Auburn revival sees hundreds of students spontaneously baptized after thousands attend on-campus worship service

Hundreds of Auburn students were baptized spontaneously after a worship event, the second such revival to happen this year as a Christian awakening at the school grows. 

In a similar event in August, several Auburn basketball players and team staff members on a trip to Israel were baptized in the Jordan River, reported Yellowhammer News.  

Students gathered this week at what’s known as the university’s “Red Barn,” an agricultural facility with a large pond suitable for mass baptism, where hundreds took the plunge for Christ, according to local KSFA News 12.   

“I’ve seen Auburn basketball beat Kentucky, I’ve seen Auburn football beat Alabama, but I have never seen something like I did on Tuesday night,” Auburn University senior Michael Floyd told KFSA.  

The baptisms followed a worship service attended by thousands of students at Neville Arena, the college’s basketball stadium, said the local Plainsman.  

“I’ve been a part of just planning this event and man, the Lord just took it from there and we ended up at the Red Barn,” Jeremy Napier, the chaplain for the Auburn men’s basketball team, told the Plainsman. “It was not planned at all. I think this was a spontaneous decision at the very end where we just said ‘let’s go for it.’” 

KFSA reports that it all started when one student at Neville Arena told a pastor she wanted to be baptized.  

Because there was no tub sufficient to baptize her, they ended up at the pond at the Red Barn. 

At the pond, students were baptized by the tens and 20s.  

KFSA said football coach Hugh Freeze even took part in the baptisms in the water.  

Video at AL.com shows Coach Freeze baptizing Auburn freshman football safety Sylvester Smith.  

Videos of the event were also shared on Instagram by New York Times best-selling author and Christian evangelist Jennie Allen.

Allen said she had just finished giving a message at the Auburn worship event when a student texted a pastor, wanting to be baptized.

“So I went back on stage and asked if anyone else wanted to trust Christ and be baptized,” Allen wrote. “Dozens raised their hands. So thousands of students left the arena and walked to a lake and a red barn a mile away.”

The worship event, prior to the baptisms, was promoted by Freeze and basketball coach Bruce Pearl, reported Todd Starnes. 

Videos posted online about the event have gone viral.  

“A revival is happening tonight in Auburn. People are getting baptized at Red Barn with hundreds of people cheering them on,” wrote Auburn journalism major Kristen Carr, who is editor of the Plainsman. “The baptisms started following an event at Neville arena tonight called Unite.”

Tonya Prewett, who was responsible for the worship event at the arena, said it grew out of a gathering of just five girls who met previously at the basketball stadium to pray.

Over time, it grew larger and larger.

“[Local ministries] said we want to get behind this, we want to see this turn into something much bigger,” Prewett told KSFA. “We see God moving in our local churches, and so last night was just a ripple effect of what is already going on.”

It’s a ripple effect that’s may be turning into a wave.

Image credit: @TheMichaelFloyd.