A Texas youth pastor says an outpouring of revival is taking place among college students at Texas A&M Corpus Christi and it shows “no signs of slowing down” as hundreds have already given their lives to Jesus and others are getting water baptized almost daily.
Tarik Whitmore, the young adult pastor at New Life Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, told CBN News he is seeing a movement among college students who are getting saved and then boldly proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ with the student body.
The result is a campus being transformed for Jesus – and it is happening quickly.
“In the spring of 22, we started to see people preaching in their small groups – people invite their friends who don’t know the Lord to their small groups. And instead of the small group being a Bible study, they would have someone get up and preach and every time it would happen one or two kids would give their lives to the Lord,” he said.
Whitmore says for that entire spring semester he was opening the church late at night to baptize students.
“I didn’t do anything or minister in any way. I’m just the guy with the keys at that point,” he shared.
The Texas A&M Corpus Christi alum says for more than a year, students have been coming, almost weekly, to get baptized.
As CBN News reported, at one point Michael Fehlauer, the lead pastor of the New Life Church posted videos to social media that showed students baptizing their friends in a public fountain at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
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Whitmore says many of these young adults are having their lives “radically changed” and are simply sharing with their friends what God has done.
“We are seeing these people repent from compromise and make a decision to make a public declaration of, ‘No, I want to give my whole life to Jesus starting today.’ And then we see them radically transformed before our eyes where their lifestyle is radically different [and] [they have] boldness to preach the Gospel to their friends like never before,” said Whitmore.
The young adult pastor believes the heart change is genuine saying, “The culture of holiness has really been remarkable among these young people. They are living in purity and righteousness even at this secular university.”
And it’s igniting a powerful spiritual movement on the campus.
In August, Life Church held its annual outreach at the school and roughly 1,000 students showed up to pray, worship, and learn more about Jesus.
Approximately 124 of those students answered the call to salvation and decided to be water-baptized.
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“Literally we preached the message and then for the next hour and a half we just had the worship team play because we spent the whole time baptizing people,” Whitmore recalled.
Whitmore says students are gathering in college dorms, apartments, and homes to share about Jesus.
“We’ve had about 21 small group gatherings [and] young adult life groups. And I think the smallest one is 20 people and the largest one is 90 people. So over 400 [people] in these small group gatherings since Labor Day,” he told CBN News. “People are inviting their friends and saying, ‘Something is happening. You need to come and see.'”
Whitmore also shared that they have seen 21 more baptisms since Labor Day.
“Small group leaders are literally going and buying horse troughs because it is no longer feasible to reach out to me to unlock the church because it is happening too frequently across multiple groups, per night now,” he said.
“It is showing no signs of slowing down,” he added.
Whitmore says 240 people showed up at a gathering at Life Church Thursday night and five students were baptized.
“It just keeps happening,” he shared.
“I’m very hesitant to use the word revival, but I’m to the point where I don’t know what else to call it, especially in light of what is happening around our nation at multiple other college campuses. It really does seem like a nationwide move of God is taking place and we just get to be part of it.”
Whitmore tells CBN News that he and the leaders at Life Church have been praying for a movement to break out on the school’s campus since 2015, but he doesn’t take credit for what is happening because he knows it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
“The heavy lifting is done in prayer,” he explained.
“One of the things we prayed for was Lord to give us 10 percent of that university… [or] a tithe of that university. And this past year to see 10 percent of the university be touched by what God has done through our church to the young people…is really mind-blowing. It’s been overwhelming,” he expressed.
Whitmore says Gen Z is not interested in a “palatable” or “cultural-relevant” Christianity, but instead, they are looking for answers.
“I think there is a shift and I think there is an increase in hunger and I think what we’ve seen is people be drawn to an authentic expression of Biblical Christianity. There is an expression of power that has been incredibly attractive to kids of all backgrounds,” he explained. “I think Gen Z is hungry for something real and authentic, regardless of what package it comes in.”
Whitmore added, “The more simple and more unapologetic we’ve been about worship, about preaching the Gospel, about praying, and the laying on of hands, we’ve seen our influence increase, and that tells me there is a genuine hunger for something authentic.”
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