Passion

Louie Giglio launched both a ministry and an associated brand that introduced an alternative flavor to Christian praise and worship music through the yearly Passion conferences. Founded in Atlanta during 1997, the outfit operates sixstepsrecords while promoting the globally recognized worship ensemble Passion, which has released dozens of albums across the years. Among these standouts are the chart-topping Awakening from 2010, Even So Come in 2015, Whole Heart in 2018, and Roar: Live from Passion 2020. Into the early 2020s the project sustained its pattern of yearly live documents drawn from the conferences, such as the 2024 release Call on Heaven. Also known on occasion as Passion Music, the endeavor propelled the careers of CCM standouts including Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, and Christy Nockels.

Following ten years building a thriving student ministry at Baylor University in Texas, Giglio and his wife Shelley relocated to Atlanta in 1995 to establish the Passion conferences as a nationwide collegiate outreach that combined live worship music with teaching to inspire youth toward living for God’s glory. The movement’s flagship gatherings took the form of multi-day festival-style events whose crowds expanded rapidly from several thousand at the inaugural 1997 meeting to as many as 40,000 by 2000. Beginning with the 1998 follow-up in Austin, Texas, Passion began capturing the musical segments of these annual events on live worship recordings that carried an alternative sensibility. Charlie Hall served as the original worship leader, yet additional voices soon joined, among them Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band, Christy Nockels, and Matt Redman.

Rising demand for the live albums and the individual songs of these worship artists prompted Giglio to found sixstepsrecords as a creative center for the broader Passion collective. Within that family, Tomlin and David Crowder Band attained superstar stature, the former delivering the label’s first RIAA gold-certified album via 2004’s Arriving. An array of awards, nominations, and high placements on Billboard’s Christian charts elevated the Passion and sixsteps imprints to leading status in contemporary worship music, with countless of their songs performed by millions of congregants nationwide.

In 2006 sixsteps issued the two-disc retrospective The Best of Passion (So Far) to mark the movement’s first decade. The annual concerts solidified as a praise and worship staple, yielding further live albums such as 2006’s Everything Glorious, 2008’s God of This City, 2011’s Passion: Here for You, and 2012’s White Flag. Let the Future Begin appeared in 2013, its motivational lyrics and uptempo beats reflecting the title, while 2014’s Take It All included a bonus concert film with the physical edition.

Three distinct live sessions at the 2015 Passion conference took place at both Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, and Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, resulting in the album Even So Come that captured performances by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels, Kristian Stanfill, and additional artists. After the 2016 studio album Salvation’s Tide Is Rising, Passion marked its twentieth anniversary with the 2017 live recording Worthy of Your Name, which introduced new material composed for the occasion and spotlighted Kristian Stanfill, Brett Younker, and Melodie Malone of the Passion Band. Whole Heart followed in 2018 and reached the Top 40 on the Billboard 200. The 2019 release Follow You Anywhere appeared early that year, succeeded soon after by Roar: Live from Passion 2020. Subsequent live documents from the conferences encompassed 2022’s Burn Bright, 2023’s I’ve Witnessed It, and 2024’s Call on Heaven.