Songwriter Brian Doerksen Shares on Leading Worship

The following interview is courtesy of Breaking Christian News published by the elijahlist.com

Songwriter Brian Doerksen Shares on Leading Worship, Communicating God's Heart and on Going Deeper with a Holy God

"I often say, 'I want to be like David,' a guy who was totally God-focused, but absolutely 'earthy' in his expression of it, and walking-out of it."

Aimee Herd (Mar 29th, 2007)

I have always appreciated the music of Brian Doerksen, a Canadian worship leader, songwriter and musician. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with him about his new CD "Holy God," on his view of living the life of a "worshipper," and what his journey-with-the-Lord has been like, so far. Below are excerpts from that interview, which is featured in this year's March/April issue of "Worship Musician" magazine.

Aimee: Brian, just going back a little bit—as a teen, you weren't really looking at being a songwriter or a worship leader as a profession...but you were pursuing sports when you began to feel that God was calling you into music...

Brian: In our part of the world, sports are really important in High School life. I was an All Star basketball player, a guard—I loved shooting the "3-point-shot" before there even was a "3-point-shot"—I wasn't very tall, but I mastered that one! As a result, there is a certain amount of popularity and attention you receive. In the midst of all that, one night the Spirit of God visited me. He said, "Will you give Me your whole life, to serve Me and to serve My purposes?" What choice do you have...it was such a powerful encounter. I said, "Okay, yes." Overnight, the Lord told me the sports thing was about me, about getting attention and being popular, He told me He wanted me to lay it down. I attended a private Christian school, but it was a Christian school where sports was still the pinnacle.

So I went to my coach and told him, "I feel like God has spoken to me, and I'm supposed to lay this down and pursue a completely different path. I don't know what it is yet...but in faith I'm gonna do it." They looked at me like, "What are you talking about?!" I was all of 16-years-old at the time. Within months I had an incredible hunger to worship. I picked up a guitar, (I knew a few chords) and I just started worshipping my heart out in private, where no one could see me. That's where the vision [was borne in me] of seeing the nations released to worship God intimately...to have a relationship with God. If music was a part of that, then I would use music, but it wasn't limited to music. And I would have never thought that I had the skill or the raw talent to make a go of it in music.

AH: How does a worship leader keep sensitive to the Holy Spirit?

BD: A lot of ways. One is staying anchored to a very real, local church situation. I think staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit is a matter of my own spiritual journey...to keep the well full, with my own devotional life, and my own devotional reading, and never going to the place where you assume that what worked last time will work this time.

Part of [staying sensitive] is that it is my nature. I'm a sensitive person, very attuned to spiritual atmosphere; I can pick up things when I walk in a room, I can sense God's presence, and also sense the presence of evil in a person or in a place. It's probably why I was called to write songs.

You know one of the most fascinating things about being a songwriter, is that we have to write songs before they're needed! We have to be ahead of the curve, we have to be listening. I think the first job of a writer is not to write, it's to listen. To pick up stuff that is happening, and then to write it in such a way that the song can become learned and familiar enough that when it's needed, it goes click, and comes along at the right time.

AH: You have two sons with Fragile X Syndrome...I've heard from other parents of special needs children that they (the parents) learn so much from their children...and how often God speaks through them. What things have you and Joyce learned from your sons?

BD: Well...simple things like...slow down. My 15-year-old son does nothing fast, everything is incredibly slow, and sometimes it can get so frustrating. When you have kids like this, you simply can't sustain a [hectic] pace. You must slow down and learn to walk with your kids, at the pace that they can handle.

The other huge [thing we've learned] is the unconditional love of God. How to communicate without words, because they don't really have any words, but they'll look you in the eye occasionally and give you a hug. You learn to communicate in ways that they understand, and that bless them. It was a challenge for me because I had always dreamed that I would have sons I'd talk theology with, I love to talk about theology and that kind of stuff. I can't have those conversations with my sons. Or, I might want to put all I have to say into a song and write a song for my son...but that means nothing to him. So I have to come up with other ways of communicating love.

One of those ways is, I put in a pool, and I did it for my boys. My boys just come alive in the water, they live in the water all summer, wherever we are. They've learned the basics of swimming...and they laugh.... One day I was feeling so frustrated because I couldn't tell my boys I love them. All of a sudden I thought "I know...I'll get them a pool!" I started scheming from that very moment how to get them a pool. Because I am a communicator, I look for ways to communicate with them.

And then my wife and I are very much in love, 22 years into marriage and we're more in love now. We have a weekly date night and a couple times a year we go away, just the two of us.

AH: Brian, in closing, what would you say to someone who wants to "go deeper" in worship, and really begin to commune with God?

BD: I would say, if they want to go deeper in worship, it's got to begin privately. Don't look for going to big events, even in your local church, and having public encounters with God—it's incredibly important that we gather together—but I think going deeper with God is truly found in the secret place, creating a secret history with God. Doing things [worshipping God] when nobody else is watching. And then I'd also say, don't separate your communion with God from your life of loving those around you. I've seen people go after God and separate themselves from their marriage and their kids. It breaks my heart. It's a kind of paradox where our communion with God is private and secret and it's unique to each of us. He has each one of us on a unique journey. He has a unique name for us—I believe we all have a unique name in God. And then there's a relational public component of that, that it cannot be separated from. It's the words of Jesus—love the Lord your God with all your heart, your affection, all your mind, with all your strength—and then love your neighbor as yourself. They're both connected. In our culture, so much emphasis is put on the big events, those events, and our Sunday gatherings, work powerfully; when people are communing with God privately.

Source: Worship Musician