Rows of lights checkered the ceiling in the dark room and instruments thrummed on stage with several vocalists. As the instruments fell away, the congregation’s voices fell together in folds, like deep waves, small ripples and foaming suds lapping at the shore to create an ocean of 3,500 diverse Christians — 2,000 of whom were college students.

This was the beginning, the middle and the end of the Feb. 19 Jubilee weekend, an annual conference held in Pittsburgh, sponsored by the Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO). For 40 years, Jubilee has brought students together to learn and worship.

Almost 50 Shippensburg University students attended Jubilee alongside people from 35 different countries to gather in worship. The lecture revolved around four parts of the gospel — creation, fall, redemption and restoration.

Between the main worship services were smaller breakout sessions where students could attend workshops more catered to their majors and interests. Topics ranged from living as a Christian after college to debating how science fits into Christianity.

“I think it’s an opportunity for anyone to just think about their faith,” said Jen Everett, SU’s campus minister with the CCO. “The conference is more about how your faith integrates into all areas of life, especially work.”

Each year’s theme may change, but the overall message remains constant — God cares about all aspects of humanity and the careers students are about to launch into are a way to serve that God, said Matt Ramsay, SU campus minister with the CCO. This year’s theme, Transform Everything, may have had a different name, but the basic idea is still how to live as a Christian in an all-encompassing way, Ramsay said.

Senior Rebekah Elbel attended Jubilee for the second time and said that the worship portion is an important part of her experience.

“Everyone at Jubilee is encouraged to worship in a way they feel comfortable,” Elbel said. “Since there are people from many different kinds of churches, there are many different styles of worship.”

Unlike the church she grew up in, where the congregation sat quietly in their seats, the people at Jubilee danced, clapped and sometimes ran down the aisle to press themselves against the stage and throw themselves into worship. Others bowed their heads in prayer or reached their arms to the ceiling.

“[It was] definitely like last year — you just felt the Lord’s presence in the room,” Elbel said.

Since there are people who come from many different backgrounds at Jubilee, Ramsay said that the speakers and music reflect the people who are brought together. From gospel, rock, bluegrass and a taste of reggae, there was something for everyone.

“They’re trying to blend worship styles that people grew up with or know or are familiar with in order to create a unity in the body so that we can all worship together … [The music] is always changing to reflect the body of people we’re bringing here,” Ramsay said.

After the worship and breakout sessions, students met each night for Jubilee-sponsored activities, including salsa dancing, lip syncing, documentaries and others. Late into the evenings, many students gathered in small groups in the hotel lobby, which was connected to the convention center, and sang worship songs, prayed, discussed their beliefs or just had fun. It was not unusual to walk by a group of college students and overhear snippets of conversation about what they had learned that day.

Another element to Jubilee is the bookstore where people can find specific books that relate Christianity to different careers as well as other related topics.

For Ben Anwyll, senior and second-time Jubilee attendee, he said that his expectation of Jubilee partly rested on the bookstore — it did not disappoint because he found several books to offer him Christian guidance.

“I get more out of the books than anything else,” Anwyll said.

Ramsay said that a big part of Jubilee is teaching students that their majors and future careers can be used as a way to serve God. Sometimes students think that they have to be a minister or a missionary to serve, but even artists, accountants and lawyers can live out their careers as Christians.

“At the end of the trip, there are some students who walk away not impacted by Jubilee,” Ramsay said. Mostly everyone comes to understand one basic idea: Their majors and their future careers do matter to God.

Anwyll attended a breakout session led by a politician who talked about how he lives out his faith in his career. Anwyll said it was especially impactful for him to find someone who is able to play both roles of politician and Christian because some day he too would like to go into politics.

The most important element of Jubilee, Anwyll said, is how people of different denominations can worship together even though they might have different viewpoints within Christianity.

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