America’s First Collegiate Prayer Movement in 1823
By David Smithers
The Concert of Prayer Movement revolutionized the role of prayer in the life of the local church forever. Never before had so many different kinds of Christians prayed together at the same time in such large numbers. All across America pastors and elders were learning how to organize weekly and monthly prayer meetings for the very first time. The Concert of Prayer literally changed the face of corporate prayer in a single generation. Soon the fires of revival were burning in America.
The Concert of Prayer was the fruit of the 1st Great Awakening, and a forerunner of the 2nd Great Awakening, but it was also a major catalyst to the Great Century of missions (1792-1910).
When the Second Great Awakening started around 1790 to 1792, it began in the communities most willing to humble themselves and pray. The revival then impacted many of the Ivy League Colleges and then swept across the whole eastern seaboard. This mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit lasted for over fifty years. From approximately 1792 to 1845, spiritual revivals repeatedly occurred in one part of our nation or another.
One of the places that the 2nd Great Awakening left its deepest mark in our nation was on our colleges and universities. The early records of many of our best universities read like a virtual history book of spiritual revival. In fact, no other nation has ever enjoyed as many student awakenings for as many consecutive years as the United States of America. The source of these repeated college revivals can be easily traced to the renewed Concerts of Prayer. When concerns were raised about the future leadership of America, churches quickly turned to the proven power of the Concert of Prayer movement.
By 1815 the Concert of Prayer for Colleges had become a regular feature on the New England campuses of Yale, Williams, Brown and Middlebury. By 1823 almost every major denomination and university in America had embraced the practice of a concerted day of prayer for colleges. All the universities in America at this time had been founded through the Church and therefore were expected to supply the next generation of evangelical leaders. They believed that the direction of their churches and that of the whole nation would soon follow the spiritual bent and character of America’s college students — as the students go, so goes the nation. It was this kind of farseeing perspective that moved the American Church to firmly establish a national day of prayer for colleges.
Henry C. Fish in his Handbook of Revivals confirms the wisdom and success of this special day of prayer for college students. He says, “In the year 1823 the last Thursday of February in each year was agreed upon as the day for special supplication that God would pour from on high His Spirit upon our Colleges and Seminaries. And what have been some of the results? In the years 1824 and 1825 revivals were experienced in five different Colleges; in 1826 in six Colleges; in 1831 in nineteen...In one of the Colleges it is stated that a revival started on the very day of the concert of prayer. In 1835, not less than eighteen revivals were reported by different colleges.”
By the end of the nineteenth century, these repeated student awakenings had radically transformed the culture and moral climate of many of our largest universities. As a result many of America’s ministers at this time were encouraging their congregations to send their children to college, if they wanted to see them safe and soundly converted.
February 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of the Collegiate Day of Prayer. It is a moment to pause and remember the fruit of this historic prayer movement in our nation – when the Concert of Prayer revolutionized corporate prayer as we know it today. Not only did it radically redefine the power and potential of what is possible when believers pray together, it turned whole nations back to God and rescued them from judgment and certain destruction. It reunited tens of thousands of believers with God and with one another. It mobilized a generation of new spiritual leaders, restored the broken dreams of countless weary ministers, and ushered in the Kingdom of God among the forgotten and unreached. Most importantly, it exalted Jesus Christ as the only King and Savior worthy to be worshiped and obeyed.
This generation desperately needs your prayers like never before. There’s never been a greater need for true revival and awakening than there is today. God is calling us back to the ancient paths of our fathers. The needs of this generation demand a response. Will we answer the call to believe and pray?
On the last Thursday of February, we want to invite you to adopt 3+ college campuses in prayer:
One that is near to your heart (alma mater, where your kids go, etc.)
One that is near to your home
An unengaged campus with no ministry presence.
Adopt Campuses at collegiatedayofprayer.org
