What began as a regularly-scheduled chapel service Feb. 18 at Blue Mountain Christian University turned into the beginning of what some have described as a Holy Spirit-led revival on the campus of the Mississippi Baptist-affiliated school.
“It was a special chapel in the sense that we had ‘preview day’ students on campus,” noted BMCU President Barbara McMillin. “Dr. Tim Mims delivered a message after a rousing time of worship led by our combined chorale and praise team. It was clear during the worship that God’s presence was with us. There was a real sense of expectancy.”
After his message, Mims — assistant professor of biblical studies — encouraged attendees to come to the altar. And they immediately started coming.
“People were praying together, they were praying alone, and when the praise and worship started back up people were singing,” McMillin recalled. “At some point people in the worship team came and went, with people swapping out and playing instruments.
“People were penitent, confessing and seeking out others for reconciliation,” she said. “It was a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit.”
‘Unscripted, unorchestrated’
“My tendency — and it’s part of my nature — is to say, ‘Let’s look at the agenda and get the outline worked out,’” McMillin acknowledged, “but this is God at work, unscripted, unorchestrated by anything we could try to do. That’s just how God is. He outshines anything we could attempt or plan.”
The chapel service began at 10 a.m. and continued into mid-afternoon with more praise, worship and testimony time.
“We indicated to them that the auditorium would be open if they wanted to come,” McMillin said. “There was more testimony and worship Friday night until way into the night; even up until 2 a.m. Saturday night people were meeting in the auditorium, with small groups meeting after that.
“We encouraged students to go and tell, to go to their churches and testify of what God had done in their lives. We hope there will be opportunities for those students to go into their churches and share the word of what God is doing. ”
Jake Capers from Senatobia said, “I’m so thankful for what the Lord has done. Revival is a movement of God in the hearts of His people. It’s not down to this place or any one place. We can take revival with us.”
McMillin related how she had longed to see a movement at BMCU that could only be attributed to the hand of God.
“I see a humility in this generation of students who are, in the words of one student, ‘radically obedient,'” she said. “What a blessing to think there is a generation of students who are pursuing radical obedience.
‘For such a time as this’
“That’s not to give a group of people the credit,” she pointed out, “but there is a submissiveness about this group that is humbling for those of us who are part of the older generation. God is just using this group of people for such a time as this.”
Caleb White from Purdy, Tennessee, noted, “It’s been a difficult time for me the past few weeks, but it’s also been a wonderful time. God has used things with me to help take my eyes off the world and focus on Him, to see His hand of providence.
“I see Him at work in a situation even now and can see how He’s bringing reconciliation,” White said. “He’s using this season in my life to fill me so I can remember this time when it gets tough again.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Tony Martin and originally published by The Baptist Record., news service of The Mississippi Baptist Convention Board.
