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TechnoratiCP: You recently came out of a huge Passion conference and next year you're planning to go global with the conference. You've even taken that initial step toward global outreach this year with your global awakening campaign. Why the move toward global outreach?
Giglio: Simply because we’ve been getting invited by college students primarily from countries all around the world for the last 10 years to come to their country and we’ve had a lot of e-mails from someone that’s in Singapore or Malaysia or Ireland and an e-mail often ends, ‘Is there any chance that Passion would ever consider coming to our town?’ And we’re always like, ‘Man, we’d love to come to your town.’ It’s a big enough challenge to do the big event in America every year or several events in America. So we’re just turning our focus and wanting to be able to say ‘yes’ to more of those people. We’re going to do seven regional events in the United States this coming winter and then in 2008, hopefully, we’ll be able to be in about 20 cities around the world.
CP: I hear again and again from Christian leaders that this generation of young people wants to engage in God's work and God's mission more than just talk about it or contribute financially to it. It's a passionate generation, as your conference name entails. What would you say is contributing to that passion?
Giglio: I think that there’s an underlying disillusionment with the status quo. That is cyclical in a way but it’s always, I think, a part of the idealism of being 21 years old. And you want your life to count, and more than ever in the last five years I’ve seen that emerging more and more on the college campus and students are figuring out that there’s nothing wrong with getting a great job and making a bunch of money. But what they’re also figuring out is that those two things don’t equate to your life counting for something. So I think the greater prize for people is that their lives make a difference that’s lasting.
So when they hear an opportunity that has eternal significance and a real direct connect like going to help translate the New Testament for a people group in Indonesia or going to build an orphanage for AIDS kids in Africa, they’re like, ‘Okay, I can easily make a connection from “a” to “b” – that if I go and invest my life doing that, it is going to cost me something in terms of the American dream. But it’s going to make an eternal impact and I can see that.’ So they’re a lot quicker to say, ‘Yes, I’ll go do that.’ And then the questions come back, ‘What about your career and your job opportunities and income and status?’ They say, ‘Well, I don’t know about all that. I just know that this is a need. This is God’s heart for the world. He’s looking for people, He always has been and I’m saying “yes” to Him and following Him without necessarily knowing what all the outcomes are going to be. Continue »
