Brandon Grissom is a singer/songwriter from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Raised in the dusty backwoods of Oklahoma, he relocated to chi-town from Oklahoma City in the spring of 2003. Brandon and band lead worship regularly at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL, as well as various conferences, camps, churches, and events around the country.
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What inspired the song Be the Change?
I’ve been leading worship for almost half of my life. And I’d been struggling with two themes. First, many of the ‘upbeat’ songs being played in the church felt really poppy, sugary sweet… which is fine sometimes but I was wanting something with a little more teeth to it. Second, I had yet to really write an outwardly focused tune on any of my records so I toiled over the lyrics until I felt like I finally had something. I wanted to write something that called us outside. It only took two hours to write but it was really several years of struggle that finally gave birth to the song.
Resources and Downloads
Lyrics for Be the Change
Open our eyes
To see a world in need
Brothers in misery
Sisters out on the street
Open our hearts
And fill us with your desire
For a generation set on fire
For the least of these
So let out a cry!
For the ones who are dying outside
Open our eyes!
And set Your church on fire
For we know the one who came to free us
We are the hands and feet of Jesus
We wanna be the change weʼre longing for
Open our minds
To see a new reality
To overcome poverty
With a Kingdom economy
Open our mouths
To speak up for what is right
To lay down our very lives
If thatʼs what it means
So let out a cry!
For the ones who are dying outside
Open our eyes!
And set Your church on fire
For we know the one who came to free us
We are the hands and feet of Jesus
We wanna be the change weʼre longing for
We want our lives to count for something
We have it all when we have nothing
We wanna be the change weʼre longing for
Homelessness, poverty, jealousy, HIV—You are mighty!
Politics, trafficking, suffering, still we sing—You are mighty!
Homelessness, poverty, jealousy, HIV—You are mighty!
Politics, trafficking, suffering, still we sing—You are mighty!
So let out a cry!
For the ones who are dying outside
Open our eyes!
And set Your church on fire
For we know the one who came to free us
We are the hands and feet of Jesus
We wanna be the change weʼre longing for
We want our lives to count for something
We have it all when we have nothing
We wanna be the change weʼre longing for
