From today's Charlotte Observer:
[quote]
PENTECOSTAL CONFERENCE
Worship knocks them down, lifts them up
Youths fill Bobcats Arena with their faith
KAT GREENE
kgreene@charlotteobserver.com
Inside Charlotte Bobcats Arena on Thursday night, 16,000 young people were screaming, crying, rolling on the floor and speaking in tongues.
While many their age were out partying for the night, these kids were gathered for the North American Youth Congress. Held by United Pentecostal Church International, the three-day event that started Wednesday included sermons, community service and a talent show.
"It's a big thing, kind of like the Super Bowl of youth group conventions," said Victor Neal, 18, of Chesapeake, Va.
Kids from all 50 states came to the event, often in chartered buses filled with youth groups and their pastors.
To worship in the Pentecostal sense means you have to really feel God, said Jessica Wallingsford, 16, of Houston.
"You feel it when he's there," she said.
Victor said the event was promoted at his church, where he recently became active. "The atmosphere is amazing," he said. "It makes you jump, it makes you pray, it makes you worship."
During Thursday night's sermon, the crowd pushed toward the stage, reaching their arms up, casting their faces into the bright stage lights.
It was hot and crowded, not unlike a rock concert's mosh pit. But these kids were praying.
Tears and sweat streamed down their faces, and they clung to each other as they became overwhelmed by their emotions.
Many come from broken homes or a bad past, said Donny Willis, assistant to the youth president for United Pentecostal Church International. The kids may not have anyone but their youth pastor to turn to, he said -- and God.
Stephen Sanford, a youth pastor from Little Rock, Ark., said he wanted to bring his youth group here so they don't "go down the wrong path" later. Before he entered the church, he was into drugs, he said. The day he found God, he had been awake for more than 48 hours on crystal meth.
"God started dealing with me," he said, and he decided to go to church. It was the first time he spoke in tongues. He was 19.
His mission, he said, is to keep kids from making the same mistakes he did.
Still, he doesn't expect miracles.
"Despite what we teach them, they're still going to be teenagers," he said.
Pentecostal girls do not cut their hair or wear makeup, but many wore ornate French barrettes. They also wore Jackie Kennedy-like suits -- "popping" the collars, something the kids jokingly call the "Pentecostal Pop."
Long after the sermon ended, they lay on the floor in those suits, writhing and crying.
They didn't get up until security guards asked them to leave.
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