A crowd of more than 50,000 young adults recently gathered at an Atlanta, Georgia, stadium to worship God, adding to what church leaders believe is a “revival” among America’s youth.
Tens of thousands of 18 to 25-year-olds sold out the Passion 2024 conference, hosted by Atlanta’s Passion City Church from January 3-5, reported the Western Journal.
“I think we’re definitely in a season of awakening. The Holy Spirit is stirring right now,” said lead pastor Louie Giglio in a video posted ahead of the event, which took place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“If 50,000 students are going to come so that they can worship God and offer their lives to him, there’s an awakening happening in our generation,” he said.
The Passion conferences have been growing ever since Giglio and his wife began hosting them in 1997.
In addition to the head pastor, the event’s speakers featured Duck Dynasty star Sadie Robertson Huff, Pastor Jonathan Pokluda, and Pastor Levi Lusko, CBN News reported.
Worship music leaders, including Brandon Lake, Kari Jobe, Phil Wickam, and Kristian Stanfill, also headlined the conference.
Lake and Wickam shared a moving clip to Instagram, showing the whole stadium singing along to Lake’s hit song, “Gratitude.”
Another pastor in attendance, Josh Engen, posted a clip from the moment he called a “glimpse of heaven.”
“Nothing you can do will ever be enough to get you to holy, holy, holy. Jesus did enough to bring you from death to life and into a relationship with a Holy God. It is not a system. It is a Savior,” Pastor Giglio told conference attendees.
The popular Christian event is reminiscent of when a spontaneous revival broke out at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, in February 2023.
“Tens of thousands traveled to the Methodist college to experience God during a chapel service that went 24 hours a day for nearly two-straight weeks,” the Western Journal reported.
Since then, several other massive gatherings of young Christians have taken place at other university campuses, churches, and stadiums.
Michael Maiden, lead pastor of Church for the Nations in Phoenix, Arizona, compared the spiritual movement to popping popcorn.
“Whenever you start popcorn or start heating it, nothing happens. Then, all of a sudden, a kernel pops, then another one, then a bunch. It’s like a multiplying factor takes over, and before you know it, the whole bag is ready to be eaten,” he told the Journal.
“I see the first kernels of revival happening — the popping,” Maiden observed, pointing to the phenomenon of massive church gatherings happening across the country.
“There are measurable signs in the culture,” he continued. “Not of a broad, complete revival, but the beginning kernels popping or … the first waves of something good happening.
“So I’ve 1,000 percent confidence that the greatest spiritual awakening in our country’s history is in its beginning stage, and these next years, we’re going to see it,” Maiden said.
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