Lifestyles

Passion ‘08: Going Global

September 20, 2007

By Beth Kinsey

The year 2008 will mark an advance in the sphere of influence for the Passion Conferences. Rather than hosting one annual conference within the United States, there will be four two-day conferences in the U.S., and the Passion team will take the conference to 20 different cities within 15 countries.

Founded in 1995 by Louie Giglio, Passion Conferences were started for the purpose of uniting college students in prayer and worship regardless of denomination or religious background.

The past year’s four-day conference, Passion ‘07, which took place Jan. 1-4 in Atlanta, Ga., consisted of 22,000 college students from all over the country. The theme of the conference was centered on Colossians 3 and the supremacy of Christ. Speakers at the conference included Louie Giglio, John Piper, Beth Moore and Francis Chan; worship was led by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and David Crowder, to name a few. The conference also focused on global outreach and offered students a variety of opportunities to take part in spreading the gospel to other nations.

Students Clayton McKibbin and Kinsey Kell were among the 25 MBU students who made the drive to Atlanta for the conference.

Reflecting on the conference, McKibbin stated, “It was really amazing to see so many college students from all different backgrounds united to grow in Christ and really truly putting their faith into action to glorify God and make sure His light is known.”

Kell was especially impressed with the organization of the conference in the way that the students were divided up into “community groups” consisting of 1,000 students, which were then broken down into smaller groups for the purpose of getting more personal growth and interaction. She said: “I thought I was doing good in my faith, and then I got there and everything changed…it rocked my world. It is now different than it was before I went to Passion.”

The next Passion Conference within the United States is scheduled for Oct. 19-20 in Chicago, Ill. More information on regional tours can be obtained on the official website: http://268generation.com/regionals07/ .

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