More Than a Concert: A Night with Elevation Worship
I thought I was going to a concert. What happened instead changed me.
Last fall, I bought tickets to see Elevation Worship live at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
I thought I was buying tickets to a concert.
I didn’t realize I was stepping into an experience that would challenge my faith, my heart, and the way I see my own life.
Last fall, I bought tickets to see Elevation Worship when their tour came through the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Because I listen to their music so often, I was invited to buy tickets during the pre-sale.
I didn’t hesitate.
Second row.
But the real story actually started earlier.
The first time I heard the song The Blessing was at the Charlie Kirk memorial. Something about that moment stopped me in my tracks.
The song isn’t just music. It’s a prayer.
When the words began to fill the room, something shifted inside me. The lyrics speak directly to something many of us long to feel, that we are seen, protected, and loved by God. One part in particular stayed with me:
“May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children.”
When I hear those words, I don’t just hear a song.
I hear a reminder that God’s presence stretches far beyond our individual lives, reaching into our families, our struggles, and the generations that come after us.
Maybe that’s why the song stayed with me long after the memorial ended because it didn’t feel like something I was listening to.
It felt like something I was being reminded of.
After that, I started listening to more of their music: Graves to Gardens, Praise, Worthy, and Lion. Before long, their songs became the soundtrack to something happening inside me… a growing feeling of being closer to Jesus.
So when the concert came to Brooklyn, I went.
Alone.
And I’m glad I did.
The moment I walked in, I noticed the energy. Everyone was smiling. There was a warmth in the room that felt genuine. Not forced. Just joyful.
I immediately felt at home.
I was wearing one of my Lion & Cross shirts, and as I walked through the lobby I noticed something that caught my attention — a prayer wall where people could write requests.
Without hesitation, I wrote one for my nephew, who has been suffering terribly with mental illness.
As I finished writing it, a woman standing nearby looked at me and said something I had never heard from a stranger before.
“Would you like me to pray with you?”
No one had ever asked me that before.
She gently took my hands and prayed over me… over my nephew… over our situation.
I had to hold back tears.
It was one of those moments where you feel seen in a way you didn’t expect.
And the night had barely even started.
The first song was one of their newer songs, So Be It (God), and the entire arena came alive. People were singing, praising, smiling, dancing, jumping, hands raised.
To call it a concert doesn’t even feel like the right word.
It was an experience.
Thousands of people praising God together.
And in today’s world, a world that often feels divided, anxious, and uncertain, there was something incredibly powerful about witnessing thousands of people united in faith.
Not arguing.
Not debating.
Just praising.
It felt like a reminder that faith still brings people together in a way very few things can.
What surprised me most was how emotional I felt throughout the night and how comfortable I felt surrounded by people openly praising Jesus without hesitation.
Then Pastor Steven Furtick came out to speak.
I had no idea there would be a sermon as part of the evening.
And to be honest, I loved it just as much as the music.
What struck me most about him wasn’t just the message, it was the way he delivered it.
He didn’t come across like someone standing above the crowd preaching down to us.
He came across as something much more relatable.
A man.
A father.
A son.
A husband.
Just a man with a message.
A man who is guided by Jesus and who brings the word to people in a way that feels accessible, inspirational, aspirational, but also deeply human.
There was no sense of perfection in his message.
In fact, it was the opposite.
It was a reminder that faith isn’t about being flawless.
It’s about being real.
Growing up, the Catholic church sometimes felt like a list of rules. If you didn’t follow them, God would punish you. (I still attend Catholic Mass. I actually love many things about it — mostly I think it brings me back to my youth. This experience praising with Elevation Worship was very different, but I feel they both have a place in my life.)
But what I heard that night felt very different.
The God he spoke about was filled with compassion, grace, and understanding. A God who sees the best in us even when we don’t see it ourselves. A God who knows we are imperfect and loves us anyway.
After the concert I started reading his book Do the New You, and several ideas from it stayed with me.
One line in particular struck me deeply:
“Don’t let your history be your legacy.”
Another one hit even harder:
“If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”
Think about that.
How often do we defend the very things that hold us back? (I loved that these words are from a Pastor, Jesus and things the message I have had to my daughter, myself, my clients, anyone that would listen!).
He also writes:
“If you are going to be the true you, you can’t be loyal to your limitations.”
Our past failures and even our past successes may shape who we are today, but they do not get to decide who we become.
"To become a new version of ourselves, we have to challenge the old one."
And that message resonated deeply with me.
As a coach, as a mother, and simply as someone trying to live with purpose.
But it also challenged me personally.
One word he spoke about that stayed with me was forgiveness.
That word can be hard.
There has been a lot of pain in my life from people close to me, my mother, my sister, and even in my marriage. Forgiveness has not come easily.
But that night reminded me that holding onto pain only keeps us stuck.
And maybe forgiveness is not about saying what happened was okay.
Maybe it is about freeing our own hearts.
One thing I realized that night was something very personal.
I have always felt close to God and to Jesus.
I’ve felt guided. Protected. Watched over.
But it was something I held privately inside myself.
When I started building The Lion & The Cross and working through the many challenges that come with creating something new, I often felt that same guidance.
Standing up for what we believe.
Standing strong in faith.
Standing proud about who we pray to.
That night at the concert was the first time I felt like that internal faith could become external… shared… and strengthened by others.
And maybe that is what faith is meant to be.
Not hidden.
Alive.
Growing.
There is a passage in the Bible that stayed with me:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” — Matthew 7:7–8
In our brightest moments God is with us.
And in our darkest moments — the moments of sadness, confusion, or despair — He is there too.
Even when we cannot see it.
Even when we cannot feel it.
He is waiting for us to reach out.
When I bought those tickets months ago, I thought I was going to hear great music.
What I didn’t realize was that I was walking into something that would challenge my heart, my faith, and the way I see my own life.
As I left the arena that night, walking out into the Brooklyn night, I kept thinking about how easily we carry our burdens alone. Our doubts. Our pain. Our limitations.
Yet faith reminds us that we were never meant to carry them by ourselves.
Maybe that is the real message I took from that night — that God isn’t waiting for us to be perfect before we come to Him.
He is simply waiting for us to reach out.
In moments of joy, in seasons of struggle, in times when the world feels uncertain, the invitation is always the same:
Ask.
Seek.
Knock.
And perhaps the greatest surprise is that the door was never locked in the first place.
If you are looking for uplifting worship music that strengthens your faith, I highly recommend listening to Elevation Worship. Their music has become a powerful source of inspiration for me. I’m sharing the link to their YouTube channel simply because it’s powerful.
Elevation Worship YouTube LInk
Celebrate America’s 250th birthday of independence with one of our exclusive designs from The Lion & The Cross. Our designs bring together powerful symbols of faith, courage, Christianity, and the American flag—representing the freedom we are blessed to live with as Americans.
The brand was built on a love of country, a deep belief in Jesus, and the courage to express those values proudly to the world.
Check out our America 250 Collection Here
Faith.
Courage.
Freedom.
With gratitude,
Christine Randall
Founder, The Lion & The Cross