COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. ? The devil wouldn’t like Victory World Outreach.

Near the end of each service, the Rev. Ron Jones invites people who need healing to come to the altar for an anointing with oil. A church staff member or volunteer will lay hands on heads and, more often than not, begin speaking in tongues.

Alfonso Romero lays hands on Rita Toniatti, who is moved to speak in tongues, during a recent Sunday service at Victory World Outreach in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The sounds are hard to put into words because they aren’t words, as far as anyone knows. Depending on who is speaking, it can sound like a foreign language, sticks clicking together or a baby’s babbling.

Scenes like this take place in Colorado Springs every Sunday. Many of the largest churches in the city including the city’s biggest Catholic parish, Holy Apostles have members who speak in tongues.

Speaking in tongues is usually not as obvious as in the Victory World Outreach altar call. Some people confine their “prayer tongues” to the privacy of home. Others do it in small groups of like-minded believers. Rarely does an outbreak of tongues sweep over an entire congregation.

Recently, Christians celebrated one of their most important holidays, Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down on the apostles in a fury of wind and tongues of fire, as described in the Book of Acts. The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues, the Bible says.

A century ago, that story helped trigger a revival, one rooted in the belief that God makes speaking in tongues and other “spiritual gifts” from the early church available to modern-day believers.

The Pentecostal movement led to the establishment of new denominations, launched a charismatic renewal in established Protestant and Catholic churches and helped birth the megachurch. Pentecostal and charismatic churches are the fastest-growing stream of Christianity in the world today.

There’s disagreement about how widespread speaking in tongues is among Pentecostals and charismatics. Scholar Stanley Burgess estimates one in five Pentecostals speaks in tongues.

Moving the hand of God

To outsiders, hearing tongues sparks questions. Where does it come from? What does it mean? One can argue about the validity of speaking in tongues, but it’s hard to ignore especially after encountering it.

“Some might think this is hype. Some might think this is fanaticism. But it’s Holy Ghost power!” says the pastor at Victory World Outreach from the pulpit.

The service at Victory World Outreach has no real structure. It’s free-flowing, like jazz. The choir, more than 100 strong, black and white, is so rollicking it shakes the floor of the congregation’s meeting space, a former grocery store at South Academy Boulevard and Hancock Avenue. Pastor Jones rattles a tambourine.

“When you believe in God, that’s what moves the hand of God,” he says. “Then, signs and miracles will follow.”

Tongues are one of those signs, the Bible says. To Pentecostals, like the 1,000 members of Victory World Outreach, tongues are evidence of a second blessing after the born-again experience.

The service rolls on for more than two hours. The altar call is the climax, when the many visitors can accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

Several people kneel at the altar, wailing and crying. Staff and volunteers carry bottles of oil, which is smeared on the heads of those who need healing. Some people collapse onto the carpet after the laying on of hands, their bodies quaking under blankets.

Rachael Hayes needs healing. The 26-year-old Army wife stands with her palms open to heaven as a church member lays his hands on her head. She has an open wound that needs healing, she says.

As the man prays over her, Hayes’ mouth is open. Her tongue is wagging up and down. The sounds are like soft cries. Her tongue works them as fingers would a guitar, changing the pitch.

Hayes explained later that she first spoke in tongues when she was 12, living in Ohio. She’d been praying for the gift, she said, and it finally came to her at a church camp. She spoke in tongues for two hours straight then.

“It feels like I’m close to God,” she said. “Only God hears what I say. It’s nothing I can control.”

‘People pay attention’

A small crowd gathers near the front of the sanctuary at Holy Apostles Catholic Church. The praise band has finished playing “Let the River Flow.” A man suddenly begins babbling a string of unfamiliar syllables that sound Middle Eastern. It lasts no more than 10 seconds. The deacon leading the service speaks quietly into the microphone: “We pray for the interpretation of tongues.”

A few moments pass, and an elderly woman begins to interpret: “I walk here among you. You are my people. Walk with me, not ahead of me.” Someone else speaks: “Feel my presence. My presence is with you. Take my hand and walk with me.” The service ends. The candles in the back are extinguished.

The man who spoke in tongues is Mel Lucero, a retired science teacher and school administrator. He’s attended the weekly charismatic service at Holy Apostles since it was formed in 1986 and experiences two forms of speaking in tongues.

One he calls his “normal prayer language,” something he can summon on demand. He compares it to communication between mother and infant. The mother hears only gurgles, oohs and ahhs, but she knows love is being communicated, he said.

Lucero said he uses this language when he isn’t sure what he should pray for, only that prayer is needed. He’ll pray in tongues when he sees an ambulance because he doesn’t know where it’s going, for example.

The second type of speaking in tongues, which happened at the service, is more inspired, Lucero said. He can’t control it.

“People will ask, ‘Why does the Lord speak in languages people can’t understand?”‘ said Lucero, 57, a lifelong Catholic. “Maybe to draw attention. When that comes out, people pay attention.”