Shining Rose Songs

Brian Doerksen album “Everlasting Arms” on WorshipTeam

Brian Doerksen has released “Everlasting Arms” through Shining Rose Songs and all songs are now loaded into WorshipTeam.com “Everlasting Arms” is a recording of some great new songs.

“I started 2020 optimistically with 45 concerts and events booked to begin in late April. Last year had gone so well. I had released multiple recording projects; The Heart of Christmas, Faithful One & The SHIYR Poets Volume 3 and so I told myself, “It’s going to be quite some time until I’m back in the recording studio.” Joyce and I enjoyed our winter holiday late January into February – a circular road trip through Nevada and California. Shortly after returning home we started feeling the presence of the impending pandemic. By early March I knew we were entering a world-changing health crisis that was going to change the way the world worked and how we travel and interact with each other. The virus that infected one person began to ripple outwards within weeks, having a tidal wave like impact as entire industries have been forced to shut down and closures of cultural and social gatherings impact almost every population around the world. I have friends in the village of Podolinec in the Spis region of Slovakia – Bohumir and his family are going through the same thing with the same restrictions as we are in my hometown.

There are many ways to respond to this type of global challenge and the changes that come with it. Those who work in healthcare have responded by giving their best and risking themselves to help keep us as safe as possible. They have earned the raucous celebrations at 7 PM each evening around the world. We’re grateful for grocery store workers (like 2 of our daughters!) and the truckers that deliver food and medical supplies. We are thankful for the scientific community’s knowledge and skill in developing a vaccine. This whole season boldly underlines how deeply we need each other to do our part. My part is labeled non-essential, yet songs can play a vital part in our emotional and spiritual health and help us hold on to hope in times of trouble. A response started stirring in me.

For some time, I’ve been singing a new song, a co-write with Cindy Rethmeier called ‘In The Middle (Your Peace)’. This song was birthed in 2018 after listening to a ‘On Being’ podcast on
the story behind songs called ‘Spirituals’. These timeless songs were often written in the middle of suffering, injustice and trying circumstances. Filled with raw emotion and honesty, they were vulnerable and simple, yet were always marked with defiant hope. Cindy and I set out to write a ‘modern spiritual’ in our own musical and lyrical mother tongue drawing inspiration from the spirituals that came before us and from people around us who were suffering, specifically those who were doing whatever they could to suffer well.

Our lyrical aim was to name our struggles truthfully while still affirming the one thing that remains, the gift of God’s peace. All life and truth is a paradox, it’s both at the same time; struggle and comfort, fear and peace. When we began to write, we did not foresee Covid-19, but the closer it came the more convinced we were to keep singing. We recorded ‘In The Middle’ plus I decided to rework a few hidden songs that felt right for this season.

These include another co-write with Cindy from 20 years ago called ‘Ever So Gently.’ A new recording and version of ‘When You Shepherd Me’ – my setting of the 23rd Psalm that previously was only available on ‘Live In Europe’ from 15 years ago. An updated mix of ‘Your Faithfulness’ – the song I wrote in the middle of the birth of our second special needs son Isaiah. And an update of the title song ‘Everlasting Arms’ from the 2018 album Grateful. In the few years since I wrote this song it has become one of my personal favourites. I often close concerts with it as it’s the thing I want people to remember as they journey back into the challenges of their life’s circumstances and now, the words feel like they have more weight.

‘We don’t know when this storm is going to break’ or how many people will perish in it and how many businesses will be broken beyond repair and not reopen. We don’t know. We don’t know when or what the new normal will look and feel like. Yet in the middle of all this uncertainty we can still choose to trust and experience peace that is not dependent on our circumstances.

So here it is, the Everlasting Arms EP. The EP I wasn’t expecting to make in the middle of a pandemic we didn’t anticipate or want. It comes with much love from my heart and home to yours. May you know peace and the comfort of God’s everlasting arms underneath all things.”

Love,

Brian Doerksen
Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

All songs are loaded and ready to use- just access your WorshipTeam.com system database.

The songs are full featured with complete lyrics, chord charts and full length audio. Check out these great new songs, hear them in the original key, or choose your own key and play it the way you like it.

blessings
Cody Gentes

p.s. if you have never tried out Worshipteam.com, try it FREE for one month by simply going here: http://www.worshipteam.com/try ! See you there.

Brian Doerksen album “Hymns For Life” on WorshipTeam

Brian Doerksen has released “Hymns For Life” through Shining Rose Songs and all songs are now loaded into WorshipTeam.com “Hymns For Life” is a recording of some great new songs.

“Of the many vivid childhood memories from our home, hearing my father reviewing the Sunday hymns on Saturday evenings is one of the most special. In my youth I didn’t have enough life experience to realize what a formative gift it was to have a father like this. By the time I was 15 and rebellious, I foolishly vowed I was not going to be like my Dad. In my immature pride I thought the hymns my Dad loved represented dead religion. Thankfully when I was 16, I had a profound spiritual encounter and the course of my life changed. When I started recording my own albums in 2002, I made a decision to include a hymn on each project. It took a few years, but I went from loathing hymns to loving them.

In the spring of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was starting to lock us down, our son-in-law Luke directed a video of my father and I singing ‘It Is Well.’ This was the very first hymn I recorded on ‘You Shine’ and I had recently updated it for my 2019 album of legacy songs, ‘Faithful One’. It didn’t take long and more than 100,000 people watched and shared the video on social media. That resonance was one of the sparks for this project. When we go through suffering individually or collectively, hymns are anchors of hope in the storm. They resonate inside every cell of our being, just as I imagine the particles in every stone of majestic cathedrals tremble with the hymns of praise that have been sung in them through the ages.

Faith and music are inseparable for most of us. The songs that best express that bond endure. We call those songs ‘hymns’ after they have served for several lifetimes, tenderly accompanying us in every season of living and beautifully preparing us to cross the sacred threshold of dying. By taking up the song of previous generations, we affirm that those who have passed away are still with us and we’re joining them on their journey of faith. These abiding hymns declare to all generations that none of us are alone.

Deciding which hymns to arrange and record was not easy; there are so many of enduring significance and meaning that have brought comfort to millions. In the end, I chose hymns that were about the themes of the regenerative beauty of creation, the way God is our help and peace in the middle of life’s storms, and Jesus’ voice of love.

‘Hymns For Life’ marks a full circle moment for me; 40 years after I was 15, I’m grateful for another chance to recognize I’ve become like my Dad. I’m dedicating this project to him, Harry Doerksen, and all others like him who have kept these timeless songs alive for us. May they be hymns for your life as well.”

In the Father’s love,

Brian Doerksen
Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

All songs are loaded and ready to use- just access your WorshipTeam.com system database.

The songs are full featured with complete lyrics, chord charts and full length audio. Check out these great new songs, hear them in the original key, or choose your own key and play it the way you like it.

blessings
Cody Gentes

p.s. if you have never tried out Worshipteam.com, try it FREE for one month by simply going here: http://www.worshipteam.com/try ! See you there.

Brian Doerksen/Shining Rose Songs album “Grateful” on WorshipTeam

Brian Doerksen has released “Grateful” through Shining Rose Songs and all songs are now loaded into WorshipTeam.com “Grateful” is a recording of some great new songs.

“The last song I wrote before the darkness closed in and I lost my words was titled ‘Will You Love Me In The Winter?’ It was my finishing flash of inspiration for the Level Ground project in 2010 and then the songs stopped. Disorientation set in. Listening to that song later I realized that I knew what was coming, yet even so, I wasn’t ready. (Who signs up and is ready for a season of suffering?) Even though I didn’t feel ready, God, like a good shepherd was preparing the way ahead of me. That doesn’t mean I felt his presence because for the most part I didn’t, yet somehow, I made it. (My ‘Grateful List’ names the primary people who helped me make it.)

I’m on the other side of that long hard winter now but still, I don’t understand why this season happened and I don’t have any clarity why the winter had to be so long. I don’t have answers. But I do have one thing.

Gratitude.

I remember the day when I told my wife Joyce that I was even able to thank God for someone at the centre of the conflict that helped trigger this relational winter – because it was this pain that drove me to seek the ancient paths and to sing the ancient words from the Psalms including the Psalms of lament. Lament is one of the biblical doorways to joy and emotionally healthy spirituality. In the end, everything belongs – even the hard circumstances and the winters in our lives. This is how we become fruitful and how we grow in our ability to relate to others in their suffering.

Today I’m thankful for so many things. The wonder-filled world where we live and the millions of miracles that sustain us every minute. The people that love us and stick with us. The people that hurt us and help us grow in character. The gift of music and all the arts that help us see and feel. The ancient words that help us pray when we lose our words. I hope this album helps and encourages you on your journey through the springtimes of rebirth and the winters that will eventually follow.” – Gratefully, Brian Doerksen

All songs are loaded and ready to use- just access your WorshipTeam.com system database.

The songs are full featured with complete lyrics, chord charts and full length audio. Check out these great new songs, hear them in the original key, or choose your own key and play it the way you like it.

blessings
Cody Gentes

p.s. if you have never tried out Worshipteam.com, try it FREE for one month by simply going here: http://www.worshipteam.com/try ! See you there.

Brian Doerksen/Shining Rose Songs album “The Heart Of Christmas” on WorshipTeam

Brian Doerksen has released “The Heart Of Christmas” through Shining Rose Songs and all songs are now loaded into WorshipTeam.com “The Heart Of Christmas” is a recording of some great new songs.

“What is the heart of Christmas? These songs are my reply; not complete nor conclusive but for now, I’m content with my response. In the mess and magic of our ordinary lives God is with all of us. I grew up in a family of faith hearing the Christmas story every year. In the house where I was a child, the same home where Joyce and I also raised our six, we retold the Christmas story every year. Perhaps a little implausible, impossible even, the Christmas story is also incredibly and astonishingly true. Whispers of grace make the mightiest empires give way. Love is real and that love keeps changing hearts and lives. This is why all over the world we keep on singing songs of adoration to the One who came, born in the dust and dirt of humble, human circumstances to show us what God is really like.

The Christmas season is what we in recent centuries have culturally made of this Christmas story. A time of year packed with experiences and expectations that are festive, fun and yet disorienting and difficult for people who are missing loved ones. The yearly traditions that help us remember the Christ and make Christmas meaningful can also make the season hard if the people who helped bring the holidays to life are gone. How do we carry on the celebrations in their absence? We do our best, but with each gathering of friends and family we realize that grief is the price we pay for love. This is part of Christmas too. That’s why I wrote and included ‘Saddest Season’ on this album. I dedicate this recording to all of you who struggle with the season. May this album be like a softly burning candle, an hour’s respite from the relentless rush of December.” – Peacefully Yours, Brian Doerksen

All songs are loaded and ready to use- just access your WorshipTeam.com system database.

The songs are full featured with complete lyrics, chord charts and full length audio. Check out these great new songs, hear them in the original key, or choose your own key and play it the way you like it.

blessings
Cody Gentes

p.s. if you have never tried out Worshipteam.com, try it FREE for one month by simply going here: http://www.worshipteam.com/try ! See you there.