Passion Worship Brings Out 11,000 Students
11,000 students gathered at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Tennessee, and worship was led by Passion team, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall and the David Crowder Band. Challengeing messages were heard from John Piper, Joshua Harris, Beth Moore and Passion founder Louie Giglio.
The Passion has been such a successful movement, drawing thousands of college aged students to worship God and created such Christian music giants as Michael W. Smith, Third Day and Rebecca St. James to release worship albums.
"We are here for one purpose: to taste and see that the Lord is good," Giglio told the crowd. "To see what it means to 'taste and see' and discover the hope of glory, Christ in you."
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In an article from BPNews, Passion worship was described in detail. "In addition to the general worship sessions and various breakout sessions, Passion participants were divided into community groups of 800 to 1,000 students and then into family groups of about eight students each for more personal interaction."
Several people spoke, including Piper, author of "Desiring God," who spoke on the true definition of love and how it has been misrepresented in American society (BPNews).
"Love is not making much of you. It is laboring and suffering, if necessary, to enthrall another person that will make them eternally and infinitely happy."
Another person, Harris, author of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," told students in a breakout session to stop "dating the church" described church daters as those who visit church to church and never settle on one congregation.
Moore, author of various Bible studies including "Believing God," said submission is about order and not about inferiority, explaining that the Greek word indicates placing something under in an orderly fashion, admonishing girls not to covet the role of a man as the head of the household or the head of the church.
Moore addressed the issue of immodesty and the prevalence of sexual immorality in today's culture and today's church, saying that Satan's agenda is to keep the carnal senses enticed so that the road from temptation to participation is shorter than it has ever been. But women who bear the name of Christ are called to be set apart and to rise above the sins of seduction, she said. Moore told those gathered that they will never have to promote their place in the body of Christ because God already has wonderful and significant places for them.
Giglio, speaking in the Tuesday night general session, also addressed sexual immorality and warned students not to believe they can fight it alone.
"The Christian life is impossible!" he said. "There is only one guy who has ever been able to pull it off, and He was so good at it they named it after Him."
The article continued describing each inspirational word that the founder said, "What students must realize, Giglio said, is that they too often live like they believe only half of the Gospel when they say, 'I'm a sinner,' and trail off when declaring, '... saved by grace.'
By emphasizing the first part of the phrase, he said, it is easier to give in to sin because people believe that's just the way they are. But the truth of the Gospel is that even though humans are by nature sinners, those who have accepted Christ's work on the cross have been redeemed by grace and are now considered holy children of God, Giglio asserted."
Pointing to Colossians 1:24-27, which ends with, "Christ in you, the hope of glory," Giglio said the only way to conquer sexual immorality and other sin is to allow the self to die, admitting a total incapability of living without God and to accept the free gift of the Holy Spirit, which is Christ. "Christ in you, the hope of glory."
"There is not enough emotion, not enough energy, not enough bravo in this moment [at Passion] to break chains off of us that have been on us for a long, long time, in some cases for a lifetime," Giglio said. The power of Christ will enable a sinner to "stop the cycle" and live out a destiny as a holy child of God.
Passion participants toured a Mobilization area complete with nearly 100 tour guides on hand to answer questions and direct students to appropriate options for ministry.
"The Mobilization area is right smack in the middle of everything so you can just walk through there and see what God's heart is for all peoples," Giglio said. "We're not putting missions in a back room somewhere as an ancillary elective to the Christian life. But we're putting the Mobilization front and center because we believe everyone is called to God's global purposes."
Students gave an offering during one of the general sessions to help finance future Passion events throughout the world and to help with tsunami relief efforts in Southeast Asia.
Though heavily popular among the youth, the music is still controversial to the older generation of hymn singers, contemporary Christian music is now solely made up of this new type of rock/R&B influenced music set to lyrics of faith. This new generation called the 268 Generation named after Isaiah 26:8, "Yes, Lord, we wait for You in the path of Your judgments. Our desire is for Your and renown," the organization's "268 Declaration".
Passion was founded by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate Louie Giglio and his wife, Shelley, in 1997 as an outgrowth of their student ministry at Baylor University, and it has now reached hundreds of students on an international basis.
"We're a people passionate for God, surrendered to His glory, eager to spread His fame," Giglio said on the Passion website, 268generation.com.
Passion has held four major gatherings attracting tens of thousands of collegians and has sold millions of records with songs that have spun off to find their place in countless worship services worldwide.
Passion received press coverage in April following the New York Times article on the 3,000 strong gathering in the Beacon Theater in Manhattan for "Passion Experience," which was a city on the tour route. Passion was a worship gathering for college students rather than a concert.
"The songs' popularity comes not from Christian radio but from churches, and the musicians - who call themselves 'worship leaders' rather than performers - sing not about God, but to God. The audience sings as much as they do," The Times said.
At this last Passion worship, well-known Christian authors and speakers as John Piper, Joshua Harris and Beth Moore spoke with Giglio urging a crowd of over 11,000 college students to focus on God and let Him be the ultimate passion.
The latest musical development in the Passion movement was the release of an album called "Passion: Ancient and Modern Hymns -- Live Songs of Our Faith" last year. Though the Passion artists have written many of their own songs that helped propel a movement toward contemporary church services, they've never hesitated to use traditional hymns as well.
