The boom of the evangelical experience: "What a party there will be here today!"

Barcelona / Sant CugatSaray is alone. In the last row. At one end of the enormous room where nearly 600 people gather. When the music plays, she sings emotionally, as if the notes were welling up from within. From the depths of her soul. Suddenly, she opens her palms and closes her eyes. Her expression changes; a couple of tears appear timidly. She doesn't hide it. She cries. She empties the accumulated pain. While Pastor Roberto Cano speaks, she checks her phone. A couple of scrolls on Instagram, some WhatsApp conversations, and especially the time it will take her to catch the bus. A few minutes later, as the meeting with Hillsong's faithful continues, this 25-year-old Colombian leaves in a hurry. She has to go to Guissona to see her parents and is afraid of missing the bus. "I'm crying for a personal reason, not traumatic, but a very heartfelt reason," she explains as the music starts playing loudly again on the stage of the venue Hillsong has in Poblenou, Barcelona. She got to know this evangelical church when she came to Barcelona to study, although she hadn't attended meetings for months.

According to the registry of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, last year there were 894 evangelical places of worship in Catalonia. Two decades ago there were 341. The great growth occurred between 2010 and 2020, and in recent years it has seen a slight upward trend. The migratory flows of the new millennium explain this growth. "The reality of our Church is like the reality of Catalonia," explains Guillem Correa, general secretary of the Evangelical Council of Catalonia (CEC). From 6 to 8.5 million Catalans. "A very significant part is people from Latin American countries who already were or have had a conversion experience," argues Correa, who considers, however, that this phenomenon "should not distort" that there is a "historical belonging" with "many people born and rooted" in Catalonia.

Mariona is an example of this. Unlike Saray, who arrived in Catalonia when she was 10 years old, she is the fifth generation of a Catalan evangelical family. Growing up in this tradition did not exempt her from asking the big questions when she was an adolescent or when the first wounds and challenges of adulthood arrived. It is then that "faith ceases to be inherited" and becomes "personal," she explains. Mariona, who is now 45 years old, grew up in a Brethren church, then moved to a Baptist one, and is currently in a charismatic one. These are some of the families within the evangelical world. "In fact, it is preferable to speak of confessional families or denominations rather than an evangelical Church," points out UPF professor, Rubén Carrillo.

The diversity is very great. Since the 16th century when Martin Luther promoted the Protestant Reformation, various branches have emerged: from the Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, Baptists, and the Plymouth Brethren who settled in Catalonia in the second half of the 19th century to the current diversity, where charismatic and Pentecostal churches have a greater weight, or among the Roma community, the Philadelphia church. For Mariona, in fact, the evangelical Church cannot be "interpreted" from the "paradigm" of the Catholic Church. The parameters are completely different and this leads to errors and prejudices. All families share the "centrality" of Jesus and the Gospels, but doctrinal interpretations – and also historical reasons and the contexts of each country – lead to multiple options. "I don't like labels at all, I never identify as evangelical, but as Christian, which already seems like a big enough label to me," she defends.

Unlike Catholicism, which has the Pope as the supreme earthly authority, the evangelical Church is not hierarchical and has the Bible as its sole source of truth. Faith in Jesus Christ is the path to salvation for Protestants, who have pastors (male and female) who can marry and have families, while Catholicism teaches that faith is as necessary as good works, and bases its structure on men and celibacy: there are only priests who cannot marry. Another of the many differences is found in worship. The liturgy and ritual of the Mass disappear in evangelical gatherings, which are much more informal and in which music plays a crucial role. "We have always been a joyful church, that moves, that claps, that sings. Luther already incorporated hymns," states Correa. And Hillsong, which is Pentecostal, is an extreme example. One of their songs, Oceans, released in 2013, is the main success in the history of evangelical music: over 665 million streams on Spotify.

Music and data sheets

"Yesterday we went to a party in Eixample and nothing compares to the party that will be here today!". It's a quarter to 10 on Sunday morning. It is not the announcement of a after. Aroa is 24 years old and has been attending Hillsong meetings for four months. This time she is bringing her younger cousin, Yamila, who is 21, for the first time. "We come from far away, from Zona Franca," they warn before getting their latte and heading into the giant auditorium where nearly 600 people will share two hours of religious experience. It's the first of three services that will take place. In total, more than 1,600 people.

The venue has nothing to envy a large party hall. About fifty people are part of the organization. As people enter, six musicians and four singers welcome them from the stage with cheerful songs. Behind them, a giant screen guarded by two side ones. Images of the gathering, flashy messages, song lyrics are projected onto it. The aesthetic is modern. Drawings. Icons. Colors. Flashes. Powerful spotlights play throughout the hall. Cameras are distributed around the venue, recording the gathering. In the background, six or seven technicians, behind huge screens, play with sounds and effects. As Aroa warned, it's a party.

The second song is in Catalan. Hands in the air. At the top of your lungs. A cappella.Bodies move. People dress casually. Shorts. Caps. Many caps. In the front row, a teenager in Messi's sky-blue and white jersey. Sergio, one of the community leaders, with his shirt unbuttoned and rolled up, gives a 10-minute speech in Spanish. They hand out bread and grape juice as if it were the Last Supper. "We haven't come for a karaoke," he warns. It's been 45 minutes and people are still coming in. Members of the organization add two more rows of chairs to the back of the room. A few minutes later, the audience sits down for the first time. Sergio even gives a pair of beach flip-flops to a loyal attendee who has come to Hillsong for the first time. Suddenly, about fifteen volunteers strategically position themselves between the rows of people with card readers in their hands. It's time for voluntary contributions. The screen shows the six different ways to contribute.

Pastor Cano goes up on stage when they have already been in the meeting for 1 hour and 10 minutes. He is an Andalusian with a NY cap who uses humor from the start. The similes he has chosen today to convey the message of the Bible are about coffee. And he has a small table on stage with different types of coffee to be more effective. On the screen, snapshots of tasty coffees, as if they were posts from expert instagrammers. During the speech, horns, bells, the whistle of a steam train sound. All the details are taken care of. It seems like a well-crafted monologue from a trendy theater. The language is plain, direct, street-level, full of anglicisms. People are writing in notebooks or taking notes on their phones. A girl breastfeeds her baby naturally.

When the pastor finishes, the music returns to say goodbye. People file out while those who will attend the second meeting wait outside: they have a coffee at the bar in the venue, others wander around the small merchandise shop or leaf through the books for sale or look at the paintings in a small photographic exhibition. The enormous venue has a children's area, a space for console games, and smaller auditoriums. Outside, a large mural welcomes the faithful: Jesus, hope for humanity. "We like the cheerful and youthful spirit, it's more normal than some think, right? The message is easier to understand," says Rosa, 36 years old. She walks home with her husband John and her son. This family, originally from Peru, discovered Hillsong a year ago after a long time in another evangelical church.

However, not all evangelical churches are like Hillsong. Many places of worship are located in austere ground floors of residential buildings. Or even in distant industrial estates. In October last year, the Elim church in Girona became famous because footballer Dani Alves ended up going there after leaving prison. The Brazilian gave a heartfelt speech in which he assured that he had made "a pact with God" and that "in the midst of the storm", referring to his time in prison, there is always "a messenger of God" who helps you find the way. Precisely, psychologist Miguel Perlado maintains that the evangelical Church offers an ideal context for receiving people who have gone through "moments of crisis" or "personal problems" because it "talks a lot about being born again".

Women and homosexuality

The presence of women is transversal and there are female pastors who lead evangelical communities. There are no gender distinctions. On the other hand, the positioning on homosexuality and abortion is very different. Carrillo insists on diversity within the evangelical Church, there is no "single church" with a position predetermined by elites. "The majority of evangelical churches present in Catalonia maintain conservative positions on sexuality and bioethics, but Protestantism is internally plural and there are historical denominations, such as the Spanish Evangelical Church, which have adopted more inclusive positions, especially regarding homosexual people," says the UPF professor. After a long circumlocution, Correa refers to what "the word explained and revealed by the Bible" determines to defend the critical positioning that the evangelical Church mostly has towards homosexuality or abortion: the Protestant tradition has had "only the Bible as a source of inspiration".

The debate around these issues remains open and some internal currents have more respectful positions towards the LGTBI community. However, they are a minority. As is Catalan. At Hillsong only two songs – in reality the same one sung twice – were in Catalan. The speeches were all in Spanish. In other places of worship Catalan is indeed predominant, but it remains a "pending subject", admits Correa: "as it is in all of Catalan society". The general secretary of the CEC considers that the "unfortunately dominant language is not Catalan", even though praises and groups are being promoted in this language to revive it through singing, since "music is very attractive" for integrating people and encouraging them to learn a language.