HILLSONG: STAND FOR CHRIST

The opening riffs of Hillsong UNITED’s “The Time Has Come” sent thousands of area teenagers into a jumping, hand-waving frenzy Tuesday at Bethany World Prayer Center’s South Campus.

But this rock concert wasn’t about the MTV culture or celebrating self-indulgence and partying.

Instead, the teens were enraptured to a spiritual plane centered on faith in Jesus; “The One Way — the only way to live,” band leader Joel Houston said.

The band, a ministry of the 30,000 member Hillsong Church based in Sydney, Australia, played in Baton Rouge as part of a two-week USA concert tour that began in late July in Washington and wraps up Tuesday in California.

Houston, a tall, guitar-player and son of Hillsong’s senior pastor Brian Houston, said the band has seen thousands of lives changed during the tour. The response at this concert, he said, shows Louisiana’s teens are part of “a worldwide explosion of faith.”

The Baton Rouge concert was sponsored by the Healing Place Church but held at the Bethany’s South Campus to accommodate a larger crowd.

Although the center’s sanctuary holds 2,500, it was so packed that the audience spilled into two other rooms where another 600 seats were available for viewing the concert on big screen televisions.

“We had to turn a lot of people away,” usher Russ Bahlinger said. “That says a lot about the youth of this area.”

Jason Laird, Healing Place’s youth minister, emceed the concert.

“These kids understand that high school is more than just getting a diploma,” he said. “They want to change their school and their world for the cause of Christ.”

The Rev. Dino Rizzo of Healing Place Church, said he sees the spiritual enthusiasm of this crowd and a worldwide youth revival as fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

In Acts chapter two, Rizzo said, the Apostle Paul repeats what the prophet Joel wrote of God saying; “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit” and young people will prophesy.

“I believe we’re in those moments,” Rizzo said. “Young people matter to God, and he is reaching out to young people all over the world.”

Josh Furr, 16, of St. Mary Parish and his friend Kyle Runolfson, 16, of San Jose, Calif., had not heard Hillsong’s music but attended because, “I’ve heard a lot of good things about Hillsong from my friends,” Furr said.

Chris Valiquette, 17, an incoming freshman at LSU, said he’d been waiting for this concert ever since he heard about it last winter. “I have all their CDs. I play their music all the time.”

Holly Howard, 16, and her brother D.J. Howard, 17, drove from St. Francisville. Both own almost all of Hillsong’s nine albums.

As the band sang its biggest hit, “One Way,” the Howards, and most of the crowd sang right along with them.

At times the band stopped singing but the crowd continued, “So I look to you, no-one else will do.”

While many teens jumped and waved their arms, some were so affected they fell on their faces, prostrate on the floor in worship. Tears flowed and spirits soared into the foggy, strobe-lit atmosphere.

“We want to present Christ to the kids and encourage them to stand for Christ,” band leader Houston said before the concert. “We want them to know that God loves them and that God is relevant in their lives every single day.”

The concert was just what D.J. Howard was looking for as he prepares to go back to school this fall.

“It got me fired up to stand for Christ,” Howard said. As a Christian, he said, “it seems like everyone is against you, but I feel sorry for them because they don’t know what they’re missing. I’m going to share Jesus as much as I can. I don’t want to keep any of this to myself.”

Story originally published in The Advocate