About 40 years ago, Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn—well known and much-appreciated for the Christian imagery and ideas in his music—stopped attending church.
“The formal church and I had grown apart,” he said of his decision.
A regular churchgoer in the 1970s, he quit in 1980 when he moved from Ottawa to Toronto.
“I never found a church in Toronto that felt like home to me,” he said. “I just kind of stopped going.”
Today, Cockburn, 76, is an active member of the Lighthouse Church in San Francisco, where he lives with his wife, M.J. Hannett, and their nine-year-old daughter, Iona.
His return began after a friend’s tragic death, starting M.J. on a spiritual quest that led her to the Lighthouse Church. She really loved it and asked him to come with her.
“I told her ‘I’m not going,’” he said. “I said I was past that. I wasn’t a churchgoing person.”
But M.J. persevered and, one Sunday, he relented. Once there, he was “completely blown away.”
“When I walked in the door, I felt a wave of love. I didn’t know any of these people, and they didn’t know me, but love filled the room,” he said of the small non-denominational congregation. “It felt like the church I was waiting for.”
Before long, he was invited to join the church’s worship band.
“Nobody knew who I was,” said Cockburn, who has released 35 albums and won multiple awards including 13 Junos, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys. “They needed a guitar player, so they were foolish enough to ask me.”
Despite being famous in Canada, “nobody made a fuss about me,” he added. “I was just an old guy who played guitar. I still think most of them have no idea who I am and I’m totally fine with it.”
He enjoys being part of the worship band, saying it gives him “a chance to play music other than my own. It’s a meaningful way for me to participate.”
Because of pandemic shutdowns, Cockburn hasn’t played at church for over a year. But he has stayed involved, playing songs for online services and participating in a sermon series about parables.
As for his faith, it remains strong—even if he doesn’t always know what direction life will take him.
“It’s a continuing journey,” he said. “I don’t feel I have the corner on understanding anything. I just have a desire to have a relationship with God, a day-to-day thing . . . I’ve always believed a relationship with God should be central to everyone’s life, and I’ve tried to keep it the centre of mine.”
While he doesn’t have “any hesitation” identifying as a Christian, he’s starting to wonder if that’s such a good thing to say in public in the U.S. these days.
If someone asks if he’s a Christian, he still says yes — “but not one of those,” he said. “Yes, I’m a Christian, but I got vaccinated.”
He’s missed touring and playing to live audiences during the pandemic. But he wrote and released four songs in May as a fundraiser for the church’s programs for to assist homeless people and combat human trafficking.
One of the songs, Orders, is “a biblical take on things, the order to love them all,” he said, referring to Jesus’ command to love neighbours.
“Lots of people who consider themselves believers frequently forget that,” he said. “It’s a reminder to myself as much as to anyone else,” he added.
Another song, titled Us All, addresses the polarization in America.
Lots of things divide people, Cockburn said. But “one of the things we all have in common is pain. We have scars that unite us all.”
When asked about where his music comes from, the writer of well-known songs such as “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” “Call It Democracy,” “The Trouble With Normal,” “Rumours of Glory,” “Lord of the Starfields” and “Wondering Where the Lions Are” said they are gifts that “come from God.”
“I still have to filter it,” he said, adding “Unfortunately, that means God is stuck with me as a filter.”
Versions of this article originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press and Religion News Service.
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