My last four days in letter form..

Dear Blog,

The last four days have been awesome. If you didn't know, Sunday I flew down to Nashville to volunteer with the Passion '05 conference which was put on by 268 Generation. Almost 11,000 college kids gathered in Nashville to make His name known. Here's the vision statement:

The heartbeat of Passion is the glory of God—specifically, a generation of students living radically for His name and campuses across the nation awakening to His fame. But, if we're honest, phrases like "living for His glory" can easily lose their meaning, a concept that on any given day is detached from the reality of our lives. Words are cheap. Life is hard. Making our lives count for what matters most is a worthy goal, but a serious proposition and a concept that must be thoroughly absorbed if our lives are going to be shaped by and for His renown.

That's why Passion is returning to our roots, again hosting a four-day gathering January 2-5, 2005 in Nashville, TN, as thousands of students merge from all across the nation to sink their hearts into the confession of Isaiah 26:8 and what it means to live all of life for the glory of God.

Most people have connected with Passion through one of the OneDay gatherings, the Passion Experience Tour or a worship CD, but all of these expressions of the Passion vision were born out of Passion's first three conferences in 1997-1999. Those four-day gatherings united over 18,000 college students with the desire to see God magnified in their lives, their campuses and throughout the earth. The domino effect of their lives has spawned a movement that has circled the globe and touched the lives of millions of people.

The beauty of Passion 05 is that not only will students worship together in an arena packed with thousands of faces representing campuses from every corner of the nation, they will have the chance to sit and process what God is doing in their lives with a small group of 8-12 students they connect with through the smaller community groups that make up the fabric of the conference.

What a way to start the year... and the rest of your life! Come together with your generation. Encounter God. Process truth. Join the movement for His renown.

I had an awesome time. I don't want to get into the beautiful details of everything that went on, so I'll just give you a general overview. If you want specific details, I will be estatic to share them with you.

The days consisted of community groups (of 800-1,000 kids) in the mornings and evenings, along with main sessions for everybody that also took place in the morning and evening. In the afternoon, there were breakout sessions, led by various folks. And I would like to say for the record, that the worship during this conference was awesome. I feel certain that I got a glimpse of heaven over the past couple of days. Worship sessions led by Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, David Crowder, and Chris Tomlin, left me wanting more. Blog, it was so awesome worshipping in a corporate setting with 11,000 other people. There were times when the worship leader wanted to stop, but the students wouldn't, so they had to either keep going, or start playing the next song immediately.

And I got a lot personally out of this time. I've felt encouraged to get a better grasp and understanding of why I believe what I believe. I've also been encouraged to develop what David Crowder calls a Praise Habit. In a nutshell, a Praise Habit is a way to keep worship real and relevant in your life by not just settling for the same old daily devotional routine.

So Blog, I had a great time. It left a sweet, sweet taste in my mouth and I anxiously await the opportunity to volunteer at the next Passion event.

Always,

Stephen