Songs from the night

Singer-songwriter Brian Doerksen is no stranger to eucatastrophe. Doerksen is a Juno Award winning recording artist who now mentors songwriters online. He was born and raised in British Columbia. Doerksen’s music – including songs like “Refiner’s Fire” – has been a staple for Christians around the world for over three decades.

Eucatastrophe is a moment when threatened defeat is suddenly turned into victory and joy. When I mentioned this word that J.R.R Tolkien originally penned, Doerksen seemed to know immediately what to talk about. “When we think about eucatastrophe, the entire Christmas story is that,” he began. The Incarnation happens at a time of deep political unrest with the Roman Empire dominating the small nation of Israel. Disaster seemed imminent and yet in the middle of troubling times and the turmoil, Jesus Christ is born. In his song “Just Before the Silent Night,” Doerksen sings, “After all your dreams have died / A tiny seed can spring to life . . . Just because the powerful oppress those in need / Doesn’t mean the day won’t come when justice flows for everyone.”

The loss of a dream

Doerksen described the traumatic loss of his own dream. It was in the mid 90’s. Doerksen had poured all of his creative energy and money into a new musical called Father’s House. When the musical failed, Doerksen invested the sale of his house into the project. “Not only did the show collapse,” Doerksen said, “but we – with five young children at the time – became homeless. We were sleeping at our parents’ place on couches. And then out of the aftermath of that traumatic experience, we were offered a job in London, England so we moved to the other side of the world not knowing a soul.” Doerksen reflected back on this painful experience: “It was in that moment of losing my dream of a musical that the seed of a song was planted in the soil of my heart.” The song that emerged was “Come Now is the Time to Worship,” which is now sung all over the world. Doerksen remembers how it spread (pre-YouTube) by word of mouth. “It was literally people passing through our church in London and grabbing the chart off the stage, and going to places like South Africa and starting to sing it. Within months, we started hearing reports of the song being used all around the world and the song went on to be one of the most popular Christian songs of that decade.” Doerksen continued, “these ups and downs are all just part of the journey and experiences like this demonstrate we are not the ones in control so we need to trust things will come around, maybe when we least expect it.”

Recently, for over five years, Doerksen felt like he couldn’t write any songs. Doerksen describes this time as his “wordless winter” caused by significant church relational trauma. I asked: during a time of no words, how was he able to cultivate joy, hope, peace and love in his life? The answer: start with gratitude. Gratitude, Doerksen says, is the gateway to all of these things. “I even got to the point where I could thank God and be thankful for people who had caused me pain; learning to accept I could forgive them and think of something about them to be thankful for seemed to open up more joy and peace and contentment for me. In a polarized world that fixates on what’s wrong with other people and other points of view, political views, religions, nationalities, or ethnicities, practicing gratitude in each of those cases illuminates the diversity of the world.”

Mentorship

“Songwriting is the way I survive my life,” Doerksen stated. It’s a way for Doerksen to “make sense of life even when I can’t control it or fully understand it.” Doerksen noted that human beings for millennia have relied on singing to express themselves. “The thing is all people are fragile and we’re all trying to find our way, and we’re all trying to find our niche and it’s crazy to think that all 8 billion of us would do the same thing.” Songs often have the power to “touch people like nothing else can.”

Doerksen’s most recent project is Unlocking Your Songs, an online songwriting course designed to equip emerging songwriters. “The song that’s short enough to be cohesive and memorable and long enough to tell a story, it’s a unique art form.” Doerksen alternates teaching others and writing his own songs. “I always say to songwriters, I want to help you write the songs that are uniquely yours to write. And then when they succeed at that, it’s like a parent’s joy. It’s like a grandparent’s joy. It’s like a coach’s joy.”

Looking forward

People in Doerksen’s faith community let him down in one of his darkest moments, when The Father’s House musical failed. “I think people in the faith context don’t always understand how creative projects work and the risks involved.” So when I asked Doerksen what he hopes artists who are followers of Jesus will embrace and cultivate more of when they create art, Doerksen offered this hopeful piece of wisdom: “We need more honest expressions in our songs so all the beautiful parts and all the hard things of life are embodied and expressed holistically. Faith is about embracing a willingness to change, extending compassion and cultivating a deeper posture of humility to listen.”