Passion Packs NYC’s Beacon Theater; New York Times Reports

The Passion movement reached out in full force to New York City on April 15, packing the historic Beacon Theater with 3000 people for a free worship event featuring David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, and Charlie Hall, on a stage that had hosted American Idol winner Ruben Studdard the night before.

The Passion organization often seeks out major metropolitan areas where Christians lack support and conducts no-charge concerts to strengthen, connect, and encourage the local faith community. A similar event last year in Boston is now one of the largest college student meetings on record in that city.

Two days after the Beacon show, The New York Times, one of the largest newspapers in the world, ran a cover story on the gathering, titled “Christian Music’s New Wave.” Taking note of worship music’s continuing cultural impact and sales growth, reporter John Leland interviewed David Crowder, several other Christian music and ministry leaders, and wrote:

“…a recurring theme at Passion, besides the act of praise, was the diminution of the individual. Louie Giglio, one of the tour's founders, spoke to the crowd for about half an hour and prayed for ‘death to me and my story, and life to something so much bigger.’”
The complete story is available online at www.NYTimes.com

Many worship selections performed at the New York City event were from the new Passion CD, HYMNS ANCIENT & MODERN – LIVE SONGS OF OUR FAITH, available now. HYMNS features all-new concert recordings from David Crowder Band, Tomlin, Hall, Matt Redman, and Christy Nockels of church songs over 100 years old. Each track is uniquely updated with modern worship production and/or an additional new praise chorus, yet maintains the reverence of the original work. Tracks include “O Worship The King,” “Joyful, Joyful,” “Doxology,” Fairest Lord Jesus,” and “How Great Thou Art.”

For more about Passion and HYMNS ANCIENT & MODERN – LIVE SONGS OF OUR FAITH, click over to www.268generation.com