Documentary about Asbury Revival Launches on Redeem TV: It Was a 'Small Glimpse of Heaven'
- Michael Foust CrosswalkHeadlines Contributor
- Updated Apr 03, 2023
The historic Kentucky revival/outpouring that drew thousands to a rural Christian university spanned more than two weeks and grabbed worldwide headlines is now the subject of a documentary.
Asbury Revival: Desperate for More will launch on Redeem TV Passover weekend, telling the story of the spontaneous event with behind-the-scenes moments and interviews with students, staff, university administrators and participants. Redeem TV is a donor-supported Christian streaming platform with movies and television series and over 250,000 subscribers. It is a subsidiary of the Christian History Institute and Vision Video, each of which produces content about the 2,000-year history of the church.
The revival/outpouring broke out at Asbury University in Wilmore, Ky., during a regularly scheduled chapel service in February and continued 24 hours a day for the next 16 days. It spread elsewhere, including to other college campuses such as Lee University, Samford University and Cedarville University.
The documentary was produced by 1 Voice Films.
“Being in Wilmore, Ky., at Asbury in the middle of the outpouring was one of the highlights of my life and filmmaking career,” said Chris Rogers, the film’s producer. “I prayed to be involved with revival for years, and suddenly I found myself in the middle of a great work with the Holy Spirit all around me. It’s hard to give it words, but I knew that God was present in a way I never felt before.”
Executive producer Bill Curtis told Christian Headlines he hopes viewers will be moved as they watch the film. The goal, he said, is that it will “create a hunger in them for revival in their life, in their community.”
“Our prayer is that as people see what happened in Asbury that it just sparks a hunger and may continue to poke the coals,” he said.
Redeem TV was able to make a documentary so quickly on Asbury, he said, because a documentary about revivals was already in the works. Rogers headed up the effort on-site at Asbury.
“Chris was there for a few days and got such amazing footage,” Curtis said.
A trailer includes interviews with those involved.
“People are hungry to experience God,” one young man says.
“There were multiple students who gave their lives to Christ that first night,” a woman says.
Still, another woman says of her experience, “I think in five years what I’ll say is I met God” at the revival.
“I think this might be a small glimpse of heaven,” a man says in the trailer.
Photo courtesy: ©Redeem TV, used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
