Riding the Wind of God

by Bruce McIver

During the 1940s, in the wake of the Depression and in the midst of WWII, a small group of students at Baylor University began to pray for spiritual revival. They were not evangelists with a program, but ordinary students with a heartfelt concern for renewal in America. Beginning with a single miraculous revival in Waco, Texas, a movement began among students from other campuses and in other cities— Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas, Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, even Honolulu. Riding the Wind of God tells the remarkable story of the Youth Revival Movement. These stories, written for the first time, reflect God's power at work in surprising places in an extraordinary time.

The late Bruce McIver, a native of North Carolina, a graduate of Mars Hill College, Baylor University, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was Pastor Emeritus of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. He was the author of Stories I Couldn't Tell While I Was a Pastor and Just as Long as I'm Riding Up Front.

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Endorsements

"Let the story be told. Back when 'the Greatest Generation' was still young, and the Second World War had left the nation spiritually vulnerable, the innocent prayer leadership of a Japanese-American student spawned a spiritual awakening in the South and Southwest that echoed around the country. Unrehearsed, and without specific training, young collegians shared the Gospel Truth, youth-to-youth, on campuses, in towns and cities, spawning a revival with eternal results. Our country had never seen anything like it. Riding the Wind of God is quite a trip. It will first warm your heart and then leave you pleading, 'Do it again, Lord, Do it again!'"

"The Youth Revival Movement captured and channeled the intense passion and personal enthusiasm of youth for the cause of Christ. More moving and influential for many of us than the messages they preached...was the infleshed, incarnational impact. We could see at a glance that God was using some characters not unlike ourselves and might even, therefore, find some use for some of us."

"The Youth Revival Movement was a seedbed for a generation of Baptist leadership. Our models, our theology, our methods and friendships were formed by it. Bruce McIver has told a story that made me remember my best promises to God."