Interview With Louie Giglio

From his humble (and somewhat awkward) beginnings of working with college age students to his hosting 11,000 of them recently at a Passion event in Nashville… speaker, author and visionary of the Passion movement Louie Giglio has been trying to impact the college students life and culture. The contribution the Passion movement and the worship songs/artists it has birthed since has made quite an impact on modern church music as well. We thought we could all benefit from hearing Louie’s story and by getting a good look at what spurs him on today.

WM: Tell us where you started and how you got to this point.

Louie: My story is college students. I ended up at Baylor University kind of by accident in 1985. I mean, I actually knew I was driving there at the time, so not that much by accident, I was enrolling in grad school there after seminary. My wife was there. But I didn’t know what God’s purposes were until I got there.

With a small band of students, we started a Bible study at Baylor University, a campus of 11,000 students, and in about five years, there were 1400 college students coming to this Bible study every Monday night. For ten years, that was my life. And the Bible study was simple: it was worship and music. Granted, it was ’88, ’89, ’92, we weren’t blowing anything out of the water; we weren’t cutting edge like now, but I remember getting an Integrity music tape in 1988, and let me tell you what happened. This guy had sequenced four worship songs together! The CD was called Glorify Thy Name; it had a star on the front. I got our group together, and I said, The songs are joined together! Wow! It was a huge revelation. We literally put the words on overhead transparencies and played the tape at our Bible study.

That’s where worship was in 1987. That’s where we were living. It was unbelievable. And midi keyboard and sequencing and programming—that was the world. It was flat-out cutting edge for our time there, but we did two things: We wanted students to encounter God in musical expressions of worship, where they could be free, uninhibited. And we taught the Word of God—no holds barred, no messing around, it was a call to follow Jesus Christ. Worship in music and strong teaching of the Word, that’s all we did. We didn’t serve free food, we didn’t have dramas, we didn’t do anything else. And I mean students just poured into this thing. For ten years, that was my life.

We transitioned in 1995 to Atlanta, because my dad was ill. My dad was disabled several years before, and finally my wife and I felt the release of God to go help my mom take care of my dad. So we left our ministries at Baylor to our staff and moved to Atlanta. I was going to work at Home Depot. I didn’t have a ministry; I was just going to help my mom take care of my dad. Our last Monday night Bible study in Waco, before we literally moved to Atlanta, was the day we buried my dad. He died in the process of us getting to Atlanta, and now here we were in no man’s land. We couldn’t go back to Waco. We were in Atlanta, and we didn’t know why.

Jdizzel Moviezzil Reviewzzl

RoBoTS
I have to say this one was a lot better then me and Kristin expected it to be. We honestly rented it about 5 days ago and just now watched it. We were shocked to say it was great. We love every minute of it. Think Aladdin genie in a tin suite. Robin williams was definitely my favorite character as I imagine he will be yours as well. Go rent this one it's a good date night movie.


The Gospel
We went and saw a movie called "“The Gospel"” done by Kirk Franklin primarily, and it was surprisingly alright. It did however make me cry (good cry) so guys be aware. But it was very low budget which a lot of times kept me distracted in picking out all the flaws instead of watching the movie. But I still recommend seeing it, for some of you though, take into consideration that this may be a renter for you. The thing that disappointed me most was the audio quality, and it wasn't the movie theatre it was definitely the movie. So they didn'’t spend a whole lot of money on getting the audio professionally done, which is rather shocking with Kirk being such a vital role in producing this and with Fred Hammond who has his own studio being a big time gospel producer. It sounded like they put in a cd and lip sung over it. All in all it is a powerful movie deal primarily with the story of the prodigal son.

The "Lead Worshipper" vs. The "Worship Leader"

When Jesus was asked what was the "greatest commandment" of all, he replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30) That sums up all that we are called to be as believers in Jesus, and the primary focus of our lives. That why we're here. As worship leaders, we're called to assist others in that pursuit. Our own worship life doesn't always reflect that. We've got to get our "loves straight" in order to get our lives straight to be able to motivate and encourage others in expressing their love to God. We're called not just to direct worship, but to model it as "lead worshippers."

Bands to Check Out

Here are a few bands I have been listening to lately. You should check them out, and if you have the means get them they are oh so choice.

Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
This is a 2 cd set that both cd's are great the bonus cd is all acoustic stuff.

Lincoln Brewster - All to You...Live
Definitely the best thing Lincoln has put out ever...in my opinion.

At the Drive-In - Anthology
If you have ever heard At the Drive-In then this is for you. This is a 2 cd set that the first is just a compilation of all of there best stuff and the second is actually a dvd of some of there videos and live shows, which is great for people like me who never got to see them live

Life House (the new one)
I like the sound that they bring out of this album, vocals are still weak. But the sound reminds me a little of how my friend, Brian Edwards mixes

Arcade Fire - Funeral
This is just one of the best new sounding albums out there right now and if you take a plane trip this one is a must have.

Innovation...Innosmation

Watch out! So full of innovation and yes I had some gas, that we might just hurt you. Watch out Bradenton/Sarasota because they are gonna run wild on you. Wooooo. Sorry I've been getting really into Wrestling lately. I am a nerd!