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TechnoratiBack from a 22,000-student conference, stepping off the Grammy red carpet in Los Angeles, and after a couple of days of rest amid a rigorous winter tour schedule, Louie Giglio, founder of Choice Ministries, Passion Conferences and sixstepsrecords, says he and his team needed those two days of rest. After meeting Giglio and his family of rising worship artists, including Grammy nominee Chris Tomlin, at one of their stops in Fairfax, Va., during the “How Great is Our God” tour, The Christian Post caught up with Giglio over the phone to talk about Tomlin, the worship diet, going global, and astronomy.
(Photo: Hoganson Media Relations)Louie Giglio is founder of Choice Ministries, Passion Conferences and Sixsteps Records - label for such artists as Chris Tomlin and David Crowder Band.
CP: You've been going around on tour with what you call your 'family' this winter. When I saw all of you, it really did feel like you're a family, like brothers in a band traveling the country. Would you say you're at a different level this year with the success of Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman and the growth of your ministry?
Giglio: I don’t know if we’re at a different level or not. I do know that each time we stop somewhere and look out, there are more people sitting there than there were the time we came before. I think that’s just a reflection of the fact that what God’s doing is really touching the hearts of people and making a difference in their lives. That’s kind of the best things you can do to promote anything, I think, is to really just have God present. People walked away talking about Him and the difference that He made in their life. They know friends that they want to experience the same thing that they experienced and so the next time there’s an opportunity there, they’re bringing four or five of their friends.
I got an e-mail from a guy that was there Sunday night in New Jersey. He said, ‘I went to Passion. God did so much in my life. I went back to my church and started talking about the How Great is Our God Tour and I just stepped out in faith and rented a 47-seat bus and bought 47 tickets.’ And he said he went to his church and said ‘I want you to experience this’ and he wrote in the e-mail that they had sold all 47 tickets and the whole group was there. That’s not so much about us being at a different level. It’s just ... God doing something significant in somebody’s life and then them wanting the people that they care about to make sure they experience it as well.
CP: Chris Tomlin got his first Grammy nominations this year. Would you say that's a huge achievement, and where does this take you and your ministry? Or is this something that you weren't really focused on but it just happened?
Giglio: I think somewhere in between the two. We definitely did not set out as the goal to get Grammy nominations or to win a Grammy. What we set out to do, especially with Chris was to write songs that connect people to God and that will give voice to the church here in America and around the world in their worship. That’s the main thing we’re focused on doing.
The flip side of that is we’re in the music business. We make records, we sell records to people. To be recognized by that context in that community of artists, songwriters and musicians, it’s exciting. That means that other people have seen what’s going on in Chris’s life and through the music that he’s writing and God’s giving him and they’re recognizing that and recognizing him for what’s going on. The interview that he did last year with Time magazine, they came back and said more people are singing your songs around the world than any other person’s songs in the entire world. And if that’s true – it probably is true – then he should be recognized. It’s kind of a natural thing. It would be great if you were to be recognized in the writer field or in the journalism field, you know, if that’s your place and that’s where God planted you. Whether it’s an attorney or a bond trader or a journalist, or a musician or pastor, you want to do your best. You don’t want to seek acclaim. You don’t want to seek awards. You want to seek to do your best at what God’s given you. But at the same time I haven’t met very many people that would say in the process of doing their best that they don’t want to be recognized.Continue »
