Brandon Lake is trading stadium stages for a 450-person standing-room crowd this fall, when the Grammy-winning Christian artist headlines an exclusive interview and performance inside a restored 19th-century church in downtown Nashville. The event, set for October 5, pairs one of contemporary Christian music's biggest current stars with one of the city's newest adaptive-reuse venues.
The evening is hosted by Nashville Lifestyles, the local monthly publication that has named Lake its September cover star ahead of the show. According to the magazine, the night will feature an exclusive live interview followed by a special performance, part of a one-night-only evening the magazine says Lake is joining specifically for its readers. Doors open at 6 pm, with the program starting around 6:30 pm and the event running until 8 pm, per the magazine's listing. Tickets are general admission and standing room only, and the magazine notes they are nonrefundable. Beverages will be available for purchase at the event, the outlet reports.
A Historic Church Becomes the Backdrop
The show takes place at ELM Nashville, a restored 19th-century Italianate-style church built around 1860 to 1871 that sits on the National Register of Historic Places at 5th Avenue and Elm Street in the city's Rutledge Hill/SoBro area, according to Visit Music City. It stands as Nashville's only surviving Italianate-style church. The venue officially reopened as an event space in April after extensive restorations, offering a 2,598-square-foot main sanctuary with 25-foot ceilings, a 20-foot performance stage, and the standing capacity of up to 450 guests that will cap Lake's crowd for the night. Hoodline covered the church's reopening as a venue back in May, detailing its mezzanine loft and gated parking for more than 75 vehicles.
That intimate scale stands in sharp contrast to Lake's usual touring footprint. One day before the ELM Nashville date, on October 4, Lake is scheduled to perform at the Grand Ole Opry House as part of the Opry Birthday Weekend celebration, according to his official tour listing. Playing a 450-capacity room the very next night gives fans a rare shot at seeing him up close in a fraction of the space.
A Career Year Capped by Grammy Gold
Lake enters the fall as a five-time Grammy Award-winning Christian music artist, per the Nashville Lifestyles listing, with that tally reflecting a run of honors that has reshaped his standing in the genre. At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards on February 1, Lake won Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for his duet version of “Hard Fought Hallelujah” with Jelly Roll, as reported by K-LOVE. Released in November 2024, the song generated 6.83 million on-demand streams in its first week, the highest streaming debut ever for a Christian artist single, and held the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart for 34 weeks, according to Movieguide. The track went platinum in June 2025.
Lake also released “I Know a Name,” recorded live with Elevation Worship, on February 14, 2025; that single earned its own Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the same ceremony, per Wikipedia. On Billboard's 2025 year-end charts, Lake ranked as the No. 1 Christian music artist of the year after placing four individual tracks in the year-end top 10 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, Movieguide reports. He was also named ASCAP Songwriter of the Year at the ASCAP Nashville Songwriters Celebration in November 2025, recognized for top-charting compositions including “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” “That's Who I Praise,” and “Praise.”
Deep Ties to Nashville's Broadway Scene
Lake's Nashville profile has been building for a while, aided by his cross-genre partnership with Jelly Roll. In February 2025, he made a surprise guest appearance on Broadway in downtown Nashville, performing alongside Jelly Roll at the grand opening of Jelly Roll's Goodnight Nashville venue, a moment Hoodline captured live as the multi-story venue replaced the former Trail West Boot Store. His catalog beyond the recent Grammy hits includes “Gratitude” and “How Good God Is,” both referenced in the Nashville Lifestyles announcement of the ELM show. “Gratitude” resurfaced this month in an unrelated context, featured as the background track in a viral first-responder rescue video out of Sebring that Hoodline reported on.
For a market saturated with worship music superstars, an evening built around a sit-down interview rather than a full concert set is a different kind of draw. Nashville Lifestyles, founded in 1999, has served the greater Nashville area with coverage of local dining, culture, entertainment, and prominent personalities for more than two decades, positioning the magazine to pair its September cover story with a rare access event for readers.
