The spring’s social media and news channel images of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel disruption and violence on many college campuses were real. The danger, particularly for Jewish students, remains real. But something else is happening that isn’t covered by traditional media: revival. And it’s happening on some of the very campuses where the unrest has occurred – the Ivy League schools.
In New York City, Columbia University was seen as the epicenter of campus protests. It was the site of a sprawling encampment through April and May, a village of green tents emulated across the nation. Protests continued at the beginning of this school year.
Before Jewish hate reached full bloom at Columbia, seeds in a search for the peace of Jesus Christ were sown at another Ivy not far away – Yale in New Haven, Connecticut.
In recent months, reports of thousands gathering on campuses in Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Ohio and elsewhere have been shared on social media. The Ivies, though, are for from the Bible Belt and may represent a greater challenge. They’re also where Carter Conlon has felt a great call. He believes God is trying to gain the attention of America.
“Oh, I believe so. Absolutely. We’re seeing scripture fulfilled right before our eyes. As we sit here today, Israel is being surrounded by armies. We know scripture talks about this day happening, and it’s almost stunning that we’re alive at this time to see what I believe might be the precursor of the second coming of Christ. It’s an amazing generation to be alive right now,” he said on Washington Watch Thursday.
Conlon is the general overseer of New York’s Times Square Church. He told show host Tony Perkins the church’s Wednesday night prayer service has gained a worldwide following.
In early 2023, a student ministry director at Yale contacted Conlon and asked if he’d be willing to lead the service from Yale’s campus. “That’s where it all began,” Conlon shared – but it's not where it ended.
Just a starting point
“We were invited back a second year … and in that second year, representatives were sent by bus and by van from up to five or six other Ivy League schools. They prayed for their schools in succession, and these young people – it was cold, and it was raining – these young people stood for 2-½ hours in the rain to pray … Ivy League students, so desperate for God, and they prayed phenomenal prayers,” Conlon recalled.
Students prayed for forgiveness of “intellectual arrogance” and for thinking they could live lives without Him. “Nobody left,” Conlon emphasized. “They stayed in the ran for 2-½ hours to pray.”
The church service has returned to Yale and has been on campus at Princeton and Cornell. “We have inquiries from at least five other Ivy League schools,” Conlon added.
A quick AI-generated web search of Christian speakers on Ivy League campuses came back with, “There is no direct mention of Christian speakers attracting crowds on Ivy League campuses in 2024.”
Those search results, however, do highlight controversies and turmoil on Ivy League campuses with debates about the protests, antisemitism, affirmative action and legacy admissions. Yet students so impacted by mass instant communication – which seems largely unaware of Christian gatherings – are finding the message.
“We haven’t promoted anything. We haven’t approached any college," Conlon shared. "It’s really just God, and the young people are seeing it online. Many of them came to the Yale event last year and said We want this in our schools. More than this, we want this in our lives.”
The initial Yale visit has grown into regular student-led meetings of prayer and praise.
“At sunrise almost every morning at Yale right now dozens of students are out in the public square that everybody has to pass by. They’re just giving God glory, and they’re singing and praying,” Conlon said.
Remembering the 1960s
He compared the movement at Ivy League schools and other campuses to student revivals in the 1960s. In that light, he urges the Church, and all churches, to be prepared to respond to an inquisitive crowd of young people searching for more than they’ve been taught in classrooms.
“Young people are going to come into the kingdom of God with a lot of questions, a lot of opinions, a lot of things they’ve learned which may not be true," Conlon said. "So, we’re going to have to have a lot of patience and discipleship because they have opinions. They’ve been infused with things that may not be in line with biblical thinking.
"They’re not prone to sitting without an opinion,” he concluded.
