The following is an excerpt from my book Campus Renewal – A Practical Plan to Unite Campus Ministries in Prayer and Evangelism.
For a long time, prayer in our campus ministries was relegated to a weekly meeting that often consisted of 55 minutes of talking followed by 5 minutes of prayer.
The prayer meeting was the smallest corporate gathering within each ministry and was usually led by one student who had the conviction to pray but was not fully supported by his or her campus minister.
Rarely was prayer incorporated into the DNA of the ministry to the extent that prayer became a significant part of every gathering. Few ministries had times of extended prayer like a corporate fast or an entire night devoted to prayer. Now, however, these are commonplace.
Hunger For Prayer On Campuses
Never before has there been as many students praying for their campuses as there are today. In February 2010, nearly 200 campuses participated in the Collegiate Day of Prayer, each having some sort of united prayer gathering on their campus. Thousands of students have been impacted by the ministry of Campus Renewal Ministries, the International House of Prayer, Campus America, The Call, and Passion, each in their own unique way calling students to united prayer for awakening on their campuses.
Many campuses now have campus houses of prayer where students from various ministries come to pray day and night. There are weekly united prayer times for students and campus ministers, when people from a variety of ministries come together to pray for awakening on their campuses.
A number of ministries regularly promote seasons of prayer and fasting, making prayer a part of their corporate identity, even building prayer events into their calendars. Students are not praying out of guilt or obligation. Rather, there is a hunger for more of God and a faith in God to do something great on their campuses. Hunger is what compels them to pray.
Prayer Is Revival
This prayer movement is not unlike that of those who have gone before us and experienced campus awakening. As revival historian J. Edwin Orr famously said, “When God wants to bring revival, He always sets His people praying.” This should give us great hope for our campuses. Students and ministers are uniting in prayer like never before.