Hundreds of Gen Z Worship Jesus at Dallas New Year’s Eve Conference
For hundreds of teens and young adults in Dallas, New Year’s Eve was not about parties or fireworks, but about beginning a new calendar year by worshiping the living Christ.
The Texas-based UPPERROOM church held its annual End of Year Conference Dec. 29-31 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, capped by a night of testimony, gospel proclamation, and musical worship on New Year’s Eve that saw hundreds of members of Gen Z surrender the coming year to the Lord. The event drew some 7,000 people over three days, according to CBN. UPPERROOM describes it as a “consecration of the final three days of the year unto God.”
Brian Barcelona, an atheist-turned-Christian evangelist, preached the final sermon on New Year’s Eve, calling the audience to rid their lives of compromise and to fully follow Jesus. Barcelona leads One Voice Student Ministries and is the author of Legends Die Young.
He urged attendees to take the gospel back to their families.
“I know people are going to give their lives to Christ tonight. That's not my concern; my concern is, will your family know Him? I see people come year after year, yet your mom and dad don't even recognize Christ in us,” Barcelona told the crowd.
It wasn’t the first time Barcelona had seen God at work at the UPPERROOM year-end conference.
He recounted how, in 2023, he received a desperate message from his sister, saying she needed rescue from sex trafficking, fentanyl addiction, and abuse, CBN reported. Barcelona brought her to Dallas during that year-end conference.
“In those next five days, I would learn what praise – Psalm 23 and 91 – looked like as she detoxed from fentanyl in the hospital,” he told the audience. “She walked out into the hallway with makeup on her face and a smile. Her perpetrator had put a tattoo on her forehead. She looked beautiful again. On the fifth day, my beautiful sister would say yes to God and rehab.”
He also shared a recent moment involving his elderly grandfather, who, after a cancer diagnosis at age 84, expressed a desire for heaven and faith in Christ.
“Tears streaming down his face, my grandfather tells his Hispanic wife, ‘I want to walk down those streets of gold you talk about,’” he said.
The UPPERROOM year-end conference for 2026 will be held Dec. 29-31, again at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
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Photo Credit: ©Facebook / UPPERROOM
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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Originally published January 08, 2026.
