Passion Music Review: Songs, Theology and a Catholic Verdict

Who Are Passion Music?

Passion is the worship band of Passion Conferences, an Atlanta-based ministry that gathers students aged 18 to 25 for worship and preaching. The band is a rotating team of worship leaders recorded live at the gatherings, and its albums are released on sixstepsrecords, the label Passion founded in 2000.

The movement belongs to Louie Giglio, an Atlanta native born in 1958 who studied at Georgia State University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1985 Louie and Shelley Giglio began a weekly Bible study called Choice at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In 1995 they moved to Atlanta, and in January 1997 they held the first Passion conference in Austin, Texas, with about 2,000 students. Chris Tomlin, who had led worship for Giglio's teaching at Texas A&M, was there at the start.

The voices most associated with Passion over three decades include Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman, Christy Nockels and Charlie Hall. Today Kristian Stanfill, Brett Younker and Melodie Malone are among the regular leaders, and Kristian Stanfill led worship on the opening night of Passion 2026, as The Christian Post reported.

Chris Tomlin and Passion

Passion cannot be told without Chris Tomlin. Born in 1972 in Grand Saline, Texas, he helped launch Passion in 1997, signed to sixstepsrecords in 2000, and wrote How Great Is Our God with Jesse Reeves and Ed Cash in 2004. He won a Grammy in 2012, recorded Holy Forever in 2022 and, in 2025, built a new song from the oldest surviving Christian hymn with musical notation. He has stayed close to Giglio and Passion City Church throughout. Our full profile of Chris Tomlin, his songs and his faith tells the whole story.

Passion Timeline: 1985 to 2026

Passion grew from a campus Bible study into one of the largest Christian youth gatherings in the world. Here are the dated milestones.

• 1985: Louie and Shelley Giglio start Choice, a weekly Bible study at Baylor University.
• 1997: The first Passion conference meets in Austin, Texas, on 1 to 4 January, with about 2,000 students. The first record, Our Soul's Desire, follows.
• 1998: Passion gathers about 5,000 students in Fort Worth.
• 1999: Better Is One Day becomes Passion's first album on the Billboard Christian Albums chart.
• 2000: Passion founds sixstepsrecords. The Road to One Day becomes its first album on the Billboard 200.
• 2008: Passion's first world tour visits 17 cities on six continents, from Kyiv to Sydney. In June, Giglio announces Passion City Church while speaking at the church of his friend Andy Stanley.
• 2009: Passion City Church holds its first service on 15 February at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, with Chris Tomlin and Matt and Beth Redman on the founding team.
• 2012: One Thing Remains becomes Passion's first number one on Billboard's Christian Songs chart. Students give $3.3 million to fight human trafficking.
• 2013 and 2014: Let the Future Begin and Take It All both reach number four on the Billboard 200, Passion's highest-charting albums. The End It Movement against trafficking launches in 2013.
• 2017: At the Georgia Dome, students sponsor more than 7,000 children through Compassion International.
• 2020: More than 50,000 attend Passion 2020 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. In June, Giglio apologises for his "white blessing" remarks (see the controversies below).
• 2024: About 55,000 students gather at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The live album Call on Heaven is recorded there.
• 2026: Passion 2026 meets at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on 1 to 3 January.

Attendance figures are Passion's own.

What Does Passion Sound Like, and What Are Its Biggest Songs?

Passion sounds like a stadium full of students singing together: guitar-driven anthems, simple melodies built for thousands of untrained voices, and long live builds recorded in arenas. Almost every album is a live record, so the crowd is part of the sound.

The songs that came through Passion and stayed in the churches are rooted in plain Scripture. Here are titles and facts, with the passage under each. Read the passage before you sing the song again.

• How Great Is Our God (2004). Chris Tomlin's anthem, first heard by many at Passion. It draws on Psalm 104:1-2 and Philippians 2:9-11.
• Lord, I Need You (2011). Written by Matt Maher, a Catholic, with others, and recorded by Passion, it became a staple of the gatherings. It prays like Psalm 86:1, a cry of the poor and needy.
• One Thing Remains (2012). A song written by Bethel's Brian Johnson, Jeremy Riddle and Christa Black and recorded by Passion with Kristian Stanfill. It became Passion's first number one on Billboard's Christian Songs chart. Its theme is the love that never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).
• Even So Come (2015). An Advent cry for Christ's return from the last prayer of the Bible, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20).
• Salvation's Tide Is Rising (2016). The title song of a studio album about the spread of the gospel to the nations (Habakkuk 2:14).
• Glorious Day (2017). A conversion story told as a resurrection: dead in sin, raised by grace (Ephesians 2:4-6).
• Worthy of Your Name (2017). The title track of that year's album, echoing the worthiness hymn of Revelation 5:12.

Passion says three of its singles, Glorious Day, Even So Come and One Thing Remains, have been certified Gold by the RIAA. In 2017 Passion also recorded a live version of Build My Life, the Housefires song (see our Housefires review).

What Does Passion City Church Teach?

Passion City Church teaches mainstream evangelical Protestant doctrine: the authority of Scripture, the Trinity, the virgin birth, the atoning death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, salvation by grace through faith, and life lived in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Its published statement of beliefs sets these out in ten short points.

• Scripture. The church affirms "the accuracy, truth, authority and power of the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God."
• One God in three persons. God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each distinct, all of one essence.
• The cross. The death of Jesus is described as "the final and complete sacrifice for the sins of humanity", and salvation is "by grace through faith".
• The glory of God. The statement quotes the Westminster Shorter Catechism: "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
• Whole-life worship. Worship must cover "our entire existence", in word and action.

Passion's founding verse is Isaiah 26:8, "your name and renown are the desire of our hearts", which is why the movement calls its students the "268 Generation". Giglio trained at a Southern Baptist seminary, and the gatherings have hosted preachers from Reformed circles, such as John Piper, alongside speakers like Christine Caine and Francis Chan. The movement is evangelical, God-centred and mission-minded, and its students have given millions of dollars to fight human trafficking and to sponsor children through Compassion International.

For background on the families of churches behind Passion, see our guides to the Southern Baptist Convention and nondenominational Christianity.

A Catholic Review of Passion's Lyrics and Theology

A Catholic reading of Passion finds a great deal that is true, a few things that are missing, and specific points where Catholic teaching differs. Here is each, plainly.

What is true

• God comes first. Passion's songs are overwhelmingly about God's greatness, holiness and love. The Catechism calls adoration "the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator" (CCC 2628). That is the heart of Passion's catalogue.
• The Trinity and the cross. Passion's lyrics confess the triune God and the saving death and resurrection of Christ without hedging.
• Longing for Christ's return. Even So Come prays the oldest Christian prayer, "Maranatha", Come, Lord (1 Corinthians 16:22). Catholics pray the same longing at every Mass: "until you come again."
• The glory of God as life's purpose. The Westminster line Passion quotes agrees with the first lines of the Catechism, which say God created us "to share in his own blessed life" (CCC 1).

What is missing

• The sacraments. Passion's songs speak of meeting God in worship and in the heart. They rarely mention baptism, confession or the Eucharist, where Catholics believe Christ acts with certainty. For Catholics the Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life" (CCC 1324).
• The communion of saints. Mary and the saints, our companions in praise (Hebrews 12:1), are absent, as you would expect from an evangelical movement.
• The Church. The songs speak to God as "I" and sometimes "we". Catholic worship adds the voice of the whole Church across time.

Where Catholic teaching differs

• The once-for-all sacrifice. Catholics agree completely that Christ's sacrifice on the cross is final and complete (Hebrews 10:10). The Church teaches that the Mass makes that one sacrifice present: "The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice" (CCC 1367). Evangelicals generally deny this.
• Grace and faith. Catholics also teach salvation by grace (CCC 1996), received in faith and baptism and lived in charity. Lutherans and Catholics found deep agreement here in 1999, explained in our guide to the Joint Declaration on Justification.
• Authority. Passion's statement rests on Scripture. The Church reads Scripture within Tradition under the teaching office (CCC 95).

Can Catholics Sing Passion Songs?

Yes, Catholics may sing Passion songs whose words are true, in private prayer, youth groups, retreats and parish events, and most of the catalogue passes that test easily. At Mass the standard is stricter. Here are both sides, then the rules.

Arguments for

• Most Passion songs are psalms, prophets and Revelation set to music, and the Church recognises "elements of sanctification and of truth" outside her visible structure (CCC 819).
• Passion has carried a Catholic songwriter's prayer, Matt Maher's Lord, I Need You, into evangelical churches. Song has travelled in both directions.
• Paul tells believers to sing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16), and many young Catholics first prayed from the heart at a Passion gathering.

Arguments for caution

• Lex orandi, lex credendi. What we pray shapes what we believe (CCC 1124). A playlist that never names the Eucharist, Our Lady or the saints will slowly train a Catholic to forget them.
• The stadium feeling. A crowd of 50,000 can produce an emotion that the following Tuesday cannot sustain. Faith rests on God's word (CCC 155), and the Mass is just as real on a quiet weekday.
• The forgotten treasury. The Second Vatican Council called the Church's musical tradition "a treasure of inestimable value" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 112).

The Mass rules

• Sacrosanctum Concilium 116 gives Gregorian chant "pride of place" in the Roman liturgy, while other kinds of sacred music are not excluded.
• Sacrosanctum Concilium 121 requires texts for sacred song to be "in conformity with Catholic doctrine" and drawn "chiefly from holy scripture and from liturgical sources."
• The General Instruction of the Roman Missal 41 repeats that chant holds pride of place, other things being equal, and asks that the faithful be able to sing parts of the Ordinary together.
• GIRM 366 forbids substituting other songs for the chants of the Order of Mass, such as the Agnus Dei. No Passion song may replace the Gloria, the Holy, Holy or the Lamb of God.

In practice, a song like Lord, I Need You or How Great Is Our God may suit a parish's entrance, communion or closing hymn where the pastor and musicians judge it fitting. The US bishops' Sing to the Lord (2007) asks whether a piece is liturgically, pastorally and musically fit. Some Catholics hold that this music belongs outside the liturgy altogether. Both positions are held in good faith.

Has Passion Faced Scandals or Controversies?

Passion's worship band has no documented scandal, and we found no report of misconduct by its worship leaders. Its founder, Louie Giglio, has faced three documented public controversies. Here is each, dated, with the source and the response on record.

2013: the inauguration benediction

In January 2013 Giglio withdrew from giving the benediction at President Barack Obama's second inauguration, after ThinkProgress published audio of a 1990s sermon in which he called homosexuality a sin, as ABC News and NPR reported at the time. Giglio said his participation and his prayer would likely be overshadowed by those seeking to make their own agenda the focus of the day. The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law (CCC 2357) and that every person with same-sex attraction must be accepted "with respect, compassion, and sensitivity" (CCC 2358). Both halves matter.

2017: Carrie Underwood at Passion

In January 2017 country star Carrie Underwood made a surprise appearance at Passion 2017 in the Georgia Dome, singing with David Crowder. The American Family Association's Wesley Wildmon published an open letter to Giglio objecting to her public support for same-sex marriage, as The Christian Post and Taste of Country reported. Coverage at the time said Passion did not respond to requests for comment. See our profile of Carrie Underwood.

2020: the "white blessing" remarks

On Sunday 14 June 2020, in a recorded conversation about race at Passion City Church with Chick-fil-A chief executive Dan Cathy and the rapper Lecrae, Giglio suggested replacing the phrase "white privilege" with "white blessing", and spoke of slavery as having built the framework of the world white people live in. NBC News, The Daily Beast and Relevant Magazine reported the backlash. Lecrae, in his own video statement, said he was not okay with the phrase and had raised his concerns with Giglio privately.

On 16 June 2020 Giglio posted a video apology. NBC News reported that he called "white blessing" a "horrible choice of words" and said, "I don't, to be clear, believe there is any blessing in slavery." He said he had been trying to say that white Americans sit where they are largely because of centuries of injustice done to Black Americans. Our profile of Lecrae covers his side of the conversation.

The Catholic position on the substance is clear. The seventh commandment forbids any act that leads to "the enslavement of human beings" (CCC 2414), every person shares equal dignity (CCC 1935), and the US bishops' 2018 pastoral letter against racism, Open Wide Our Hearts, calls racism a sin. Giglio apologised quickly and publicly. Weigh the episode as you would want your own worst sentence weighed: by the words, the correction and the life around them. For the wider debate, see our guide to Catholic social justice.

What there is no record of

We found no documented financial, abuse or leadership scandal involving Passion Conferences, Passion City Church or the Passion band, and no documented scandal involving Chris Tomlin. Give them credit for that. Many ministries of this size cannot say the same, as our guide to church scandals shows.

Our Verdict: Is Passion Music Good for a Catholic?

Passion is one of the safest and most fruitful evangelical worship catalogues a Catholic can use. Our rating: strong for personal prayer, youth ministry and retreats; use with judgement at Mass; pair it with the Church's own music.

• Where Passion helps. It is God-centred, Scripture-heavy and Trinitarian. Songs like How Great Is Our God, Lord, I Need You and Even So Come can be prayed by a Catholic without editing a word. Its students' generosity against trafficking is a real fruit.
• Where to be careful. The catalogue says almost nothing about the sacraments, Mary or the Church, so a Passion-only diet will thin out a Catholic imagination. The arena style can make faith feel like an event you attend once a year.
• The founder's record. Giglio's 2020 remarks were a real failure in speech, and his apology was prompt. There is no record of the kind of misconduct that has broken other ministries.

Which Catholic Music Should You Pair With Passion?

The best companion to Passion is Catholic music that carries the same adoration with the sacraments and the saints included. Start with these real artists and traditions.

• Matt Maher. A Catholic songwriter who has sung at Passion. Lord, I Need You and Your Grace Is Enough already sit in evangelical setlists, and his Christ Is Risen is an Easter song for any parish.
• Sarah Hart. A Catholic songwriter whose work is sung in parishes and at Catholic youth events.
• The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Their album Mater Eucharistiae brought sung Marian and Eucharistic prayer to a wide audience.
• The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Their recordings of chant and polyphony, such as Advent at Ephesus, are ideal for the quiet after a loud week.
• Gregorian chant. The Te Deum, the Salve Regina and the chants of the Mass are the music the Council gave "pride of place" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 116). Learn one this month.

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What Can You Learn From Passion, and What Habit Should You Start Today?

Passion teaches that young people will give everything for a God who is great enough, and that worship spills over into action. Take those lessons home with a simple daily habit.

Three lessons

• Make God's name the desire of your heart. Isaiah 26:8 is a good verse to pray each morning before your phone.
• Worship should cost you something. Passion students sponsored thousands of children. Ask what your praise is costing you this month.
• Speak carefully and repent quickly. Giglio's 2020 apology is a lesson in owning a bad sentence fast. "Let your speech always be gracious" (Colossians 4:6).

A seven-day Passion-to-Mass habit

Fifteen minutes a day. Start tonight, because no one knows the day or the hour (Mark 13:32).

1. Day 1, How Great Is Our God. Pray Psalm 104 aloud, then name ten things God made that you saw today.
2. Day 2, Lord, I Need You. Make a slow examination of conscience and book your next confession.
3. Day 3, One Thing Remains. Read 1 Corinthians 13 and do one unseen act of love.
4. Day 4, Glorious Day. Read Ephesians 2:1-10. Write down the day God first became real to you and thank him.
5. Day 5, Even So Come. Read Revelation 22:12-21. Pray "Come, Lord Jesus" ten times, slowly.
6. Day 6, Worthy of Your Name. Pray the Glory Be after each decade of a Rosary.
7. Day 7, the Mass. Go to Mass. Sing the Holy, Holy with your whole voice, because the Church teaches you are joining the angels.

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