No matter how late Nick Johnson stays out on Saturday night, the Rockhurst High School senior drags himself out of bed the next morning and heads to church.
Nobody makes him go.
Johnson is like many black teen-agers. They like church. They see it as a second home, the people there an extension of family.
White teens, researchers have found, are more apt to sleep in on Sunday morning. When they do arise, it's probably to grab the remote, not their Sunday shoes.
According to the new National Study of Youth and Religion, black youth are far more likely to attend religious services regularly than their white peers. The gap is largest among high school seniors, with black students nearly 50 percent more likely to go to church at least once a week.
Among seniors, 45 percent of blacks reported weekly church attendance, compared to 31 percent of whites.
The survey showed the attendance rate for black youth has climbed since 1995. The white rate has held steady.
"I think we always suspected the disparity, but I was surprised by the margin and quite surprised that the trend was still growing," said Kristin Moore, president of Washington-based Child Trends, the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that released the study.
Research shows that teens who attend church are less likely to drink, smoke, abuse drugs and get in trouble with the law. They are more likely to play sports, volunteer in the community and make better grades.
The Child Trends study, done by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, analyzed responses from 3,000 teens of many different faiths and from many socio-economic groups, including Hispanic, but used only "white, black, other" for results. Personal interviews were conducted at schools across the country, and the results are used in variety of sociological research.
The young people were not asked for reasons.
Some experts and teens, both black and white, think the disparity might have to do with the entertainment nature of services.
Face it, teens say, some white churches can be kind of boring.
A generalization, to be sure, but predominantly black churches have long been known for lively gospel singing and rousing preaching.
Another possibility is home life. Black parents are perceived as being more insistent about family worship.
But the crucial reason, experts contend, reaches back more than 200 years -- to a time when Negro spirituals rang from the cotton fields of the old South.
"Faith offered the only hope for American slaves," said Bill Johnson, youth adviser at St. James United Methodist Church, a predominantly black church at 56th Street and the Paseo. "Those stories from back in the day have been passed down through generations and live on in these kids today."
Christian Smith, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina and primary investigator of the new study, agreed that oppression is a likely factor in African-Americans' devotion to church.
Much like the Hebrews of the Old Testament.
"Historically, the church has been more important to blacks than whites because of their lack of other institutions," Smith said. "Government wasn't going to work for them. They didn't have a business community. Even in slavery days, church meetings were allowed when nothing else was. "
Long after the Civil War, the church remained the heart of black culture, often becoming political and social centers. Black ministers, such as Martin Luther King Jr., led the civil rights movement.
Rockhurst senior Johnson, who is unrelated to the youth adviser, said it was a history not lost on black youth today thanks to stories from parents and grandparents.
"We have a lot of spirituality... a need to keep God close," said Johnson, president of the St. James youth group. "I think that's why black kids seem to be more rooted to the church."
Canisha Allen, 12, a student at Grandview Middle School, said history may get blacks to church, but the atmosphere keeps them there.
"My white friends say when they go to church, they just sit there and listen to the preacher -- I can see where that might be kind of boring," Canisha said. "We talk about things that are important to us... family, school, life. It goes beyond religion, but always comes back to God."
It is a devotion envied by others.
Butch Ritter, pastor at Old Mission United Methodist Church in Fairway, said his church, which is mostly white, would probably fit the study.
"One of great things about church is that it has always been a place to give voice to feelings and beliefs," Ritter said. "In the black church, that is not only encouraged but expected.
"The white community always had other places to do that."
But W.J.G. McLin, pastor of St. Peter CME Church, a black congregation in Kansas City, Kan., wonders about factors other than race. He thinks youth attendance is down at most mainstream Protestant churches, regardless of race.
Teens, McLin said, seem to enjoy the charismatic and Pentecostal churches. Also, he added, the new "mega-church" trend is drawing members from traditional congregations.
"I don't think it is so much a racial difference than a denominational one," McLin said.
He acknowledged, though, that even his church -- tame by Pentecostal standards -- might seem downright lively to others.
Ritter, too, understands when teens say black churches are more fun because of the music and interaction between the pulpit and the congregation.
"We're not as comfortable with some of that, for whatever reason," Ritter said.
Emily Craig, 18, has forever heard that Catholic church is boring. It can be, she said, but it doesn't have to be. The Church of the Nativity in Leawood, where she attends, is proof.
Each Sunday at 5:30 p.m., the church holds the Life Teen Mass at which teens do most of the duties. The service also includes praise music with guitars and drums.
"It's much more of an inspirational worship," said Craig, who is white. "And that's what churches have to do to keep kids coming. Teens are looking to rebel and church is something to rebel against. But then when they see what we do... it's already different."
Debbie Nearmyer, director of youth services at Church of the Nativity, said the Life Teen Mass was started to help Catholic churches recapture declining youth attendance.
"I think it's been very successful," Nearmyer said.
Many other churches offer youth activities, but some youth ministers say those offer no assurance of better attendance on Sunday.
Tyrone Yarbrough used to demand that his children go to church, but not so much anymore.
"When my children were young, it was the rule they had to go to church," Yarbrough said. "But now that they are older, they go because they want to be there."
Now, they often attend more than just Sunday.
His daughter, Ashley Yarbrough, 17, said she's at St. James six days a week.
"I'm here so much it seems like a second home," Ashley said last week as she rehearsed a play at the church, where former Kansas City mayor Emanuel Cleaver is pastor.
Denise Hygh has seen both worlds. She grew up in a black church in California but is now associate pastor at the mostly white Lenexa United Methodist Church.
The difference, she said, is that the black church in America has always been far more than religion. She thinks the root of commitment even precedes slavery, back to the tribes of Africa and the proverb: "It takes a village to raise a child."
"Everybody had a role in a child's life," Hygh said. "That's the way of the black church today. The congregation is filled with mentors. It can be the minister or just a member or even the custodian.
"They push children; they challenge them to do better."