If you didn't know better, you might just think downtown Salt Lake City skipped ahead on the calendar this weekend.
Looking much like the crowds of Latter-day Saint faithful who inhabit downtown Salt Lake City's sidewalks, restaurants and shopping malls during its twice-annual General Conference — set next weekend — thousands of Pentecostals from around the world are attending their 80th annual General Conference here.
They will be in town through Sunday night, the men dressed in suits and ties, the women in modest dresses and heels. Filling much of the Delta Center arena with exhibits at the Salt Palace, organizers expect as many as 14,000 members of the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) to participate, particularly today and Sunday as it comes to its peak.
Tom Jackson, coordinator of the conference, said a Sunday night crusade and revival at the Delta Center will be the apex of the event, and the public is welcome. Many have found it curious that the group would come to Salt Lake City, he said.
The church is very different doctrinally compared to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, headquartered here. While evangelism and missionary work are a major focus of the charismatic, Christ-centered faith, "we're not the type of group that would oppose Mormons with placards and protests. We don't do it that way, but we do make our services open and invited people to come and hear our ministry," he said.
So hopeful are they that they'll find some converts in town, the group will set up a baptistry on stage at the Delta Center Sunday night, so those so inclined can be "baptized by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ" during a live Web cast. Jackson said there's a great deal of interest around the world among the faith's 2 million adherents in the Salt Lake events.
During last year's annual meeting and final revival event, about 100 new converts were baptized, he said. "We're going to leave Salt Lake City a brand new church," shouted one preacher during a praise service on Wednesday. "We're going to birth a church this Sunday night!"
Known for their charismatic practices, including raised-hands praising, speaking in tongues and hands-on healing, the Pentecostals gathered this weekend also embody a strict dress and grooming code.
Women don't cut their hair, which means most wear it either pulled behind or on top of their heads. Modest and feminine dresses and jewelry are encouraged, and women are to avoid "any appearance of masculinity" in hair style or dress.
Men are to keep their hair short and dress in a "dignified" fashion, according to the faith's doctrine.
The event opened Wednesday at the Delta Center with the daily devotion, followed by a ladies day event, "Exalt Jesus!" That evening, the arena played host to the 40th annual Harvestime Songfest, a service filled with charismatic gospel music, energized preaching and video clips explaining the need for funding to continue the faith's outreach through radio.
The event was broadcast to about 100 radio stations as paid programming, Jackson said.
Reinforcing the faith's concept of a triune God as embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, C.M. Becton of Forney, Texas, told several thousand participants in the Songfest that "Jesus Christ is not only the Son of Man, but the everlasting Father, and the Holy Spirit."
Motioning the crowd to stand and raise their hands with him, his voice rose to a fever pitch as he affirmed that "the Old Testament redeemer and the New Testament redeemer are one and the same," as the crowd rose to its feet and raised their hands in the air, praising God.
Becton and other preachers were onstage, backed by a charismatic choir and band. In front of the pulpit was a replica of what appeared to be the biblical Ark of the Covenant, whose travels are chronicled in the Old Testament.
As a reinforcement of the faith's conservative theology, soloist Charity Wahler sang, "We need God in America again, We need his blood to wash and make us clean, It will free our souls and make us whole, Dear America, let Jesus set you free."
Jackson said the faith has some 745,000 members in North America, and that with missionaries in 170 nations, Europe is the current hot spot for membership growth. "For many years South America was where our biggest growth occurred, but European interest has surpassed that," he said.
In what has become a highly secular region following World War II, "There's a genuine hunger for many people to be more involved with worship and participation," with "a great deal of interest in former Communist nations" as well as Western Europe.
Members are asked to tithe at least 10 percent of their income, in addition to supporting various ministries and missionary endeavors, which involve both volunteers and paid ministry personnel.
Headquartered in Hazelwood, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, at the World Evangelism Center, the UPCI has about 4000 churches in North America, and operates its own printing plant for a wide variety of curriculum materials. Local congregations are autonomous, selecting their own pastors and setting their budgets. Top church officers are elected during the annual conference and serve as the faith's governing board. Though their work focuses on evangelism, Jackson said the faith doesn't plan to send ministers door to door, as Southern Baptist teams did during their annual convention at the Salt Palace in the late 1990s. Rather, a street evangelism drama team has been performing at the Gallivan Center and participants have simply been asked to hand out literature and invite locals to the Sunday revival.
Events tonight and Sunday at the Delta Center are open to the public. For more information, see www.upci.org.
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com