Passion’s newest album, Salvation’s Tide Is Rising, featuring Brett Younker, Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, Matt Redman, Crowder, Christy Nockels, and others debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Digital Albums Chart, No. 6 on Billboard’s Top Albums Chart and also reached the top 3 on iTunes just behind Adele and Justin Bieber. Salvations Tide is Rising is Passion’s first non-live studio release. The Blaze stated that album is “among the most popular music acts in the world.” I spoke with Brett Younker, who penned the first single from the album, “Remember“.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAmVlsUCbbw

I’ve never had the pleasure of attending a Passion Conference, can you tell me more about it?

The Passion conference has been going on for approximately 20 years. Founded by Louie Giglio in the mid 1990s, the conference brings together 18-25 year olds with the purpose of glorifying the Lord. This year, the Passion Conference met in 3 arenas across 2 cities (Atlanta and Houston). Speakers and musicians included – John Piper, Christine Cain, Ravi Zacharias, Hillsong United,and Rend Collective.

Passion is about making Jesus famous, everything we do at Passion and beyond revolves around Christ. Our mission and desire is to call students to live for what matters; something greater than ourselves. We want to trade in our small story for God’s great story. When we link our lives up with Jesus, we will live for the things that have eternal impact.

His name and His renown is what Passion is all about!

(Image Source: The Blaze)

How do you keep the conferences and albums fresh? I could imagine that after so many years, it could be a temptation to become stagnant.

One of the unique things about Passion is that the theme hasn’t changed. The theme is Jesus and teaching the next generation about Him. Every year we see the next generation attending the conference. A lot of people encounter Jesus for the first time at Passion, and seeing people enter into a personal relationship with Christ never gets old. One of the things over the past few years that’s been born out of the Passion Conferences is The End It Movement. “End it” is a coalition of the leading organizations in the world to fight for freedom. We want to make our voices heard and let the world know that modern day slavery exists. It’s been neat to see the how big of an impact has been had, especially on legislation coming out of Washington D.C.

(Image Source: Breathcast)

Can you tell me a little more about the first single “Remember”?

The song came from the book of Deuteronomy, when the Israelites are walking into the promise land. Moses tells the people to remember what God has done for them. We’ve all been in that place where heartbreak happens, and there are circumstances in life that tempt you to forget who God is and what He has done. In those times, it can be a temptation to think that God has forgotten about you. When I sat down to write, this line came to me – “I’ll remember the empty grave“.

The empty grave changes everything. This song is about calling us to remember the one thing (the empty grave) that changes everything! What’s overwhelming in life isn’t as overwhelming as the fact that Jesus rose from the grave.

Because He’s risen and alive, we’re not victims anymore, we’re victors!

(Image Source: themcollective)

People tend to leave conferences on a spiritual “high”. What are some things you’d tell people once the realities of every day life hit?

Moments like Passion are life-defining. One of the things that helps sustain Christians thorough life is the local church. The local church is a group of like-minded believers who are walking towards Jesus together. Getting plugged into a church and planting your life there is the thing that helps us sustain your daily walk with God.

What’s the one thing that you want people attending the Passion conferences and listening to the albums to walk away with?

The theme that runs through this album is that life and victory are from the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is alive! We hope that this message is breathed into earphones, cars, dorm room, homes, wherever people are listening!