Please, Lord, do it again

What would happen if millions of Christians, representing thousands of churches nationwide, joined together in prayer for college students and their campuses?

A somewhat forgotten piece of history provides the answer, and one coalition is working diligently, trusting that what God did in the past, He will do again.

Collegiate Day of Prayer (CDOP) has resurfaced as a national prayer movement aimed at uniting believers around the country to petition God for spiritual awakening and revival for current and future generations. The goal is to have every college campus in America adopted by a family, small group, or church that dedicates time to pray for their particular institution.

Thai Lam, executive director of CDOP,  spoke with The Stand about CDOP’s history, successes, and future goals.

A historic movement

Although CDOP has only been active for about 15 years, Lam said its roots trace back over 200 years.

“CDOP really arose from something called ‘Concert of Prayer’ during the late 1700s,” Lam said. “It was very common then to find churches coming together on a certain day each month in united prayer for the nation.”

Lam said that history demonstrates the effectiveness of those early Concerts of Prayer, which played a significant role in the Second Great Awakening. Students were so dramatically impacted by the Awakening, he said, that church leaders were prompted to take the principles of the united prayer efforts and apply them to colleges.

“By 1815, united prayer efforts had been adopted by a handful of colleges,” Lam said, “and by 1823, all 200 colleges in America and every major denomination agreed to set aside the last Thursday of February as a day of united prayer for colleges, praying that God would do again what He had done before.”

Lam explained that the practice continued from 1823 until the turn of the century.

“A lot changed in the early 20th century. World War broke out, and the war really shifted things in the church in America,” Lam said. “And until about 16 years ago, this day of prayer fell out of practice and was mostly forgotten.”

A resurrected movement

Lam said a 2009 meeting of a small group of campus ministry leaders was the catalyst that led to the resurrection of the historic movement.

“One of the leaders present asked us if we’d heard of the Concert of Prayer for colleges,” Lam explained. “None of us had, and we were blown away as he told us about it.

“We wondered how we could have forgotten something so historic, and then we wondered what would hinder us from doing it again today,” he continued.

In 2010, Lam and a handful of college ministries resurrected the movement – now known as the CDOP – aiming “to mobilize the church in America to pray for 20 million college students on all 4,200 campuses.” 

“That first year, we had 450 campuses adopted in prayer,” Lam said. “By 2019, and each year after, we’ve seen every campus in America adopted in prayer.”