I hadn’t written about a key backstory to the February outpouring at Asbury because I hadn’t known it. But racial justice was an important element in the events leading up to the outpouring. I did mention the dream I had a few years earlier, where surmounting racial prejudice would be a key test of the genuineness of the revival that God would send. But I didn’t know about the event that preceded the general outpouring by one day. (And those involved were too humble to tell me if I didn’t ask!)
February is Black History Month in the United States. Kevin Brown, president of Asbury University, and a local pastor were leading a large reading group at the university. On February 7, 2023, Jesus followers from diverse ethnic backgrounds were giving readings from the Jessamine County archives—from slaveholders’ wills. Hearing the actual sales of slaves highlighted the injustice and suffering that happened right here. At least one descendant of those local slaves, Ben Black, was in the room.
Georges Dumaine was part of the university’s gospel choir but not aware of the reading group. He got a call from Ben Black noting that someone who had been scheduled to sing the Black National Anthem for the event had to cancel. Ben therefore asked Georges to come sing it instead. “When do you need me there?” Georges asked. “In about twenty minutes,” came the reply.
James Weldon Johnson, author of the Black National Anthem (Lift Every Voice and Sing), saturated the song with biblical allusions, pointing to the true place of restoration. Although Georges experienced a regular sense of God’s presence over the years, as he sang this anthem he experienced God’s Spirit more dramatically than he had in twenty-five years. Despite attempts to hold back his emotion, weeping wracked his frame for the next thirty to forty minutes as he was overwhelmed with the sense of God’s holiness. He felt God declaring that God had listened to the reading; the suffering of these slaves mattered to him.
That night at the gospel choir rehearsal they prayed, as they and others often did, for revival to revisit the campus. The next morning, he and Lena Marlowe (whom I mentioned in earlier posts about the outpouring) were scheduled to sing Mighty One. As they sang, Georges began to feel the same overwhelming sense of the Spirit he had experienced the preceding day, and he struggled to restrain himself; losing it in front of 1500 students there for a mandatory chapel seemed more a breach of propriety than losing it in front of 80 people the day before.
As the service closed, however, the gospel choir sang again, this time the song called The Goodness of God. Now God’s presence was palpable, and they again sang Mighty One, this time for perhaps thirty to forty minutes, just seeking to minister to the Lord, as Ben Black played on the piano. So immersed were they in worship that they lost track of time. When Ben’s wife Madeline finally insisted that Georges drink some water, he was surprised to learn that it was now 10 pm. They had been caught up in worship.
As we now know, the worship (along with some preaching, testimonies and other elements) continued for more than two weeks. It seems no coincidence, though, that February 8 followed February 7—as Christians in this community gathered to acknowledge and repent for racial injustices. God cares about those slaves sold over 100 years ago, just like God cared about the cries of generations of slaves in Egypt (Exod 2:23). God longs to bless his people. Sometimes, it may be turning a blind eye to our heritage of sin keeps us from experiencing his heart for us. Humbling ourselves to acknowledge and turn from wrongs committed opens us up to God’s mercy.
