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With many Passion songs already strongly embraced by churches, Passion is making its music even more accessible for worship leaders and pastors to use in churches by releasing its seventh album, Passion: Hymns Ancient And Modern- Live Songs Of Our Faith, as its first Enhanced CD. Releasing February 24, the project will include lyrics, chord charts, links to Passion and its artist-worshippers, and various other worship resources.

“We believe in equipping the church with the tools and resources it needs to effectively minister, so we are very excited that technology is enabling us to make these resources accessible on the new project,” says Passion founder and director Louie Giglio.

Inspired by the “Phos Hilaron,” perhaps the oldest surviving Christian hymn, Passion: Hymns Ancient And Modern- Live Songs Of Our Faith features hymns that are 100 years old or older that have been “freshened” for modern-day listeners by Passion artist-worshippers Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band, Charlie Hall, Matt Redman and Nathan and Christy Nockels of Watermark. Recognizing that many modern worshippers have overlooked these historic confessions of worship and that many traditional worshippers have failed to embrace “modern” worship, Passion combined ancient and future in a seamless expression of worship, focusing on the heart.

“We believe the church is at it's best telling the unrivaled story of God in language contemporary culture can relate to and absorb, while embracing the heritage of faith that has anchored Believers through all generations,” states Giglio. “In some places, tradition has become a casualty of the global explosion of contemporary worship that has swept through the Church in recent years. Yet, we would be fools to discard the rich treasures that have guided men and women of faith through ages past just because they are old or seemingly outdated. Rather, it is the very fact that these songs have survived the ages that moves us to embrace them, inspiring us to contextualize them for worshippers to come.”

Although Passion: Hymns Ancient And Modern- Live Songs Of Our Faith will be the first Passion project to be enhanced with worship resources, that hasn’t stopped churches from incorporating Passion songs in to their worship services. Songs from Passion projects and its artist-worshippers are among the most used songs in churches across North America according to Copyright Licensing International (CCLI), an organization that monitors its 143,000 church copyright license holders’ copy activity, which includes printing song lyrics in bulletins, programs, liturgies, song sheets and custom songbooks; creating overhead transparencies and computer projections; and recording worship services.

“Over the past few years, we have seen many churches across North America and around the world enthusiastically embrace a number of songs written by Passion artists. These songs have clearly resonated with millions of worshippers,” explains Howard Rachinski, CCLI President and CEO.

In the organization’s most recent semi-annual “copy report,” Passion artist-worshippers garnered 4 positions in the Top 20. Chris Tomlin’s “Forever” from his solo debut project, The Noise We Make, and “We Fall Down,” which appears on Passion’s Live From The 268 Generation and OneDay Live albums, made the list. Songs from Matt Redman in the Top 20 include “Better Is One Day,” the title track of Passion’s critically acclaimed second album that also appears on the OneDay Live recording and Redman’s solo debut The Friendship And The Fear, and “The Heart of Worship,” the title track of Redman’s sophomore effort that also appears on the Better Is One Day recording.

Additionally, five songs that appear on Passion albums made the Top 20. They include “I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever” on Live From The 268 Generation, “You Are My King” on the Better Is One Day and OneDay Live albums, “Breathe” on OneDay Live, and both “Here I Am To Worship” and “God Of Wonders” on the Our Love Is Loud project.

Many other songs written by Passion artist-worshippers made significant gains in the CCLI report. Chris Tomlin’s “Enough” and “Famous One” from his most recent and critically acclaimed album Not To Us and the Our Love Is Loud project both jumped nearly 300 places in the most recent “copy report,” climbing from No. 436 to No. 110 and from No. 411 to No. 125, respectively. Artist-worshipper Charlie Hall’s “Salvation” from The Road To OneDay made an astounding leap from No. 1018 to claim the No. 414 position. David Crowder Band’s “Our Love Is Loud” on the Passion album of the same name as well as the band’s lauded debut album, Can You Hear Us?, climbed from No. 778 to No. 430. Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name,” which appears on his most recent solo project, Where Angels Fear To Tread, as well as on Passion’s latest recording Sacred Revolution- Live From OneDay03, jumped from the No. 1236 position to No. 466. Many other songs from Passion and its artist-worshippers have also made significant gains in the report.

“We are truly humbled that God would use us in this way to spread His glory, giving us these wonderful worship anthems that we might offer them back to Him and lead others to do the same,” says Giglio.

More information on Passion and its artist-worshippers can be found at www.268generation.com and www.PassionRadio.net.

The unique vision of Passion is to bring Christian college and university students together from campuses and ministries everywhere. All across America, various campus ministries and churches are discipling and equipping university students for Christ. We affirm and value the work that they do. Yet, there are few opportunities for these ministries, and the students they represent, to come together and to draw strength and encouragement from God and one another. Passion is designed for this very purpose.

Founded in 2000 by Louie Giglio, sixstepsrecords (www.sixstepsrecords.com) is a young worship label and is a division of Choice Resources, the parent ministry for Passion Conferences. sixstepsrecords’ artist-worshippers include Chris Tomlin (Not To Us), David Crowder Band (Illuminate), Charlie Hall (On The Road To Beautiful) and Matt Redman (Facedown- releases May 18). The label partners with Sparrow Records for marketing, sales and distribution operations