Brandon Lake at Mohegan Sun Arena
Brandon Lake at Mohegan Sun Arena brings one of contemporary Christian music’s biggest stars to Uncasville on Sunday, September 13, for a 7:30 p.m. arena concert with special guest Ben Fuller.
Calling Lake a successful worship artist understates what has happened to his career over the past few years. His 2025 album King of Hearts debuted at No. 7 on the all-genre Billboard 200; he’s accumulated six Grammy Awards, and his collaboration with Jelly Roll on Hard Fought Hallelujah pushed him beyond Christian radio and onto the Billboard Hot 100.
His concerts have expanded accordingly.
Lake’s current music mixes contemporary worship with rock, country, gospel, pop, and the kind of massive singalong choruses designed for arenas rather than church sanctuaries. At the 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena, that means Sunday night’s show will be much closer to a modern arena-rock production than the quieter image the words “Christian music” may suggest.
From Worship Pastor to Arena Headliner
Brandon Lake grew up in South Carolina as the son of a pastor.
Music was part of his life early. His father showed him some basic guitar chords, and Lake continued teaching himself, including learning songs by Christian artists such as Third Day and Chris Tomlin.
He eventually became a worship pastor at Seacoast Church in South Carolina and began releasing his own music independently.
The major turning point came after Lake joined Bethel Music in 2019.
His version of This Is a Move, co-written with Tasha Cobbs Leonard, brought him his first Grammy nomination and a GMA Dove Award. From there came a succession of songs and collaborations that increasingly made Lake one of the recognizable voices in contemporary worship music.
House of Miracles followed in 2020, including I Need a Ghost, Just Like Heaven and the title track.
Then came songs that spread well beyond Lake’s own recordings.
You May Know His Songs Without Knowing His Name
Contemporary worship music operates differently from most popular genres.
Songs regularly move between artists and churches. One songwriter may help create a song, another group records it, and thousands of worship teams eventually perform it.
Lake has thrived in that environment.
He’s closely associated with songs including Graves Into Gardens, RATTLE!, Gratitude, Praise You Anywhere, Count ‘Em and That’s Who I Praise, while also contributing as a writer or performer to music released by Bethel Music, Elevation Worship, Maverick City Music and other major contemporary Christian acts.
Gratitude became particularly important to his solo career, reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart.
But Lake’s career took another leap with a song about praising God when praise doesn’t come easily.
Hard Fought Hallelujah Changed Everything
Hard Fought Hallelujah wasn’t conceived as a cheerful song about everything going right.
Its central idea is almost the opposite.
Sometimes faith comes through struggle. Sometimes gratitude is difficult. Sometimes a hallelujah has to be fought for.
That theme found an unlikely second voice in Jelly Roll.
The Nashville singer had built his own career around addiction, incarceration, regret, redemption and faith, first moving through hip-hop and rock before becoming one of country’s biggest crossover stars.
Lake and Jelly Roll’s version of Hard Fought Hallelujah connected those worlds.
The collaboration gave Lake his first appearance on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and helped expose his music to listeners who might never turn on a contemporary Christian station.
Then, at the 2026 Grammy Awards, Hard Fought Hallelujah won Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.
That brought Lake’s career Grammy total to six wins from 15 nominations.
It also illustrated something that’s becoming increasingly noticeable in contemporary Christian music: the walls around the genre aren’t as high as they once were.
Christian Music Is Crossing Into Country
Jelly Roll isn’t Lake’s only connection to country music.
He’s performed with Thomas Rhett. His recent music has leaned openly into country and Southern rock influences. And his collaborations have increasingly put him alongside artists who aren’t confined to Christian radio.
That includes a 2026 collaboration with Bailey Zimmerman, Just Believe, which topped the Christian Digital Song Sales chart, as well as The Jesus I Know with Lainey Wilson.
The crossover makes musical sense.
Modern country and contemporary Christian music increasingly share production styles, songwriters and audiences, particularly when songs deal with redemption, addiction, family, struggle and faith.
Lake’s voice helps the transition.
He doesn’t sing like a traditional choir-based gospel performer. There’s grit in it, and his records frequently borrow from rock and country as readily as contemporary worship.
That becomes even more obvious on King of Hearts.
King of Hearts Reached No. 7 in America
Released in June 2025, King of Hearts is Lake’s fifth studio album and the record that pushed his commercial career into another category.
It debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, Lake’s first Top 10 album on the all-genre chart.
The 16-song record deliberately moves around stylistically.
There’s pop-rock on But God, gospel on I Know a Name with CeCe Winans, hip-hop influence through Hulvey on Right in the Middle, the crossover country connection of Hard Fought Hallelujah with Jelly Roll and arena-ready worship throughout the record.
The title itself carries Lake’s central idea for the album.
Rather than concentrating on the image of God as a distant ruler, Lake has explained that King of Hearts is about a God concerned with individuals: broken people, lonely people, hopeless people, misfits and even critics.
For Lake, that’s also tied to how he views his own increasingly large platform.
He told the Recording Academy that he isn’t interested in simply becoming a rock star. He sees his role as caring for people and pointing them toward Jesus.
That may sound like a traditional worship leader speaking.
The setting in which he’s doing it is increasingly anything but traditional.
A Worship Show Built for an Arena
Lake’s recent concerts demonstrate just how much contemporary Christian touring has changed.
A 2026 King of Hearts performance in Charleston included King of Hearts, Count ‘Em, That’s Who I Praise, Plans, RATTLE!, Rest on Us, Tear Off the Roof, DADDY’S DNA, House of Miracles and I Know a Name, along with acoustic portions and collaborations.
The presentation combines the communal participation of worship music with the production scale of an arena rock concert.
Audiences don’t simply watch.
They sing.
That’s fundamental to understanding the genre if you’ve never attended a large contemporary Christian show. A song like Gratitude may have a lead singer onstage, but once thousands of people know every word, the relationship between performer and audience becomes different from a conventional concert.
Mohegan Sun Arena should amplify that considerably.
Ben Fuller Opens the Night
Lake won’t be alone in Uncasville.
Mohegan Sun and Live Nation list Ben Fuller as the special guest for the September 13 show.
Fuller’s path into Christian music is markedly different from the polished worship-school route someone might expect.
Raised on a dairy farm in Vermont, he has spoken publicly about a past involving substance abuse and the deaths of people close to him before his conversion to Christianity redirected his life and music.
That history became part of his songwriting.
His breakout Who I Am reached No. 1 at Christian radio, while songs including If I Got Jesus continued his autobiographical approach to faith, recovery and redemption.
It’s a natural pairing with Lake, particularly as both artists increasingly make Christian music that borrows from country without disguising its spiritual purpose.
Six Grammys and Counting
Lake’s awards history has become substantial.
The Recording Academy currently credits him with six Grammy wins and 15 nominations.
His Grammy-winning work includes collaborations connected to Maverick City Music and worship projects as well as his own Hard Fought Hallelujah.
He’s also accumulated GMA Dove, K-LOVE and ASCAP recognition, while becoming a prominent songwriter for other performers. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The numbers help explain why a Sunday-night Christian concert is landing in one of Connecticut’s major arenas rather than a church or small theater.
But they don’t completely explain Lake’s growth.
The more interesting story is where contemporary Christian music itself is going.
The Line Between Worship, Rock and Country Is Getting Thin
There was a period when contemporary Christian music largely operated as its own parallel industry.
It had its own radio stations, record labels, festivals, magazines and stars. An artist could become enormous within Christian music while remaining almost invisible to the mainstream audience.
That’s changing.
Jelly Roll can appear on a Brandon Lake record.
CeCe Winans and a Christian hip-hop artist can appear on the same album.
Country stars can record explicitly faith-centered collaborations without treating them as side projects.
And a contemporary worship singer can debut at No. 7 on the same Billboard chart measuring every other major album in America.
Lake sits directly in the middle of that shift.
His music doesn’t hide what it is. These aren’t secular pop songs with vaguely inspirational lyrics designed to cross over unnoticed.
They’re explicitly Christian.
What’s changing is the sound and the audience around them.
On September 13, that evolution arrives at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Details
Event: Brandon Lake at Mohegan Sun Arena
Date: Sunday, September 13, 2026
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Headliner: Brandon Lake
Special Guest: Ben Fuller
Music: Contemporary Christian / worship / rock / country
Venue: Mohegan Sun Arena
Address: 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard, Uncasville, CT 06382
Pit: Standing general admission; no chairs are permitted in the pit
Parking: Free self-parking is available at Mohegan Sun; reserved Riverview Garage parking is also available for purchase
Bag Policy: Backpacks, string bags, diaper bags, shopping bags, messenger bags, briefcases and rolling-style bags are not permitted in the arena
Arena Box Office: 860-862-8499
To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.