More than 200 college students at Auburn University have been baptized Tuesday night as a campus worship program erupted into what observers referred to as a spontaneous revival.

The baptisms — in a small lake and illuminated by vehicle headlights — occurred a few half-mile from the Neville Arena website for “Unite Auburn,” an occasion related to a city-wide revival happening in Auburn, an jap Alabama metropolis of 75,000. 

“Unite Auburn” featured Christian worship band Passion and audio system Jennie Allen, a Christian creator, and the Rev. Jonathan Pokluda, lead pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.

An estimated 2,000 to 2,500 college students crowded across the lake close to the college’s “Red Barn,” the place six pastors and others — together with Auburn soccer coach Hugh Freeze — helped baptize the younger adults wishing to suggest a Christian dedication. 

Video posted to social media exhibits the scholars cheering in approval every time one of many college students emerged from the immersion.

Auburn senior Kristen Carr, a journalism main and editor-in-chief of pupil newspaper The Auburn Plainsman, mentioned in a phone interview with The Washington Times that she went to the rally “originally just as a spectator,” however determined “I just needed to start covering this and videoing because it was so unusual. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

Tonya Prewett, the spouse of assistant basketball coach Chad Prewitt and the night’s principal organizer, mentioned the occasion was designed to assist college students fighting the stress of post-pandemic life on campus.

“We had stories of kids who were isolated in their closet and just feeling like they can’t cope, they can’t go on, they don’t want to live another day,” Mrs. Prewett mentioned in a phone interview. “And some who are bound by addictions that they think can’t seem to get free from and it’s just keeping them full of shame and isolation.”

Mrs. Prewett mentioned she started praying in January with a number of college students she’d been mentoring. She continued to fulfill and pray weekly with these college students by May.

About six weeks in the past, she mentioned, plans got here collectively for the “Unite Auburn” occasion, which she anticipated would finish with attendees singing some worship songs.

However one pupil indicated an curiosity in getting baptized immediately, and Mrs. Prewett mentioned Ms. Allen went again on stage and made an enchantment asking if anybody else needed to be baptized. Nearly half of the 5,000 college students within the area then made their solution to the water close by.

Ms. Carr mentioned the response on campus mirrored occasions within the metropolis of Auburn, the place church buildings such because the Auburn Community Church she attends have been packed out with revival crowds.

“It’s not just my church, it’s a lot of the churches in the area,” she mentioned. “They’re having to live stream the services because there’s so many people that want to be at church.”

Jeremy Napier, a pastor who's chaplain for the Auburn basketball workforce, mentioned “entire pledge units of fraternities [have] show up” at native church buildings to worship.

Ms. Carr mentioned the religious awakening “is like the Billy Graham thing of our generation,” a reference to the late evangelist whose citywide conferences throughout the U.S. typically moved massive numbers of individuals to commit religiously to observe Christ.Mrs. Prewett mentioned she believes what occurred at Auburn is barely the start of a nationwide religious motion.

“I do believe that God wants to heal this nation of mental health things, of the bondage that students find themselves in and just kind of the crisis is going on around our nation,” she mentioned. “I believe that that will happen through prayer and through God moving across this nation.”

Of Tuesday’s occasion Mrs. Prewett mentioned, “it started here, but it’s not going to stop here.”

One organizer advised The Washington Times they’ve had calls from ten different colleges asking how these campuses can maintain comparable occasions.

The same religious breakout occurred in February at Asbury University, a personal college in Wilmore, Kentucky. There, courses shut down for 2 weeks as pilgrims from throughout the U.S. and even abroad flocked to the small city to be concerned in a 24/7 prayer assembly.

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