So, WHAT HAPPENED at Wheaton?

How Everything Went Horribly Wrong — Before Going Wonderfully Right

Last week probably wins second-most hectic week of my life.

➡️ On Friday, Sept 26, we hosted an all-night prayer vigil at Wheaton College.

➡️ Saturday I didn’t sleep — just drove to South Carolina with our team, writing a sermon on the way.

➡️ Sunday I preached that sermon twice — on rest and Sabbath (the irony).

➡️ Monday we drove back to Alabama for grad school.

➡️ To top it all off, by week’s end, our team had bootstrapped an organization: The True Human Project.

I’ll tell you more about that next week. Today I want to tell you one story: our first AWAKE night at Wheaton.

Spoiler: it was everything we prayed for and nothing like we expected. In fact, it literally couldn’t have started worse.

“It literally couldn’t have started worse.”

I think I heard that quote first from Ellison Ruch. But honestly, anyone might have said it.

The first part of the night was pretty much catastrophic.

First, the right speaker blows out. Then mics suddenly decide not to work. Another on-campus event goes an hour over, and it feels like nobody will show up.

There’s plenty more to mention, but suffice it to say, it was ugly enough for me to start sweating.

“It didn’t feel like an hour-long sermon.”

An hour and a half later, I’m preparing to preach when Colleen Davis says, “This room’s not ready for a sermon. We need to wait. We need worship to fill the room.”

Our five-person Lead Team considers this, prays together briefly, and then we unanimously agree. Worship has a way of unlocking steel doors of the heart. It melts our hard soil and softens our ground for the Word to be planted. Something had to melt in that room before the preaching.

That’s when — without any cue from us — the room begins to erupt with praise. Cries of “All Hail King Jesus” shoot like arrows at unseen fortresses, tearing them down brick by brick. I look back at our team. They’re all grinning.

It’s time to preach.

When the song ends, I walk out onto the stage just after 11CT.

And then I preach the longest sermon I’ve ever preached… by far.

The topic? “We should love repentance.”

Because we can’t have more of Jesus without repentance (Rev. 2-3).

Two and half years ago, I preached a similar message to Wheaton College while I was a student. It left my mouth like a bullet colliding with a brick wall.

This year it left my mouth and felt like a rope tossed gently to grasping hands. Bleeding hands. Hands that have tried everything — pills and pornography and playstations and politics — and yet can’t seem to grope for leverage to escape the darkness. I knew those hands. They looked so much like my own.

🙏🏼 Dear reader, your prayers, along with the prayers of many others, prepared that room, and I want to say thank you. It led to what took place next…

“The most beautiful time of confession I’ve ever seen.”

After the message, our team wanted to give the room an opportunity to embody repentance. More than ever, this generation needs real-life chances to be bold, raw, and obedient to the Gospel.

Most Christian events have hype, and great musicians, and tailored experiences — which all have their place — but we were longing to invite Gen Z into something different. Something costly, as Christ is costly. Something that embodied the Gospel.

“We have a chance to seek Jesus by confessing our sins and finding healing right now. We’re going to take 10-15 minutes and anyone who feels the need to confess how they’ve abandoned their first love (Rev. 2:1-7) can stand up right where they are and confess for about 15-30 seconds. In response, we’ll all say together: ‘the blood of Jesus covers you.’”

Before we could even exit the stage, someone shoots up from their chair with a confession. Then another. And another. Then two more at the same time. And then three more.

Almost without a single pause, confession goes on. And on. And on. For well over an hour it flows like Christ’s blood, like crucifixion, like love.

Without any prompting, people begin praying their confessions to our Father. Others rush — sometimes all the way across the room — to pray over those who have boldly confessed in public. Not one person confesses without being blanketed by friends and strangers alike who reached out their hands… as if to cover and heal what is being exposed in repentance.

Halfway through, even as our Lead Team is just realizing that God had taken the stage and all our plans needed to be tossed out the window, one of our friends hurries up from where he’s been sitting and reaches us backstage.

I’ll never forget his face.

Stunned. He’s absolutely stunned. For eight years, he had prayed for this, leading many nights very similar to this in nature, but never experiencing this kind of beauty.

“It’s happening. It’s finally happening. He’s—He’s really doing it.” Is all he can utter before being overcome by a wave of tears.

No one saw him weeping that night.

And no one saw him weeping nightly for months leading up to the event.

Awakening does not start at the event itself. It is born in the tears 100 days before.

“We need to go deeper.”

After the initial shock and excitement, we realize that there is more repentance to be had: so far, the confessions are surface-level. We need to invite the room deeper, into richer healing. So we do…

I wish I had time to walk you through everything that took place over the next few hours. Students, alumni, pastors, and professors confessed pride and image-keeping, lies and severe cheating, vice and sexual immorality. Mothers moaned for hurting their children and sons groaned for following their fathers’ missteps and mistakes. Someone even tossed their phone in the trash before the whole auditorium.

All the while I never even thought about checking the time.

When I finally got around to finding a clock, it was past 3:30AM.

The kind hand of the Spirit of God had touched us, and we responded with well over three hours of the sweetest confession imaginable.

Our God stole the attention of the attentionless generation.

And He did it in the most embarrassingly human way.

“God is doing something here.”

There’s a lot more to tell. We prayed for several more hours. We had three commissionings: to the campus, to the church, and to missions. Dozens came forward.

But almost more importantly, after all was said and done, after Bethany Wray led us in worship for the last hour, after everyone remaining at 6:30AM locked arms around the room and sang the doxology together, after we all — half-drunk with exhaustion — puttered around cleaning up the building.

After all that, about fifteen leaders went to Chick-fil-A.

We came into this first AWAKE Night asking God if He wanted us to do something further, deeper, wider across the U.S.

So, after it was all said and done, we asked each other: Do you want to build something together? Something to stir awakening in this generation?

Every single person around that holy-chicken table said the same exact thing: “Yes. God is doing something here. And I want to be part of it.”

The Aftermath.

The 100 Days are over.

The book we’ve been working on together is getting published.

The huge prayer event was more beautiful than can be described here.

Jesus Christ is waking up a generation.

And here at The True Human Project, we’re just getting started.

Keep praying. Revival begins on our knees. More updates to come.

We’ll let you know how you can join us soon — but for now, just keep praying.

May Christ awaken us.

Love y’all,

J.T. +

The THP Team

this video was taken at 6:13AM. nothin like staying AWAKE through the night with Jesus.

most of the 8AM Chick-fil-A crew —> meet the THP team! (without sleep)

P.S. A big thank-you to Chaplain Angulus Wilson who stayed up until 3AM anchoring the night with his presence. Chap was very gracious with resources, wisdom, and mentorship throughout the process. And the Wheaton College current Student Chaplains team was amazing and very flexible throughout!