Young, Restless, and Ready for Revival | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Oh my. You must read this: Young, Restless, and Ready for Revival. Must read it. Must. Must. Becky Tirabassi writes about her speaking ministry to college campuses and the hunger for prayer, revival and confession she is encountering. As one who is greatly discouraged by what I see as the health of the church today, I was floored by the pangs of revival taking place on college campuses. "The bottom has been falling out all over the place. Last July, during an event named The Call, more than 70,000 students, young adults, parents, and ministers from all over the country met in Nashville to pray for 12 hours in a solemn assembly of confession and prayer for our nation. There have been seven previous gatherings of The Call since 2000, with a total attendance over the years of some 250,000. Another one is planned for next October on the Washington Mall. The young adult ministry of the International House of Prayer hosts regional prayer-and-revival meetings yearly. For over seven years, IHOP in Kansas City has maintained a prayer room that is open all day, every day, with worship and continuous prayer. Another ministry, Campus America, has begun a project to establish "unbroken prayer" on all 2,600 accredited colleges and universities in the country by 2010. In addition, there will be a national prayer gathering of students and young adults called Paradise '08 that will take place in the middle of a Kansas field on May 25—no merchandise, speakers, or artists, just prayer, Scripture, and song." Imagine that. Unbroken prayer on all college campuses. Lord have mercy and let it be so. One more quote ... "Students tell me that spiritual mentors who are "on fire for Jesus," consistent in their walks with God, who remained sexually pure in their own dating and marriage relationships, and who lived full-of-the-Holy-Spirit lives in front of them are rare. But they are longing for, begging for, older Christians to be solid spiritual mentors and parents to them, to pray powerfully for and with them. They don't need more programs. They want prayer and revival for their generation. I've been to dozens of campuses in the past three years and seen that the younger generation has started what Finney called "a new beginning of obedience to God." Is my generation ready to join them?" I doubt your generation is ready, Becky. Sorry. Maybe my generation even less so. We are desperate for holy mentors. We can only hope this younger generation will pray for us.