Start Right Here

Casting Crowns' “Start Right Here” is a self-examining song aimed at the church. The first verse lists habits: “We want our coffee in the lobby, we watch our worship on a screen, we got a rock-star preacher who won't wake us from our dreams.” It adds that “we keep our missions overseas” and asks if people would “even cross the street” for the hurting in their city.

The chorus states what the church hopes to see, “the heart set free and the tyrants kneel, the walls fall down and our land be healed,” and then says, “If we want to see a change in the world out there, it's got to start right here.” The second verse compares the singer to the brother of the prodigal, who “didn't run off” but whose “soul was just as dead.” It asks what would happen if “the church on Sunday was still the church on Monday too.” The bridge quotes the verse that promises healing when people humble themselves and turn.

Healing the land is 2 Chronicles 7:14. The older brother is in Luke 15:28-30, and doing what the word says is James 1:22.