Louie Giglio on Winter Jam 2020: Jesus is relevant to every age, economic status
Passion City Church Pastor Louie Giglio will be a guest speaker at Winter Jam 2020 and says, like the popular tour, his mission is to share Jesus with all the world regardless of age, economic status or standing in the church.
The Winter Jam Tour Spectacular is known for bringing Christian music's biggest names on tour together to inspire families all across the country. The popular first-quarter tour will kick off a new decade in 2020 with award-winning singer/songwriter Crowder as the headliner.
Heading to 42 cities around the United States, Winter Jam, known for it’s “no ticket required”/$15 donation at the door, will have acclaimed pastor, author, speaker and Passion Movement founder Louie Giglio on selected dates. Also in the lineup is rapper Andy Mineo, pop group Building 429, the rock band RED, singer/songwriter Austin French and Winter Jam creators and tour hosts NewSong, among others.
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The following is an edited transcript of Giglio’s interview with The Christian Post where he shares about the upcoming tour, his relationship with Crowder, and his commitment to share the Gospel of Jesus with all.
Christian Post: What are you looking forward to most about being a part of Winter Jam 2020?
Giglio: I just think being a part of it is pretty great. I don't know how I made it this far in life without being a part of Winter Jam. So I'm excited, one of the things I think I'm excited about the most is the family nature of it because Crowder has done Winter Jam before, so we've been out, and I popped in and out with him. But at the same time, just hearing him talk about the devotion, the way the team becomes a big family, and how all the different artists and speakers really do feel like a brotherhood and sisterhood at the end of the run. I think a longer tour like this gives you that opportunity to really build relationships and build friendships and that bleeds into the night. There are all these amazing artists there, going from city to city week after week, month after month, and we're coming as a “we.” You feel that in the night, we really are all pulling for each other, rooting for each other, cheering for each other, believing for each other.
And the impact, the tens of thousands of faces that are there night after night, after night after night, is pretty extraordinary and you think that we get to invest in and serve all those different lives, it's really humbling.
CP: Winter Jam always features a diverse group of artists and now Crowder is headlining the tour, tell us about your relationship with David Crowder synonymously known as Crowder?
Giglio: I love David because he is an original, he really is truly, in my opinion, one of a kind in the worship world. I've seen that from his earliest days as a college student at Baylor, we were around at the same time back in those days. I was leading a ministry, he was in school there. Shelly and I were a part of their very first album, not from a label side like we are now but just as personal supporters of helping them make their very first independent record. From that moment to this moment, the two things that are true about David is that he blazing a trail.
Worship was charting a course, for sure, in the 90s and into the 2000s and Crowder was over here just walking to the beat of a completely different drummer, making songs and writing songs and making music that was 100% worship, but it was 100% different than all the other worship that the church seemed to be embracing at that point. He was giving voice to an entirely different segment of the world. To the analytical, to the people with big vocabulary, to the people who really appreciated the nuance of music and lyric, and he was giving them away to sing songs to God and giving the church as a whole, a way to sing songs to God.
The second thing I love about David, I think he's an evangelist at heart. He is an artist and a creative, but he is an evangelist. If you ask him today to tell you about three or four people that are off the beaten path, maybe on the fringe of life right now that he is heavily invested in, trying to help them towards the light of Jesus, he can tell you, because there are always people in his life like that. I think he makes music with that person in mind, not with common, "Hey, here's the normal church-going person today. What did they need?" He's like, "Man, I met this guy in my neighborhood. He is an agnostic and hadn't been to church in the last 30 years and he's into real high fashion, high culture, high something and I'm going to write him a song, I'm going to write a song that he or she can embrace." That's a pretty powerful combination when you are as talented as David is but you have a big heart for reaching people as he has. That's what's kept him rolling. Honestly, all of us are just waiting right now to go, "What are you gonna do next?"
CP: Speaking of reaching the unchurched or a generation that might not want to hear the Gospel or they're just inundated with thinking Christianity is about judgment or condemnation. Can you talk about reaching more than just the church?
Giglio: Our mission, obviously is very clear and it is to go into all the world. Literally, I think Jesus was thinking, go into all the world, meaning as far as you can go where there are people go there, but I think figuratively, you know, Jesus also said, Listen to all the different spheres of the world. And if we're honest, and a lot of us just don't want to, you know, be honest, we're living in an extraordinarily divided world. We're politically divided, we're culturally divided, there's an economic divide, there is great cultural divides, ethnic divides. Fifty percent of the people on the planet who don't agree with you on just about whatever it is you want to talk about. In a world like that, we have Jesus in the midst of all that, and He said, "Go into all the world." The beauty of that is that He gave us an example because He went into all the world. He didn't just come for church people. In fact, He most decidedly didn't come, It seems like for the church people. So I think anybody that follows Jesus is going to be drawn toward a mentality that is an all people mentality.
The message of Jesus is, "I love everyone. I can relate to everyone. I have something to offer to everyone and I can talk to anyone." I love that about Jesus. He didn't just know how to talk to the church people, but He knew how to talk to a woman at a well and He knew how to talk to a tax collector when he went to his house for dinner. What would the average pastor have to say to a tax collector when he went out for dinner? Would we be able to have a conversation and find some common ground and see the life change happen in that person?
I've just tried simply to make my message and my ministry about Jesus. I think that's what I love about, even a night like Winter Jam. It's really not about Crowder at the end of the day. It's not about Andy Mineo, it's not about The NewsBoys, it's not about some speaker. It's really about Jesus and Jesus is relevant to every age group. He's relevant in every generation. He's relevant to whatever stage of life you're in. He's relevant to the rich. He is relevant to the poor. So I think preaching Jesus is the answer to how you know how you allow your message could be broad.
Winter Jam 2020 kicks off January 10 in Jacksonville, Florida and concludes on March 29 in Cleveland. For further information, visit jamtour.com
