By Alex Murashko

A national group of college ministry leaders hope that history is repeated during a movement of prayer for universities and students culminating during the Collegiate Day of Prayer on February 23. 

Inspired by college student revivals that began in America two centuries ago and the prayer movement that sustained them, these leaders believe that “God can do it again” and rhetorically ask, “Why not?”

“The dream or goal is not to simply have a day of prayer,” leader Thai Lam told Think Eternity. “However, the goal is that we would get God's heart for the next generation of students on college campuses.”

Lam said the organizers’ goal is to cover, in prayer, 4,300 college and university campuses and 20 million students. They are calling on churches, congregations, and ministries to adopt a local campus. 

While current studies on the pulse of faith in God on college campuses are sparse, students are less interested in seeking God. according to statistics published a few years ago.

“There's so many statistics that say students are walking away from their faith in their college years and there's a lot of statistics that are dire,” Lam said, “My faith is that God is bigger than the statistics. As we get believers across America uniting in prayer for 20 million students, what might God do? We want to see God break in.”

Leaders from the Collegiate Day of Prayer have studied revivals of the past and give a bit of the history on their website. 

“Two hundred years ago in 1823, nearly every major denomination and university across America united in prayer for our nation’s college students,” leaders state. “Campuses were being radically transformed by powerful seasons of spiritual awakening. Today, churches and campuses across America are once again uniting in prayer for the next generation on college campuses.”

The Collegiate Day of Prayer originated as the “Concert of Prayer for Colleges,” Lam said. It was a look back on the history of American churches and their relationship to universities that inspired leaders at a meeting 15 years ago to restart the day of prayer for colleges.

“That generation witnessed this move of God amongst the young adults, 18- to 22-year-olds, on the campuses of that day,” Lam said. “Their prayer was that God would do it again in the next generation.”

On the group’s website, organizers state:

The early records of many of our best universities read like a virtual history of spiritual revival. In fact, no other nation has ever enjoyed as many student awakenings for as many consecutive years as the United States of America. Some of the first reports of these student revivals emerged during the First Great Awakening in the eighteenth century. However, it was the Second Great Awakening (1790-1845) that produced our most powerful student revivals and the prayer movement that sustained them. 

This outpouring of grace was the fruit of the renewed monthly Concerts of Prayer in the mid 1780s. The awakening began in the Northeast in the early 1790s and then spread to the western frontier by 1800. It continued to touch almost every corner of our nation into the mid 1840s. For literally half a century America experienced genuine revival in one part of our nation or another.

As the Students Go, So Goes the Nation

During this extended season of revival, church leaders began to apply the proven principles of the Concert of Prayer movement to the needs of college students. By 1815, the Concert of Prayer for Colleges had become a regular feature on the New England campuses of Yale, Williams, Brown and Middlebury. 

By 1823, almost every major denomination and university in America had embraced the practice of a concerted day of prayer for colleges. 

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.

A Heart for College Students

Lam told Think Eternity that his heart for college students to know Jesus began when he was a student at Berkeley. He started his journey as a Christ follower while attending Bible studies and a Christian spring break retreat. 

“My season as a student at Berkeley was very spiritually formative,” he said. “It was like my best missions training, happening in a secular, humanistic culture where following Jesus was quite uncouth. It was a culture of ‘tolerance,’ but not so much towards those who believed in absolute truth and had a desire to claim Jesus and His word.”

Lam added, “I felt a real burden for my campus. I really desired to see that what God did in my life would happen to so many others. So, that launched me into collegiate ministry.”

He explains that the prayer movement for colleges that relaunched through a meeting of ministry leaders in 2009 is about seeing God’s kingdom advance on campuses.

“If we want to see His kingdom advance on these campuses, it’s going to be because of local churches and local believers praying for God and the Gospel to advance on these campuses,” Lam said. “We pray for the Lord to open the eyes of students to the knowledge of who He is.”

Learn more at Collegiate Day of Prayer.

Alex Murashko is a lead writer for Thinke. He highlights Christ followers within the media industry at Media on Mission. Find Murashko on various social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram.