The only noise heard on a cool night in Downtown Atlanta is the clanging of feet on gutter covers just outside of the Georgia Dome.
No sound, but music from the worship session just minutes before still rings in the ears and sits on the minds of over 60,000 college students walking the short distances to their small groups of people that they have known for a few days, if that.
It's not an awkward silence. It's not a cold silence. It's not an eerie silence.
It's a warm silence. A strong silence. A moving silence. An intriguing silence.
A passionate silence.
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I've been a little nervous about the mega-church phenomenon that has become a part of American Christian culture. It's awesome that more and more churches are growing and spreading, but I sometimes question the effectiveness--and the accuracy--of the message that these large congregations are being told.
I haven't been to many churches (ok, I've only been to one church), but going to a conference with an attendance estimated to be greater than 60,000 people gave me some questions and made me a little skeptical. How impacted would I be? How serious for God would these people be? How much will I really get out of this?
The ending judgment resulted with a mix of jaw-dropping, eye-opening, humbling, amazing and uniting awesomeness...an omnipresent sense of joy that can not be contained in a blog post, in a dome, or even in the atmosphere...a light that shines brighter than a three-mile beam of light illuminating the Atlanta night.
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The impressive lights. The huge crowds of people and the constant pedestrian swarms walking to the dome and back. The star musicians in the Christian music genre. An all-star cast of preachers from across the country. The ridiculous budget needed to put on such a spectacle. There's a lot of potential distractions that can take a person's mind off of the main focus the message. Give the staff credit...instead of inwardly placing the focus on themselves, the Passion team wisely reflects the image of the one that the focus should be put on.
That would be God. Jesus. The three in one. You get the idea....
On top of that alone, which would be enough of a reason to be excited and passionate about everything at this conference, is the drive and compassion and will to change the world's current state, particularly in the form of abolishing modern-day slavery.
It's been on Facebook, Twitter, any social media outlet, and even on CNN news several times (The Freedom Project) (Passion 2013) (Louie Giglio's CNN interview), but the movement supporting this fight, known as the End It Movement (@enditmovement / End It Movement) is just a point of action and awareness to a problem that has been going on continuously all over the world long before Passion...understandably so, there are already skeptical people out there saying 'these kids won't do anything....they'll just forget about it in a few months...everyone just needs a cause.'
Like almost any average person that hears about this for the first time, many of the 60,000 were unaware of the issue at hand (myself included). Unlike almost any average person or generation that hears about this for the first time, there is now a fire lit. Watch out world, this generation has arrived...with an army of One and thousands more.
Twenty Seven Million, by Matt Redman and LZ7
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