Liberty serves as host site for Collegiate Day of Prayer, uniting groups to pray for revival on campuses worldwide

Thousands of college students and community members felt the Holy Spirit move in Liberty University’s Vines Center on Thursday evening and ripple across other campuses, churches, and homes around the world during the 2026 Collegiate Day of Prayer. Liberty served as this year’s host site for the global initiative. A live simulcast from the Vines Center joined believers in prayer for revival and spiritual awakening on college campuses worldwide. The event was streamed on the Collegiate Day of Prayer website, CBN, YouTube, Liberty’s Facebook page, and various other social media platforms.

Held every February, the annual Collegiate Day of Prayer dates back over 200 years. A different university is chosen as the host site each year; college campuses around the world hold their own prayer events in conjunction with the event. Thursday marked Liberty’s first time hosting the event and the third year it has participated. Individuals can sign up to “adopt” one of 4,200 college campuses in the U.S. and commit to praying for students to turn to the Lord. Over 8,000 campuses around the globe were adopted in prayer.

“Today, we’re culminating the day with believers, young and old, around the globe uniting in prayer for revival and spiritual awakening amongst 250 million college students worldwide,” said Collegiate Day of Prayer Executive Director Thai Lam.

Bob Bakke, producer for the Collegiate Day of Prayer, told the crowd: “The praying that happens in this place will be a model for people all over the Earth who don’t have prayer huddles to pray with. You are the models they will see and hear.”

The Collegiate Day of Prayer organization operates as a coalition of collegiate ministries and church networks and is led by a representative steering team of these partner organizations.

Throughout the night, the simulcast featured various speakers, including pastor of Heritage Creek Baptist Church Jonathan Pokluda, Gen Z Christian content creator Bryce Crawford, pastor and apologist Cliffe Knechtle, and Collegiate Day of Prayer staff, as well as members of Liberty’s leadership, including President Dondi E. Costin, Chancellor Jonathan Falwell, and Vice President of Spiritual Development Joshua Rutledge.

The Liberty Worship Collective and LU Praise led worship for the evening, providing a ripe spiritual atmosphere centered around Christ.

Participants broke into small prayer huddles multiple times to share with each other, praise God for His goodness, repent from sin, request spiritual revival on college campuses and an overall spiritual awakening, and prepare their hearts for whatever calling and purpose God has for their lives. They were also asked to consider adopting several college campuses to specifically cover in prayer both during and after the service ended.

Chancellor Jonathan Falwell emphasized the critical role prayer plays in the Christian life, noting how his father spent much of his own college years in earnest prayer.

“When you think about this dynamic of prayer, this (is an) opportunity we have to connect directly to God,” Falwell said. “No matter who we are, no matter where we are, no matter what we’re going through, understand that it is that power, that relationship, and that connection that not only changes us but has the opportunity to change the world.”

Pokluda spoke about the important role repentance plays in reconciling Christians to their heavenly Father, sharing a personal story of when he rescued his then 4-year-old daughter from drowning in the family swimming pool. He emphasized repentance requires more than just a confession; it requires an active choice to abandon the previous sin.

Knechtle likened Christians to “beggars who have received Living Bread” and said God commands believers to share this knowledge with others so they too may know the love of Christ and one day enjoy eternity with Him.

Rutledge closed the event by encouraging students and guests to willingly submit to God’s will for their lives.

“You are not responsible for your purpose,” he said. “You are responsible only to be faithful to God and trust your purpose to Him. Whatever He chooses to do in and through you, you have the freedom as a follower of Christ to go, ‘The outcome was never up to me anyways. I was only ever called to be faithful.’ Once you understand that, you realize you cannot lose. No man, woman, event, circumstance, past, or anything in your future can separate you from the love of Christ Jesus, and nothing is standing in the way of God fulfilling His purpose for you, except for your refusal to trust Him with it. You cannot lose in Jesus.”

For Liberty, the Collegiate Day of Prayer was wrapped up into a weeklong emphasis on spiritual renewal and coincided with its regularly scheduled 24 hours of prayer. Pokluda and Crawford joined for a Next Gen Revival Prayer Panel at Wednesday’s Convocation, and Pokluda delivered the message at the Campus Community service on Wednesday night. Starting at midnight on Wednesday, students, faculty, and staff gathered at the Worley Prayer Chapel and in other designated spaces to pray. The prayer time continued at the Vines Center for the Collegiate Day of Prayer event and continued again afterward at the chapel until midnight on Thursday. On Friday morning, Knechtle closed out the week during Convocation.

“Prayer is one of the formations that causes us to grow as believers; practicing it corporately allows us to keep each other accountable in the formation of prayer,” said national security sophomore Madi Doyle. “Between yesterday’s Convocation and Campus Community and today’s Collegiate Day of Prayer, we’ve seen that prayer leads to some pretty incredible things. In my life, these events have convicted me to grow my prayer life with the Lord. I’m excited to see what these events stir up in my own life and on this campus.”

“Liberty’s founder (Dr. Jerry Falwell) said it best, ‘Nothing of eternal significance happens apart from prayer,’” said Maya Dunn, who is studying Christian leadership and church ministry. “If we expect (ourselves) as individuals, or collectively as Liberty University and as Christians, to do anything that matters in the world, God has to be a part of it. Not only relying on people to individually use the power of prayer in our lives but dedicating this significant time to it really shows how important it is to everyone else here.”