# Passion Conferences

Passion Conferences (also referred to as Passion and the 268 Generation, originally named Choice Ministries) is a Christian organization founded by Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin in 1997. The organization is known for its annual gatherings of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, more specifically college students.
The organization is also responsible for sixstepsrecords, the worship band Passion, and the megachurch Passion City Church, which serves as the organization's headquarters. Until 2009, the headquarters were in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. The first conference was Passion '97, held in Austin, Texas. According to the organization, its purpose is to unite college students for a "spiritual awakening in this generation." The foundation of the organization's purpose can be found in Isaiah 26:8.
Since its start, Passion Conferences has operated national conferences annually. In 2008, Passion Conferences launched its first global tour that visited 17 countries, starting in Kyiv, Ukraine and finishing in Sydney, Australia. Since then, Passion Conferences have continued to host gatherings and tours nationally and globally. Most conferences are held in Atlanta, Georgia, home of Passion's world headquarters, at either State Farm Arena or Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

## History
### 1985–1997: Early years

In 1985, Louie and Shelley Giglio founded Choice Ministries at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Choice Ministries began as a campus-based student ministry and after 10 years of ministry at Baylor, Louie and Shelley moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1997, Giglio along with Chris Tomlin founded Passion Conferences in Atlanta under the banner of Choice Ministries to see a spiritual awakening among college students all across the United States and the world.

### 1997–2007: National success

The first conference took place in Austin, Texas where thousands of college aged students came together during January 1–4, 1997. The first event had 2,000 students in attendance. The following year grew to 5,000 attendees in Fort Worth. Passion have hosted five more national gatherings in the next decade (1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007), which involved more than 70,000 college students in total. During this decade, thousands of additional college students connected with Passion through one of several other gatherings, including the OneDay Gatherings in 2000 and 2003 and the Passion Experience Tour. Passion also became known for its worship albums over this decade, which featured many prominent contemporary Christian artists like Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, and David Crowder.

### 2008–present: Passion City Church and world tours

In June 2008, while speaking for pastor Andy Stanley, Giglio announced the planting of Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia with Chris Tomlin. Along with Tomlin, Matt and Beth Redman, and a small core team, Passion City Church officially gathered in fall of 2008. Passion City Church held its first service on February 15, 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia at the Tabernacle. In 2017, Passion City Church announced plans to expand to two new locations - Passion City Church, Cumberland and Passion City Church, D.C.
Also in 2008, Passion Conferences embarked on its first world tour, reaching out to 17 different cities in all six continents. Passion has continued to launch world tours and regular tours throughout the years, including Passion NYC Subway Series, Regionals '07–'08, Passion 2010 University Tour, Passion 2012 University Tour, A Night of Worship with Passion Tour, Passion: Let the Future Begin Tour, and Passion: Take It All Tour.
In 2017, Passion held its annual collegiate event in Atlanta's Georgia Dome, former home of the Atlanta Falcons before renovations. That year, Passion encouraged participants to sponsor more than 7,000 children from Compassion International. The conference also saw the debut of sixsteprecords artist Jimi Cravity and the appearance of country music singer Carrie Underwood, which incited backlash from some right-wing Christian fundamentalists.
Passion 2019 was held in four sold-out arenas and churches throughout the United States, including Atlanta's State Farm Arena, Duluth's (Georgia) Infinite Energy Center, and in the cities of Dallas, Texas and Washington, D.C.
Passion 2020 was held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, a return to a single stadium. More than 50,000 people were in attendance, the largest of the Passion gatherings.
In 2024, Passion hosted its third conference at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with approximately 55,000 students in attendance from the evening of January 3 to the morning of January 5. Musical artists included Crowder, Sean Curran, Kari Jobe Carnes, Cody Carnes, Brooke Ligertwood, KB, Phil Wickham, and Brandon Lake. Speakers included Louie & Shelley Giglio, Sadie Robertson Huff & Christian Huff, Christine Caine, Ben Stuart, Levi Lusko, Jonathan Pokluda, and Earl McLellan.
In 2025, they brought together 40,000 people in two separate events.

## Conferences

Passion's annual conferences attract around 65,000 participants. The conference invites prominent Christian speakers and musical artists annually.

### Speakers

Pastor Louie Giglio, founder of Passion, often speaks during the conferences. John Piper is also a frequent speaker at Passion Conferences. Other speakers that have spoken at Passion Gatherings include: Francis Chan, Andy Stanley, Beth Moore, Judah Smith, Christine Caine, Carl Lentz, Lecrae, Gary Haugen, Ben Stuart, David Platt, Matt Chandler, Levi Lusko, and Jay and Katherine Wolf, authors of the book "Hope Heals".

### Music

Passion (worship band) has released 28 albums over two decades. Most of the Passion albums are live albums, recorded during performances in conferences or tours. Passion Conferences also owns the record label Sixstepsrecords, whose artist roster includes Crowder and Passion.
Sixstepsrecords artists form the core group of artists performing at the Passion Gatherings, including Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, Kristian Stanfill, Melodie Malone, Brett Younker, and Jimi Cravity.
Other artists that have performed at Passion Gatherings include Lecrae, Hillsong United, Jesus Culture, Kari Jobe, Tenth Avenue North, Shane and Shane, SonicFlood, Gungor, Rend Collective, and Sean Curran of Bellarive.

### Door holders

The men and women who volunteer at the conferences are called door holders. They serve on different teams such as community groups, logistics and registration and are considered to be at the core of the gatherings. They travel from all over the nation to serve at these gatherings. At various times throughout the year Passion City Church has special events for Door Holders.

## Charitable contributions

In 2011, Passion started the Do Something Now fundraising campaign, later renamed 72DaysForFreedom. The fundraising campaign encourages participants in Passion's annual conferences to donate to different charitable organizations. In the Passion 2011 conference, more than 22,000 students raised over $1.1 million towards multiple causes. At the 2012 conference, students raised $3.3 million to fund seven different organizations that battle sex trafficking. Passion 2013 saw the launch of the End It Movement, an anti-human trafficking fundraising campaign. Attendees gave more than $3.6 million towards various causes at this conference.
At the 2015 Atlanta conference, attendees collected items to donate to Atlanta's City of Refuge homeless ministry. In 2016, participants raised more than $800,000 towards Project Haraka حركة, a partnership with World Vision USA to fund the building of a health facility in Syria. The building is intended to serve as the first newborn ICU in opposition-controlled Syria. Passion 2017 saw the start of the Make History Together fundraising campaign, in which the organization partnered with Compassion International to sponsor children in poverty around the world. The students sponsored more than 7,000 children in total, including all of the Compassion International children from El Salvador, Rwanda, Indonesia, and Tanzania, and another 900 children from Bolivia, creating the largest surge of sponsorships in Compassion International's 65-year history.

## Music

Passion Conferences have released 28 albums over the span of 2 decades under the name Passion. Most of the Passion albums are live albums, recorded during performances in conferences or tours. Passion Conferences also owns sixstepsrecords, a record label that includes Crowder and Passion.
Passion's first record, Our Soul's Desire, was released in 1997 under Star Song Records. After Star Song artists transferred to Sparrow Records, Passion released two more live albums, including 1999's Better Is One Day, which saw Passion charting on the Billboard Christian Albums chart for the first time. In 2000, Passion Conferences founded sixstepsrecords as a division of Passion Conferences. As partners of Sparrow Records, a division of Capitol CMG, sixstepsrecords has many prominent contemporary Christian musicians under their label. Their first album on the newly created label, The Road to One Day, became the first Passion album to chart on the Billboard 200.
Since the creation of sixstepsrecords, Passion has released more than twenty more live albums and two studio albums, nine of which have consecutively charted at No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart. The lead single off of 2012's live album White Flag, "One Thing Remains", became Passion's first No. 1 song on the Billboard Christian Songs chart. Passion's Let The Future Begin (2013) and Take It All (2014) both peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, making them Passion's highest charting albums.

## Discography
### Live albums

| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Year | Title | US Christ | US |
| 1997 | Our Soul's Desire Label: Star Song Communications | — | — |
| 1998 | Live Worship from the 268 Generation Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: July 20, 1998 | — | — |
| 1999 | Better Is One Day Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: April 23, 1999 | 4 | — |
| 2000 | One Day Live Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: October 27, 2000 | 12 | 158 |
| 2002 | Our Love is Loud Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: April 9, 2002 | 4 | 77 |
| 2003 | Sacred Revolution: Songs From OneDay 03 Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: August 19, 2003 | 5 | 107 |
| 2004 | Hymns Ancient and Modern Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: February 24, 2004 | 8 | 163 |
| 2005 | How Great Is Our God Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: April 12, 2005 | 2 | 74 |
| 2006 | Everything Glorious Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: May 27, 2006 | 2 | 69 |
| 2008 | God of This City Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: February 5, 2008 | 3 | 74 |
| 2010 | Passion: Awakening Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: March 11, 2010 | 1 | 15 |
| 2011 | Passion: Here for You Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: March 8, 2011 | 1 | 11 |
| 2012 | Passion: White Flag Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: March 13, 2012 | 1 | 5 |
| 2013 | Passion: Let the Future Begin Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: March 12, 2013 | 1 | 4 |
| 2014 | Passion: Take It All Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: April 29, 2014 | 1 | 4 |
| 2015 | Passion: Even So Come Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: March 17, 2015 | 1 | 18 |
| 2017 | Worthy of Your Name Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release dates: February 17, 2017 (digital) March 24, 2017 (physical) Formats: CD, digital download | 1 | 32 |
| 2018 | Whole Heart Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release dates: February 23, 2018 (digital) March 23, 2018 (physical) Formats: CD, LP, digital download | 1 | 37 |
| 2019 | Follow You Anywhere Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release dates: January 3, 2019 (digital) February 1, 2019 (physical) Formats: CD, digital download | 3 | — |
| 2020 | Roar (Live from Passion 2020) Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release dates: March 6, 2020 (digital) | 5 | — |

### Studio albums

| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Year | Title | US Christ | US | US Latin Pop |
| 2000 | The Road to One Day Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: March 14, 2000 | 3 | 139 | — |
| 2016 | Passion: Salvation's Tide Is Rising Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release dates: January 1, 2016 (digital) January 29, 2016 (physical) | 1 | 19 | — |
| 2017 | Glorioso Día Label: Sparrow/sixstepsrecords Release date: September 1, 2017 | — | — | 12 |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

### Compilations and other releases

| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Notes |
| Year | Title | US Christ | US | Notes |
| 2005 | Passion 05 Released: 2005 Label: Format: one iTunes bundle, two songs | — | — | |
| 2006 | Passion: The Early Session Released: February 28, 2006 Label: SixSteps Format: Digital download | — | — | |
| 2006 | The Best of Passion (So Far) Released: December 26, 2006 Label: Sparrow / sixstepsrecords Format: 2xCD | 9 | 168 | |
| 2007 | Live From Passion07 Released: 2007 Label: Format: three iTunes bundles, two songs each | — | — | |
| 2008 | A Generation United for His Renown Released: May 20, 2008 Label: EMI CMG Format: CD | — | — | |
| 2014 | Passion: The Essential Collection Released: November 10, 2014 Label: Capitol CMG Format: CD/DVD | 9 | 133 | |

### Singles

List of singles and peak chart positions :
| Single | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Single | Year | US Christ. | US Christ. Airplay | US Christ. Digital | Album |
| "White Flag" (featuring Chris Tomlin) | 2012 | 8 | 8 | 3 | Passion: White Flag |
| "One Thing Remains" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2012 | 1 | 1 | 6 | Passion: White Flag |
| "The Lord Our God" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2013 | 18 | 18 | — | Passion: Let the Future Begin |
| "In Christ Alone" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2014 | 32 | 25 | — | Passion: Let the Future Begin |
| "My Heart Is Yours" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2014 | 13 | 12 | 32 | Passion: Take It All |
| "Even So Come" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2015 | 7 | 3 | — | Even So Come" (radio version / live) [digital single] |
| "Remember" (featuring Brett Younker & Melodie Malone) | 2016 | 16 | 16 | 27 | Passion: Salvation's Tide Is Rising |
| "Simple Pursuit" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2016 | 41 | 27 | — | Passion: Salvation's Tide Is Rising |
| "Glorious Day" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2017 | 25 | 19 | 14 | Worthy of Your Name |
| "God, You're So Good" (featuring Kristian Stanfill & Melodie Malone) | 2018 | — | 42 | — | Whole Heart |
| "God, You're So Good" (featuring Travis Greene) | 2018 | — | — | — | non-album single |
| "Follow You Anywhere" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2019 | 45 | 38 | — | Follow You Anywhere |
| "Step Into the Light" (featuring Sean Curran) | 2019 | — | — | — | Bigger Than I Thought |
| "Behold the Lamb" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2019 | — | — | — | Follow You Anywhere |
| "There's Nothing That Our God Can't Do" (live) (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2019 | 32 | 31 | — | Roar (Live from Passion 2020) |
| "King of Glory" (live) (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2019 | 44 | — | — | Roar (Live from Passion 2020) |
| "Way Maker" (live) (featuring Kristian Stanfill, Kari Jobe, and Cody Carnes) | 2020 | 39 | — | 9 | Roar (Live from Passion 2020) |

### Other charted songs

List of singles and peak chart positions :
| Single | Year | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Single | Year | US Christ | US Christ Digital | Album |
| "Burning In My Soul" (featuring Brett Younker) | 2013 | — | 41 | Passion: Let The Future Begin |
| "Come As You Are" (featuring Crowder) | 2014 | 43 | 24 | Passion: Take It All |
| "Salvation's Tide" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2016 | — | 46 | Salvation's Tide Is Rising |
| "Worthy of Your Name" (featuring Sean Curran) | 2017 | 27 | 8 | Worthy of Your Name |
| "This We Know" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2017 | 35 | 22 | Worthy of Your Name |
| "How Great Is Your Love" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2017 | 50 | — | Worthy of Your Name |
| "Whole Heart" (featuring Kristian Stanfill) | 2018 | 48 | — | Whole Heart |
| "Reckless Love" (featuring Melodie Malone) | 2018 | 31 | — | Whole Heart |
| "Welcome The Healer" (featuring Sean Curran) | 2019 | 42 | — | Follow You Anywhere |
| "Bigger Than I Thought" (featuring Sean Curran) | 2019 | 44 | — | Follow You Anywhere |