When Christian recording artists Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham headed out on tour together, they had one goal: change lives.
Brandon, a Grammy and Dove Award-winning artist, joined forces with Phil, a Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning artist, for the Summer Worship Nights Tour, visiting 17 cities across this U.S. this past August.
At these concerts, the artists wanted to engage Christians and draw them closer to the heart of God through worship.
“These songs are catalysts for that unity in the church to happen in these rooms,” Phil says.
But they didn’t want concertgoers to be the only ones whose lives changed. Brandon has been partnering with World Vision since 2022, helping connect children in need with sponsors, and he got Phil on board this summer too. So at each of their tour stops, they put out a call for their audience to help vulnerable children as well.
“We want to make a lasting eternal kingdom impact with World Vision, and so we want to find the kids who have been waiting the longest for a sponsor,” Phil said at the onset of the tour. “We’ve heard that some kids have been waiting two, three, four years and they haven’t found a sponsor yet. We want to find those kids, bring them into the fold, and make an eternal difference in their lives.”
Concertgoers caught the vision, and because of World Vision’s community-focused solutions where for every child you help, four more benefit as well, the tour along with Brandon’s Tear Off the Roof Tour, helped impact more than 61,300 children’s lives around the world this year!
In addition to helping vulnerable children, as they moved from city to city, the two also opened up their lives to cameras, and later this month, a documentary about their tour called FOR THE ONE hits theaters for a one-weekend-only event October 27–29, 2024. Here are some thoughts from Brandon and Phil about the film, their tour, and partnering with World Vision.
On touring and what motivates them to tour:
Brandon: I want to see the church come alive. I think that’s what fuels me going on tour. It’s brutal on your body. It’s brutal on your emotions, you’re missing your family, but for me it’s worth it.
Phil: Touring is both the most beautiful moment but it’s also the most difficult, because touring usually means we’re away from our family.
How they hope this documentary about touring will impact fans:
Phil: Never in my life did I think I would be a part of telling a piece of my story in theaters. I hope the stories encountered through this movie show everyone watching how much they are loved by the One. I can’t wait to share this with the world, and I hope people are encouraged by it.
Brandon: My hope for this project is that it would not only show what it takes to go on tour, but why the music and touring mean so much to us. Countless lives have been changed, especially ours. Though we’ve had the opportunity to influence many, our focus remains for the One.
Why it was important to them to help children by partnering with World Vision:
Phil: Joining together in the presence of God is amazing. But one of our huge goals was to see these children who have been literally waiting years for sponsors to find a sponsor. [People] showed up in a huge way. We impacted so many children’s lives through World Vision and the sponsorship program. The cool thing through World Vision, as we sponsor a child, you don’t just help the child, which is more than enough, but you help their family and their community as well.
Brandon: Things like healthcare, healthy food, clean water, and the spiritual influence that World Vision is making on all these children’s lives and their families. … It’s been amazing for me and my family to get involved. Each one of my three boys sponsor a child, and it’s an amazing thing to know that with just giving a little bit, it can completely change a child’s life.
A message to their fans (other than “Go see FOR THE ONE”!):
Brandon: I [love] to sing songs with people and tear off the roof, but you guys are tearing off the roof for so many children around the world. … Thank you so much for partnering with me and World Vision.
