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Brian Doerksen Courtesy Integrity Music

Brian Doerksen was born into a Christian family in a very musical home, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. At first, he wasn't interested in living for God. But when he was 15, he says, "I heard the Lord saying, 'Give Me your whole life.' And I said yes."

Soon he developed "this incredible hunger to serve God through music." He became the full-time music minister at a Vineyard Church, in British Columbia, and discovered a gift for songwriting. His most famous composition to date came in the summer of 1997, during a time that he describes as "the darkest and lowest season of my life."

When Brian and a team of investors lost more than $1 million in a failed ministry project, Brian and his wife, Joyce, lost their house. And Brian fell into a deep depression. Hoping to regroup, Brian moved his family to England and became the worship pastor of South-west London Vineyard, but life dealt another blow when he and Joyce discovered that three of their six children had a condition called Fragile X Syndrome, a form of mental retardation.

"One morning, I went for a prayer walk, to pour out my heart to God," he says. "As I was walking, I heard as clear as a bell, 'Come, now is the time to worship … ' I thought, Wow! The call of worship is being sounded all of the time and in all kinds of ways. I was sweating, and walking, and singing that line over and over again, just sensing God's nearness." Back at home, he ran upstairs and sat down at the piano. "I took a pad and began to write everything I could think of concerning the call to worship. Suddenly, I realized that God's call to worship doesn't come only to those who have it 'all together.' It comes to all of us." That epiphany gave birth to "Come, Now Is the Time to Worship," a song that Brian says "became like wings to lift me up from those shadows that had almost engulfed me."

Within weeks of teaching the song to his congregation, he began hearing reports of other churches singing it. Purely by word of mouth, the song made its way to churches around the world. Brian recorded the song in 1998, and it has since become one of the most popular modern praise songs.

Now back at home in Canada, Brian says: "I believe God wants us to come and worship just the way we are, though when true worship happens we don't stay the way we are."

Words and music by Brian Doerksen, © 1998 Vineyard Songs. Lindsay Terry is the author of The Sacrifice of Praise (Integrity).

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