Spirit Work: The Student Prayer Movement on Campus
A Rising Movement
Over the past few years, a sizable shift has been occurring on Indiana Wesleyan University’s Marion campus. While prayer has always been a foundational part of the university’s identity, students have become increasingly passionate about intentionally gathering to pray. Speaking about the growth that’s occurred, a variety of students involved in prayer spaces were able to offer their thoughts on the reasons for this current exponentially growing movement.
“Groups can jump from three to ten students in a week,” shared Esperance Mwiza, who currently serves as the student body chaplain of prayer in the Spiritual Formation Office. “It’s catching on like wildfire because God’s at the heart of it.” Mwiza helps facilitate Consecrate the Week, a prayer space dedicated to gathering every week to pray for the coming week. Consecrate the Week started small but has grown to thirty people consistently participating, on average. Having originally started participating in prayer spaces last academic year, she’s been excited to see the prayer movement grow so quickly within the time she’s been involved.
“If there wasn’t the level of commitment people have, these spaces wouldn’t exist. Some people are there every opportunity they can be,” said Sarah Bussen. First becoming involved in prayer spaces at IWU through the university’s involvement with the Awakening Project Conference and the Asbury Outpouring, Bussen was one of many students who wanted to continue building that passion for prayer in their daily lives on campus. While she doesn’t facilitate a prayer group herself, she has been actively involved in them ever since the Asbury Outpouring, during which believers gathered together for sixteen days of spiritual revival many described as the direct work of the Holy Spirit.
Michael Zolman, another current prayer group facilitator like Mwiza, believes the main factors in the movements growth come down to a few key elements. “These prayer groups are run from humility as we acknowledge that they’re led by God, not us. Time after time He shows up in the places where He’s wanted.” Zolman first became involved in prayer groups through a personal invitation from faculty member Dr. John Drury—one of the non-student participants most actively involved in the prayer movement on campus.
Another individual who first became part of the prayer movement through a personal invitation from Dr. Drury is CJ Kelley, facilitator of the Black Student Union small group. Kelley speaks from personal experience when he says that the main element that has led to growth is “Just extending the invitation over and over to people every week.” Since first participating in Consecrate the Week, Kelley has seen himself and numerous other students actively grow stronger in their faith as a result of these groups and spaces—highlighting precisely why this movement is important for the university.
Faculty and Staff Involvement
For Dr. Drury, the biggest shifts he’s noticed regarding prayer at Indiana Wesleyan University—first as a student and now as faculty—have been the steady rise in athletic small groups (many of which were some of the earliest prayer spaces to regularly meet) and the arrival of current Campus Pastor Dr. Andrea Summers. “She was the one talking about awakening, she was the one making connections down at Asbury so that when that outpouring was happening, our students were part of that,” Drury notes.
Although Drury is directly involved with the prayer movement in multiple roles—including leading the Thursday afternoon liturgical worship service Coram Deo, serving as Campus Intercessor, and consistently inviting students towards prayer—much of the groundwork for the current prayer movement was create by Dr. Summers. “Before that it was the lonely work of just a few people,” Drury says, “but Andrea was able to elevate and partner with the groups that already existed, both in athletics and elsewhere, so things could continue growing.” Current athletics leadership member Dalton Miller and Discipleship Pastor Spencer Loman are two other individuals Drury notes as being especially helpful in fostering student prayer spaces, both of whom are also directly connected to Summers and the Spiritual Formation Office.
That said, Drury also emphasized the importance of students’ roles in creating the prayer spaces that now exist. “A lot of what’s going on was started by the students, and then I and others guide where we can and provide continuity, because students come and go. My place is to be an anchor over time and hand things on from one generation of students to the next.”
Impact on Students
For the students involved in prayer spaces, these gatherings have been profoundly impactful, with both quiet times of peace and moments of clear Holy Spirit work. One student shared about prayers in the consecration room for students to be led to that evening’s chapel service occurring directly before she and others found themselves supernaturally drawn to attend the event. Another student remembers a time when someone praying in their native language was followed by a student who only spoke English praying something that directly connected to the previous prayer. Even beyond these moments, the growing desire to worship blossoming in students across campus is something that still others point to as a direct result of the Holy Spirit moving across campus.
Challenges
Although the Prayer Movement on campus has been overwhelmingly positive, with continued growth come new challenges. “The first is the temptation toward power,” Drury shared. “When it was more secret it was inviting humility, whereas now there’s a degree of pride that can creep in and that’s something I have to watch out for, including in myself, and in the way we move forward. The second is how varieties of faith expression complexify the matter. When we’re in a time of open prayer, sometimes people express themselves in ways that are familiar to their experience of faith but not to others, and that can create excitement but sometimes it creates discomfort and confusion, so that’s something that requires discernment, patience, and wisdom. The third thing is just structure. It’s been difficult to adjust to having these spaces with a degree of looseness to them. I’m biased towards structure, but I’m learning to hold that lighter.”
Place in Wesleyan Tradition
John Wesley, namesake of The Wesleyan Church, was well known to have spent a lot of time in prayer, with the floorboards where he often knelt to pray having visible indentations. When it comes to this spirit of prayer, those involved in the prayer movement on campus hope that they are reflecting a similar dedication to prayer and presenting scripture in God-glorifying ways.
“Awakening has always been a deeply Wesleyan thing and was a central piece of what the Wesley brothers and George Whitfield did,” Drury noted. “It wasn’t just about stirring people up, but actually getting them organized in groups where they could encourage each other and push each other to grow. That’s the vision Andrea has had for small groups and prayer on campus.” Students expressed similar sentiments, emphasizing the importance of leaning on God in small communities with other believers. For those facilitating prayer groups, they also expressed wanting to make sure their role was clearly one of facilitation and not leadership over others.
Looking to the Future
As they look ahead to the rest of their time at IWU and beyond, each student expressed hopes for the future of IWU’s prayer movement. Bussen and Zolman expressed wanting to see prayer spaces continue expanding to every student across campus. “Both at IWU and beyond, I hope people will gain confidence to share their faith with others and be bold in their faith and prayer language,” Kelley shared.
“My hope is that when people leave this space, there are others who can carry on, and those who leave can take this same spirit with them into the places they go,” Mwiza shared.
As the prayer movement at IWU continues to build, students, faculty, and staff are excited to see how the Holy Spirit’s work on campus continues to grow. Prayer has always been a foundational part of the university’s identity, but increasingly it’s a part of every student’s personal identity.
