In the closing session of Passion 2026, Louie Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church, challenged thousands of young adults to view the conference not as a conclusion, but as a commissioning—one meant to send them into the world “for the glory of God.”
Speaking to attendees gathered at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 3, Giglio framed the heart of the Passion movement around a single guiding Scripture. “[Passion] is all about Isaiah 26:8,” he said. “This has been our theme for 29 years: ‘Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.’”
During his message, Giglio opened up about a deeply personal season marked by severe anxiety and depression, recalling a time when he was convinced he was nearing death despite repeated medical reassurance.
“I was diagnosed with something called the fear of death syndrome,” he told the audience. “I thought I was going crazy, and I thought that I was dying. I had to go to somewhere near 20 different doctors to tell me I wasn't dying before I began to believe I wasn't dying. I was losing my mind.”
Despite that painful chapter, Giglio emphasized that the gospel narrative is not limited to what lies behind a person, but powerfully shapes what lies ahead.
“But what I want to say to you is this story is about two things. […] It's about the past, and it's about the future,” he said. “And I would love to proclaim today that the God, who is in Globe Life Field, is a God who can deliver us from the past and who can lead us into His future for our life. Your destiny is not your past. Your destiny is a future with God.”
Using the metaphor of archery, Giglio posed a question about restoration and purpose after brokenness. “So here's the question: What can make the broken arrows soar again? Better question, who can make the broken arrow soar again, and how?” he asked. “And the answer is as big as we could get it tonight, the answer is the cross of Jesus Christ.”
He then pointed to Isaiah 61 and the crucifixion account in Matthew 27, describing Jesus’ mission as one centered on healing the wounded and restoring access to God. “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,” Giglio said. “Jesus didn't come for great arrows. Jesus came for cracked arrows.”
“When Jesus died, it wasn't just that we got access to God, but we did get access to a holy God through the death of Jesus Christ,” he said. “But when Jesus died, we not only got access to God. We got a way out of our tombs.”
He urged listeners to shift their focus away from their own pain and toward Christ’s sacrifice as the true source of healing. “We don't get healed by looking deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into our wounds,” Giglio said. “We get healed by looking more and more and more and more into the wounds of our Savior, Jesus Christ, because by His wounds, we are healed.”
Addressing doubt and suffering, Giglio warned that pain is often used to distort one’s view of God. “The enemy’s primary way of communicating to you that God doesn't love you is in your pain,” he said. “It's like, where's God? Where's this good God, where's this loving God, where's wonderful God?”
Pointing again to the cross, Giglio declared the immediacy of God’s power to transform lives. “This cross is saying to you, God has the power to change your life right here and right now,” he said. “God's going to use you. I want you just to say that, even if you can't say it out loud, I want you to say it in your mind right now: God's going to use me.”
“Archery is not about the arrows. Archery is about the archer,” he said. “And here's what He's saying to you, ‘I got you. I got all of you. I got all of you.’”
Giglio closed by inviting attendees into a moment of prayer and declaration. “I'd like to invite you just to stand into this prayer,” he said. “Just so that you can say to yourself today and proclaim, into the spiritual world, ‘I'm stronger than the devil wants me to believe I am.’”
The 2026 Passion Conference took place Jan. 1–3 and featured speakers such as Cliffe Knechtle, Jackie Hill Perry, Earl McClellan, Jonathan Pokluda, and Sadie Robertson Huff, along with worship led by Brooke Ligertwood and other artists.
