“It is time for this generation in Europe to come together and seek God’s face with a holy defiance that God is not done with Europe yet”.

This is the conviction of the Revive Europe movement, which has announced that the ‘Revive Conference 24’ will happen from 28 December to 1 January in the Tauron Arena of Krakow (Poland).

The theme will be “Prepare the Way for the Lord” and the expected 3,000 participants from all European nations and from other regions in the world will “dive into the lives of Elijah and John the Baptist”. Sarah Breuel, Revive Europe’s director, told Evangelical Focus this is “truly our heart cry”.

Registrations before the end of 2023 are available with a discounted price.

A movement that multiplies in Europe

The movement “to pursue revival among university students in Europe” has been growing throughout 2023.

The vision remains the same: “We want to see a Move of God among university students and young adults in Europe. We want students to be equipped in evangelism dealing with apologetics questions of our time, and also filled with zeal to prayer and boldness that only the Holy Spirit can give to be witnesses”.

After the last conference at the end of 2022, Revive Europe became an independent organisation, which has grown to have 20 staff workers (some full time and some part time).

Three ‘Revive Our Hearts’ retreats were held in 2023, in Norway, Switzerland and the UK, where students set aside days to “pursue personal revival”.

In 2024, a “Prepare the Way” tour is planned in various cities in Europe, “calling students and young adults to repentance, consecration, and boldness in evangelism. We believe this is an early seed of a Move of God, and trusting God to be an unstoppable move one day”.

Learning from what God is doing elsewhere

“Only 5 weeks after the Revive 2022 conference happened, the Asbury outpouring broke out. Some of the Revive leadership had the deep privilege of going there in person and seeing firsthand what God was doing”, Sarah Breuel told Evangelical Focus. “Once you have seen what a Move of God can taste like, you simply cannot unsee it!”

Some of the people involved in the Asbury movement joined a gathering of Revive Europe in Herrnhut (Germany), the birthplace of the Moravian revival in the 18th century. “The Revive team became close friends with the humble leaders who were stewarding what God was doing in Asbury. The Asbury leaders crossed the ocean to join us this last September as we took a group of students to Hernhutt”.

Breuel points to gatherings happening every 2 months in London, with 1,000 students and young adults for all night prayers for revival. Or to how the 24/7 prayer Movement has been pressing into prayer for revival in Europe “with great fervor”. Also “the hunger among young adults in Norway after the The Send conference this year has been something I have rarely seen in Europe before”, she says.

Why does Europe need a revival?

The question, for those involved in the Revive Europe movement, is whether the continent is “post-Christian or pre-revival”. 

“Tim Keller described revival as ‘sleepy Christians waking up, nominal Christians being converted, and hard to reach being dramatically brought to faith’. We are so hungry to see God do that among university students in our continent, who are the future leaders of churches and of society”.

“The Jesus Movement in the 70s had a lasting impact in that generation. The Welsh revival in 1904 touched not only that nation, but even South Korea, on the other side of the world, and that was 120 years ago. If revival breaks out anywhere in the world today, with the way that this generation is connected through flights, technology and social media, it will go global”.

Breuel concludes: “We rejoice with how God is moving in Africa, China and Latin America. At the same time, we don’t want educated university students in Europe to miss what God has in our generation. We want them to play their part, and transform our continent. For this reason, we ask God to do what He alone can do: Revive Europe”.