Thousands of students gathered in the past three weeks to attend the Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta Passion Conferences hosted by Louie and Shelley Giglio for days of worship, praise and teaching.
Major names including Sadie Robertson Huff, Tim Tebow, Jackie Hill Perry, Brandon Lake, Kari Jobe and Elevation Worship all brought something slightly different to the table to encourage students to live based on the Word of God and not the way of the world.
“This year we decided that there’s not going to be one thing that we go after with more passion, with more sacrifice, with more endurance, with more speed than for the cause of Christ,” college football hall of famer Tebow said.
Conference lead speaker Sadie Robertson Huff encouraged students to stay true to the Word of God with their lifestyles to grow a deeper relationship with Christ:
“When we talk to Jesus, we come to Him with all of our spiritual language. Acting as if He doesn’t know anything about all of the other conversations we have. Acting as if He doesn’t see every other moment in life,” Robertson Huff says. “We dress in our Sunday best. We come to God in our perfect practiced prayer, we worship—we do all these things, but it looks nothing like the rest of our life.”
Passion Conferences were born in 1997 out of Louie and Shelley Giglio’s heart for students, that they would have a time to worship and grow through the Holy Spirit’s power. Louie Giglio continues to stay faithful to this message of what God can do, as he shared during a recent message at Passion City Church.
“We really just want to believe God’s still working and we might just be living in something that’s starting to look like revival,” Giglio said.
While the statistics may tell us that Christianity is on the decline, it’s gatherings like Passion that show all hope is not lost for the next generation. While many may not see God as pertinent to their lives, there are still plenty of Millennials and Gen Zers who are devoted to their faith and will cling to Jesus no matter what it may cost them.
In 1 Kings 19 as Elijah ran in fear of Jezebel, he truly believed in the moment that he was the only one left who loved the Lord. It was at this time God reminded him that there were 7,000 others who refused to worship Baal. Just as Elijah felt alone to continue God’s call on his life, Christians today are feeling the disintegration of the culture built around faith for a secular replacement. In fact, only 40% of Gen Zers grew up attending church services, compared to 57% of Baby Boomers as children, which seemingly shows the disappearance of Christianity’s pillars within less than a hundred years.
However, there are more than merely 7,000 Christians around us—there are millions! And there are brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world. God has not left us alone, and He is sharpening the next generation to spread His Gospel at all costs.
Abby Trivett is copywriter for Charisma and an editorial intern.
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