WASHINGTON, D.C. – Echoes of praise filled the halls of the famed Kennedy Center Wednesday night with a performance from Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Tasha Cobbs Leonard as spectators came from across the country to celebrate not just a film…but a movement.
“To see a window into what God is doing, I just start crying,” said best-selling author Lisa Bevere.
“The revival generation is here! As a young woman, I prayed for it, and now as an old lady with the young people, we’re in the middle of it, and I’m excited,” activist Alveda King told CBN News.
The documentary from director Laura Hand tells the story of Tonya Prewett, a mother on a mission to bring peace and the love of Jesus to young people, one campus at a time.
“I started getting contacted from students all over the nation, saying, ‘We’re desperate, our friends are committing suicide, would you bring Unite to our campus?’ We’ve just been trying to keep up. We’ve been to 17 campuses, we’ve seen over 100,000 students gather, over 15,000 give their lives to Jesus,” Prewett said.
The explosion of student-led baptisms and prayer caught the eye of CBN film producers Abigail Robertson and Cally Everett.
“In January, we called Tonya and said, ‘Would you allow us to follow your story,’ and she was very excited and said, ‘The Lord told me that this summer I would have a film released,’ and I said, ‘Great, here we are!'” Everett recalled.
Robertson adds that everything about the project, down to its red-carpet debut, was rooted in providence.
“I was driving home one night and drove by the Kennedy Center and felt this strong impression from the Holy Spirit, ‘I want my premiere there.’ And I audibly said ‘no way’ so I prayed about it for three hours,” said Robertson.
That prayer was answered.
Kennedy Center Vice President of Public Relations Roma Daravi says the organization is now making it a priority to put faith front and center.
“America is a Judeo-Christian nation, and at our very roots is where we find our faith. There is absolutely no reason why faith-based programming shouldn’t be a large part of what we’re doing here at the Kennedy Center,” Daravi told CBN News.
Dr. Ben Carson, featured in the film, calls this a special time for Christian media and beyond.
“Just thinking about the fact that we are talking about a Christian revival at the Kennedy Center of all places tells us there is a real movement that’s going on,” Carson stated.
And the film’s producers see this as just the beginning.
“The atmosphere is ripe for revival. We need a major outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That’s my prayer. That tonight is about far more than a premiere. That we see what we’re showing in this premiere, an actual mighty move of God,” said Robertson.
For more about how you can see the film, go to TheRevivalGeneration.com
