When the chapel service at Asbury University ended on February 8, a small group of students stayed behind to pray. That began a Spirit-inspired, student-led revival that is still going as I write these words in late February. Other Christian schools, including Assemblies of God schools, are now experiencing similar moves of God.

To some outside observers, what is happening at Asbury doesn’t look like how God moved in their own experiences. This reminds me of a story I heard about a woman in one of our churches.

She was a Christian whose husband did not follow the Lord. As a matter of fact, he did all he could to hinder her church attendance and involvement with Christian friends.

Consequently, she became the object of both sympathy and prayer from the members of her church. They all joined her in praying for the salvation of her husband.

Then it happened! After years of prayers, her husband showed up at another church in response to an invitation from his friend. During that service, he committed his life to Jesus. It was real. He was saved!

That’s where the story takes an unexpected turn. His conversion did not come the way his wife thought it would. He found Jesus through a church she was not familiar with. He then wanted her to come to church with him and meet his new friends.

Does the Church that has learned to live in a post-Christian America really have what it takes to be the Church God needs in revival?

All the while, the woman had been hoping her husband would come and meet her lifelong friends and learn her worship styles. What’s more, her husband’s excitement about his newfound relationship with Jesus caused him to want to go to church all the time.

Before the man was saved, he tried to talk his wife out of attending church. At times, she used his pestering as an excuse to stay home.

After his conversion, however, she found it hard to adjust to their new life together. She missed the sympathy from friends, as well as the occasional excuse to stay home.

His salvation was her only prayer. What would she pray for now? She did not know his life change would require so much change from her.

Many Christians have been praying for revival. I don’t know whether what is happening on American campuses is the revival they’ve been praying for. I do know we, like the woman in the story, have learned to sympathize with one another because we have had to live in an anti-Christian society that needs revival.

And we have sometimes used our sin-filled society as an excuse to avoid some Christian or Bible-related things we never really wanted to do anyway. We have learned to live in need of revival but may have no idea how to live our Christian life if one really comes.

Then, when it comes, if it doesn’t start in our church or denomination, what will we do? What could God be thinking? What if it doesn’t look like I thought it would or come the way I thought it would? What if it doesn’t come in a way to prove to the world and the church I am the perfect Christian, with the perfect doctrine, and the best worship style?

What if it doesn’t change everyone else and leave me alone? It could require me — not just others — to make major changes. Maybe we should pray not only for revival, but also for the church to be able to embrace it.

We are all glad so many are repenting and seeking God. Like the wife, we are glad for all who are going to heaven. But some of us old saints will no longer like the American church after it has shifted to make room for all these new, untrained believers. Some may even fight against the church when God uses it to answer their prayer for revival.

My question is, does the Church that has learned to live in a post-Christian America really have what it takes to be the Church God needs in revival? Will God need a new wineskin (Matthew 9:17) to answer our prayer for another great awakening? Or can we be it?

Maybe we should pray for the Church as passionately as we pray for our nation!