer Meeting' because the weather forced them to pray underneath a haystack the first time they gathered to pray. Many historians and students of church movements trace the Second Great Awakening of America to this prayer meeting.

Through the 1800s the Lord began to move on college campuses. At a time where Deism prevailed in the educational institutions of the nation, all across America the Lord began to save souls. It is said that in the course of a year's time, half of Yale's and a third of Princeton's student population were saved. In the universities, these believers began to come together in societies, which began to take on more and more of a missionary focus as the years went on.

By 1886, some of these students from such societies began to possess such zeal for the task of world evangelization, they formed what is called the 'Student Volunteer Movement'. Over the next fifty years, the Student Volunteer Movement sent 20,000 college students into the foreign mission field under the watchword of 'the evangelization of the world in this generation'. It is also commonly estimated that the movement mobilized nearly 100,000 college students in these fifty years in prayer for the Lord's purpose in the nations of the earth.

In the year 1823, the last Thursday of February in each year was agreed upon as the day for special supplication that God would pour from on high His Spirit upon our Colleges and Seminaries. And what have been some of the results? In the years 1824 and 1825 revivals were experienced in five different Colleges; in 1826 in six Colleges; in 1831 in nineteen...In one of the Colleges it is stated that a revival started on the very day of the concert of prayer. In 1835, not less than eighteen revivals were reported by different colleges." By the end of the nineteenth century, these repeated student awakenings had radically transformed the culture and moral climate of many of our largest universities. As a result many of America's ministers at this time were encouraging their congregations to send their children to college, if they wanted to see them safe and soundly converted.

 

the heart of repentance

It's been a while since I've written.  I think it's been a long time since I had words to describe what the Lord is doing in my heart.  I'll be honest, that I'm not sure that I know exactly what's going on now, but I see glimpses. 

For the last 6 months, I have been working with students at Texas Tech, helping to create spaces and places for them to encounter the presence of God. While I have been predominately dormant for the last several years, spiritually speaking, this has been such an exhilarating time in my life.  A time for new opportunities to trust the Lord in ways I haven't dreamed of in 15 or more years. It's not difficult for me to believe that God will show up and transform the hearts of people in Lubbock or the students.  I have seen him do it in my own life and I know He will do it again.  Even if I hadn't seen Him do it in my life, it's what He does.  He encounters and transforms people.  Historically, Biblically, personally...it's what Jesus loves to do.  He loves to reveal himself to people.  So praying that God will change the hearts of the student body at Tech is not hard for me to believe.  It may take time for there to be a tangible culture shift at Tech, and it may seem incredibly challenging given that we've got approximately 4 years to reach a student body before there's a whole new crowd to deal with, I still am a believer in his transforming power.  Prayer changes things!  In the midst of this though, there is a really painful reality thought that there are hidden places where doubt and unbelief have taken root.  A history of having a heart that is moved by compassion, creates multiple opportunities for me to want to go on xyz mission trip and unfortunately not see money come in. 

But even as I say that, it's not God's fault.  There are multiple things going on here.  I grew up in a poor family so there's a spirit of poverty that is still trying to work in my life.  Then there's the whole issue of sewing and reaping.  Unfortunately, I have stolen several times in my life, never fully trusting God's ability to provide. I have sewn a lot of crap into my life. I've stolen from people, from non-profits, from businesses and more.  I've stolen pens and I've stolen hundreds of dollars.  I've written hot checks on multiple occasions, I've flat out taken hard cold cash and lied about it.  What God has called Holy, I have treated incredibly casually and participated with the enemy in bringing about devastation in other peoples lives.  So here I am working a non-profit, asking people to give me money and I'm getting very little in.  I've cried, complained, and forgive my french "bitched and moaned" all to no avail.  The one thing I haven't done is repent.  Why you ask?  I don't know how to.  I know that may sound crazy, but it's true.  My go-to response to situations like this is to do penance, trusting in my own works instead of choosing repentance, thereby receiving grace through the cross of Christ.  This is the pivotal point of my walk with Christ.  When it all boils down, I rarely want to depend on the Cross and more often than not, wish I could save myself.  I don't like depending on someone else to be my savior.  Every-time I am confronted with my inability to save myself, I fall into a deep depression because that is the soul's response to the realization that it cannot save itself,  and be glorified.  It takes me a while to work myself up to the point of repentance and receiving mercy and grace.  It is painful, bittersweet to be sure.  The thought of someone else paying for my selfishness hurts.  Hopefully it hurts enough to keep me from being selfish again next time.

So as I pursue revival on Tech's campus, I am likewise pursuing revival in my own heart.  New life for this heart that is dead and broken.  I am pursuing grace, which is so desperately needed, but not cheap grace.  I am pursuing a grace that is hard to receive, beautifully refreshing, and  a true work of transformation.  Kris Valliton says that you can't separate revival and generosity.  I hope that's true because I'm pursuing revival.  May my repentant heart be a fertile ground for people to sew into, that bears much fruit.  May the Fear of the Lord keep me close to Him recognizing him as my true provider.  I so easily could end up being the next "preacher" who falls into sexual sin, embezzlement, or any other hidden thing.  My friend Chad Wheeler posted on his facebook yesterday a really great essay that speaks to this issue.  "Compassion grows with the inner recognition that your neighbor shares your humanity with you. This partnership cuts through walls which might have kept you separate. Across all barriers of land and language, wealth and poverty, knowledge and ignorance, we are one, created from the same dust, subject to the same laws, and destined for the same end. With this compassion you can say, 'In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hand. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile. Their ability to torture is in me, too; their capacity to forgive I find also in myself. There is nothing in me that does not belong to them too; nothing in them that does not belong to me. In my heart, I know their yearning for love, and down to my entrails I can feel their cruelty. In anothers' eyes I see my plea for forgiveness, and in a hardened frown I see my refusal. When someone murders, I know that I too could have done that, and when someone gives birth, I know that I am capable of that as well. In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share love and have life and death." - Henri Nouwen, With Open Hands