‘Revival Is Here’: 7,000 Students Pack Grand Canyon University Arena to Worship Jesus
Michael Foust
Audio By Carbonatix
By Michael Foust, Crosswalk.com
Thousands of college students rededicated their lives to Christ at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz., on Tuesday during a worship service led by speakers such as Jonathan Pokluda and Forrest Frank, who urged students to cast aside all worldly desires and surrender their lives fully to God.
The service was the latest event hosted by the Unite US movement, which has visited more than 15 college campuses over the past two years in what its leaders describe as clear evidence of a spiritual awakening among young people.
The Grand Canyon University event drew 7,000 college students inside Global Credit Union Arena – the school’s basketball venue – where 4,300 rededicated their lives to Christ and 251 were baptized at a portable pool outside the arena afterward.
Frank, one of the most popular Christian artists among young people, urged students to “fully surrender to God” and to tell Him, “You can have it all.”
“You can have my reputation. You can have all my plans. I gave everything to Jesus. I laid everything at the altar. I said, you can have it,” Frank said as he shared his testimony.
Tonya Prewett, founder and visionary of Unite US, encouraged students to live with eternal purpose.
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“Do not waste one single minute of your life. Give your life to Jesus. Go all in,” she said.
Grand Canyon University is a private Christian school, although it accepts non-Christian students, too.
It wasn’t the first such Unite US event this fall. In September alone, 8,000 college students attended similar services at the University of Tennessee, 7,000 at the University of South Florida and 9,000 at the University of Oklahoma.
The first Unite US was held at Auburn University in 2023.
“It was a move of God,” the official Unite US Instagram account said of the Grand Canyon University gathering. “We saw lives changed, hearts surrendered, and students encounter Jesus in powerful ways. If last night was any glimpse of what’s coming, revival is here.”
Prewett told Fox News she believes what’s happening on campuses is part of a larger move of God among Gen Z.
“Students right now are so hungry for truth and for hope,” she said, “and I think they've looked for it in every other place, and they're realizing that the only truth and hope that they need is found in Jesus Christ.”
Photo Credit: Unite US
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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