[T}he ministers and future pastors who thrust their arms in the air and boogied to the jazz classic “Sister Sadie” were participants in Bangor Theological Seminary’s annual Convocation in Gracie Theatre at Husson University.

As the service ended and the postlude was played on Wednesday, worshippers rose from their seats and danced in the aisles, filled with the spirit.

That would not be unusual if it had happened on a Sunday morning in any of the many evangelical churches that dot the Maine landscape. But the ministers and future pastors who thrust their arms in the air and boogied to the jazz classic “Sister Sadie” were participants in Bangor Theological Seminary’s annual Convocation in Gracie Theatre at Husson University.

Congregationalists, Methodists, Lutherans and other mainline denominations are not known for expressing their spirituality with such vigor — at least not in northern New England.

The presence of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity with the Father and the Son, was an integral part of this year’s convocation, titled “Evolving World, Emerging Church.”

There is a spiritual revival and renewal afoot but it is not religious, the Rev. Steven Lewis, academic dean of Bangor Theological Seminary, said Monday in the opening session of Convocation. He called it “humanitarian spirituality.”

Lewis is a field researcher who studies and writes about trends and movements in American Christianity.

“Salvation in the 21st century is being a good human being,” he said.

He pointed to rock star Bono, former President Jimmy Carter and celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt as people who exemplify that trend.

The skill set ministers in mainline denominations have needed were preacher, teacher, organizer and caregiver, according to Lewis.

“The 21st century requires an entirely different set of skills,” he said. “Pastor must be cultural [interpreters], imaginative thinkers, entrepreneurs, translators of the culture and conceptualizers of the Gospel.

Lewis, who came to the seminary in June from Portland, Ore., urged the 150 convocation attendees to be supportive of creativity in ministry and worship.

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