PORTLAND — Rock music blared this morning inside Hannaford Lecture Hall at the University of Southern Maine, where church-goers sipped complimentary Starbucks coffee.

One church member stood by the stage and danced. Another clasped his hands together and appeared to pray.

The Next Level Church launched its new location at USM today to a packed auditorium of more than 250 people. The church band played Christian rock music at the start of what it calls a, “weekly experience.”

“This is just our expression of worship to Jesus this morning,” Pastor Allen Robbins, 27, said to the audience. “We love to get excited and play some music and celebrate what our awesome God has done and is going to do in the great city of Portland, Maine.”


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