Revive us: Students begin their own revolution of Grace
Collective effervescence is the sensation of a group of people mindfully gathering together and thinking, feeling, and experiencing similar emotions and truths. While this might sound incredibly “new age” and strange, every Christian understands, or at least is conscious of, the feeling of collective effervescence. It is, essentially, the product of the Holy Spirit’s movement and work.
Church offers a spiritually supportive and encouraging community and Bible studies and devotionals can provide a personal and intimate relationship with the Lord, but this powerful sense of collective effervescence: feeling the active presence of the Holy Spirit in a room, can be scarce, yet this feeling is exactly what Revive aims to bring to students here.
Revive is an environment and community that meets once a month in rooms 204 & 205 through which the Holy Spirit can move and do its work. Or as junior and co-founder of Revive, Elijah Cavanaugh, put it: “Revive is us allowing God to reignite the fire in our hearts for him.”
Revive has featured student speakers such as Sophomore Isaiah Cavanaugh, Senior James Walsh, Juniors Jayci and Jaydin Campbell, Junior Aaron Shipley, and Junior Trey Garcia sharing their testimonies, speaking on passages, and encouraging their fellow students.
Worship is student led as well, featuring jack-of-all-trades musician Benja Daniel who helps, and is a junior from Arlington High School, Isaiah Cavanaugh on percussion, and Melody Burris and Sarah Peck singing.
Revive was founded by Kinney, Elijah, and Isaiah.
“[It started] during the time after the Focus weekend, we were listening to people speak about their experiences, and I wasn’t particularly paying attention and the Lord told me as clear as day: ‘you need to start something at Grace Prep, call it Revive because there needs to be a revival at Grace,’” said Senior Lauren Kinney, on the conception of the idea of Revive.
“I wasn’t sure who I would start it with, but when I looked around, I saw the Cavanaughs sitting next to me,” said Kinney, “so I talked to them later and we decided we needed to start it as soon as possible.”
Not wasting any time, “we met at 8 am the next morning at Chic-fil-a, and then on Tuesday we met with Phil,” said Kinney. “Mr. Smith was 100% for it,” said Elijah, “[so afterwards,] Lauren talked to teachers while Isaiah and I focused on the organization of students.”
Soon, they held their first Revive during lunch to a packed house. Nearly every high school student attended.
“The first Revive went pretty good,” said Elijah. “We discovered it wasn’t a good idea to start worship while everyone had food,” he added with a laugh. “We had a packed room, which was incredibly encouraging. The attendance was assurance of God’s hand over Revive.”
“God has provided money to feed everyone who comes,” said Kinney, “loaves and fish.”
The future of Revive is bright, as the Lord is opening doors such as the new ROAR schedule next year.
“The specific scheduling is not yet worked out, but all student organizations will have opportunities to meet during ROAR throughout the week,” said Mr. Smith about the new class schedule, adding that “the idea is to keep the lunch period just for lunch.” This will allow Revive to meet as often as once a week or every two weeks.
