Brian Doerksen, the Canadian worship leader and songwriter behind some of the most widely sung contemporary hymns in the global church, has died at the age of 60. His catalogue includes "Come, Now Is the Time to Worship," "Refiner's Fire," "Faithful One," "Hope of the Nations," and "Light the Fire Again" — songs that have shaped congregational worship across denominations and continents for more than three decades. Married to Joyce for close to forty years and father to six children, Doerksen was remembered by friends and collaborators as a calm, consistent, and humble man of deep integrity.
Doerksen's roots were in the Vineyard movement, where he was mentored by worship leader Andy Park. From his base in Abbotsford, British Columbia, he went on to have a remarkable impact in Europe — particularly in Germany, where he led worship at Berlin's Olympic Stadium for the Calling All Nations event. His time living in London produced some of his most enduring work: he wrote "Come, Now Is the Time to Worship" while prayer-walking the city's streets, sensing what friends described as a God-given burden for the United Kingdom. He was instrumental in raising up a generation of worship leaders and songwriters, including Brenton Brown, Kathryn Scott, and Marc James, carrying forward the principle that those who receive freely should give freely.
Doerksen was also one of the first songwriters in the modern worship movement to insist on recovering the language of lament — a theological balance that resisted the pressure to make every song a celebration. His later work with the acoustic folk-rock collective SHIYR Poets explored creative expressions of the Psalms, and his participation in the House of Worship project saw him record alongside a new generation of leaders like Leeland. Les Moir, who compiled Doerksen's Ultimate Collection for Integrity Music, described him simply as "a master craftsman in modern hymn-writing and a true worshipper, who leaves a legacy of a treasure chest of songs."
Source: Premier Christianity — premierchristianity.com
