Bonnie Keen
13 min read ⭑
“God revealed Himself to me as a young child through music. Music became my lifeline. Through its ebb and flow, it was medicine to me, and I knew there was beauty in the world. Because of music, I began to grow the seeds of understanding God loved me in spite of my surroundings.”
Bonnie Keen, a three-time Dove Award winner and Grammy nominee, is a recording artist and the founding member of the Grammy-nominated trio First Call. She has toured with Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Young Messiah, BeBe and CeCe Winans, along with many others. Her performances include the County Music Association Awards, the Grammy Awards, and the Johnny Carson show, and her self-titled album is available on all streaming platforms. Her talents expand beyond her musical accomplishments—Bonnie is both an author and speaker. She has written five books and Bible studies and currently co-hosts the podcast Women Who Dare to Believe.
Bonnie takes time to share some stories of her musical adventures—touring with friends and bringing “a little bit of church into a club setting.” She describes the joy of watching people encounter God’s presence in a moment and place they weren’t expecting. Bonnie also opens up about difficulties she faced in childhood and shares how God revealed Himself to her through music, which became her lifeline at a young age. Continue reading to hear more about her musical journey, her experience with the love, mercy, and forgiveness of Jesus, and her passion for speaking out against child abuse and trafficking.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it's also about home and people and love. So, how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
I am a native Nashville girl, which means I have seen our little town grow into a mecca of new restaurants. Growing up in a world of casseroles, I do enjoy the chance to try lots of different ethnic food, now available on almost every corner (Greek is my current fav!). However, do I always feel adventurous? Maybe not much because my go-to meal would be J. Alexander’s Kai-Tai Chicken Salad. This probably means I won’t stray too far into a squid or fried frog leg option. J’s has become a staple with a circle of my Italian girlfriends from New York who now know the entire staff. When they see us coming at J’s, they know we will eat for hours and leave a great tip. The atmosphere at J’s is also wonderful: dark enough to feel private yet open and airy enough to be welcoming. This particular group has grafted me in to the Italian tradition of long meals (I mean 4 to 5 courses), lively conversation, and leaving hours later absolutely filled—body and soul. They grew up making everything from scratch, so I follow their lead with ordering. However, I must admit, I’m still deep-down a Southern girl, and a buttered biscuit (real butter, please) will make my day.
Yoel J Gonzalez; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest, or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
Over the past 15 years, I have loved traveling and singing in tribute bands. From the music of Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Queen to the music of the Eagles and Don Henley, I’ve sung with some of the best musicians and orchestras all over the world. Being a vocalist in Nashville for several decades, I have long-standing friendships with some absolutely brilliant musicians. Many of us have been on and off the road together with CCM artists and in the studio recording for various country and pop and Christian artists. We have been on and off buses in the middle of the night and have seen each other in our best and worst moments. A lot of us now enjoy performing together in tribute bands, mostly music from the 70s to the 90s. It feels a bit like old home week to sing these amazing songs with my vintage friends.
One of my solos is “Desperado,” which I treat as a prayer. We are all desperate for God’s love and the lyrics of this song are my personal plea for anyone listening to open their heart to the Father. It’s interesting to me how this song, in the moment given, can bring a little bit of church to a club setting. People lean in. If I allow the moment to happen, it’s really a powerful few minutes in the most unexpected place.
Every time I am onstage in this setting I thank God for the joy of watching people enjoy singing along with songs that are part of their personal history. And then I ask Him to allow the audience to sense His presence from the band onstage, which is, ironically, filled with worship pastors and musicians from local churches. It’s an unexpected joy in a most unexpected place.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We're just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you confront its power?
Child abuse in any form wipes me out and fires me up (both at the same time), and it’s not pretty. I was in my 20s when a nightly newscast detailed the physical and sexual abuse of a 3-year-old in our city. Within a moment of hearing the details, I literally fell to the floor in a heap of tears. I couldn’t stop crying or put into words why I was brought to my knees by this news.
Decades later, I have been able to understand why this particular nightmare hits me on a visceral level.
I was raised in an atmosphere of emotional and physical abuse. I was punished daily in violent ways (belts, paddles, switches, backhands), and to this day I don’t know why. All I know is by the age of six, I was internalizing the punishment and began to have migraines with intense nausea. I recall trying to run away twice at the age of 5. I thought everyone did this until I later learned it was a cry for help. Both times, I made it down the street with a little suitcase and was found sitting in a neighbor’s doorway in the dark.
The miracle of it all is that God revealed Himself to me as a young child through music. Music became my lifeline. Through its ebb and flow, it was medicine to me, and I knew there was beauty in the world. Because of music, I began to grow the seeds of understanding God loved me in spite of my surroundings.
For a long time, I associated love with being punished, being verbally and physically hurt. Divorce is part of my story, and I hate it. I also understand the underlying patterns that played a part in this conclusion. Being loved and abused felt normal.
Yet, in this now moment of my life, I am able to apply the grace of Jesus to work the miraculous act of forgiveness in my spirit. Because He forgave His enemies while nailed down, because He forgives me for all the ways I have driven new nails into His hands, because He literally saves us all from the worst of our nightmares, I can live in forgiveness with those who have hurt me. I don’t know what happened to the people who hurt me, but that’s not my mission. My responsibility is to keep my heart in a posture of forgiveness and also to protect myself from further injury.
I will always be weak-kneed when I hear about child abuse in every form. In our culture we see children preyed upon by murder in the womb, by Drag Queen Story Hour, by gender confusion out of the womb, by sex trafficking—and it is all unspeakable in scope.
I wrote a song about raising awareness about child trafficking entitled “Cry Like a Bell." I support organizations like PreBorn! to help mothers keep their babies and The White Rose Resistance who educate young people about the origins of Planned Parenthood. I pray for these children and do all I can to be a voice of Jesus in their world.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
Toil is a good old-fashioned word. I just finished my fourth solo album, and I feel like writing and recording this project was an investment of all my energies and passions. It was a toiling labor for my brilliant producer, Larry Hall, and a gift from him and his wife Susan to my life in a particularly painful season. We toiled together over how to present each song in its best form—how to serve the work of new songs and arrangements. I am not a fast songwriter. I labor over the feel of the music and often spend weeks trying to finish a second verse or bridge.
Gethsemane has always held deep intrigue for me personally. How did Jesus manage the weight of the world on His soul knowing the cross lay before Him? He was alone in the garden; even his closest friends fell asleep. He sweated drops of blood anticipating the cost. Three times He asked, “Is there any other way?” But then He submitted Himself completely to God’s will: “Be it done unto Me.” I find such comfort in His actions. Sweating, agonizing, crying, asking, submitting.
I wrote a song titled "Gethsemane Brave" about my desire to show that kind of courage. I want to shake and wake the church to ask, “Are we willing to suffer for Jesus? Are we willing to be misunderstood and criticized for His sake?” I believe Charlie Kirk lived and died Gethsemane Brave. There are members of the body of Christ all over the world living and dying for Him daily.
Are we willing? I pray that in this time in history, the body of Christ will truly walk with humility and boldness and live Gethsemane Brave. No matter the cost.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we're Cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God's love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?
My work has always been in the arts—music, songwriting, performing, acting, speaking, and vocal coaching. I’ve never thought of my work and my faith being separate. The two are intertwined at every turn. All who follow Jesus must navigate situations peculiar to our vocation.
In Genesis 1, we know the Holy Spirit hovered and birthed order from chaos over the waters of the deep. The Trinity was there from each miraculous star formed to each animal crafted by God’s hands. God spoke creation into existence. We mere mortals have the privilege to join in His work when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in our vocations and creative giftings.
Most recently, this has meant a desire to write and sing about ending child sex trafficking. I wanted to have a song on my new project that would spark Christians to combat this horror that is happening to children around the world and in our own neighborhoods. I wanted the song to have an urgent feel, in a minor key, and paint mental pictures of the faces of the children. Another song on my project is about being willing to suffer for our faith and to support and rescue other believers around the world who are literally living and dying for owning a Bible or for being a Christ-follower. “Gethsemane Brave” was tough to write but deeply satisfying when it finally came together. The human rights organization Christian Solidarity International, which aids and rescues the persecuted church around the world, is using the song on their new radio feature, which they asked me to narrate. We also included some of their recent photos of persecuted Christians in the song’s music video.
There is no better feeling than knowing I am joining with the Spirit of God to lead worship, to write songs honoring Jesus, and to be a small part of speaking the Gospel into our culture.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
Every morning, I begin with coffee (and creamer!) and open the Word of God. I also enjoy doing online Bible studies. If I believe in Jesus, I have to take Him at His word. Literally. John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God the Word was God.” Jesus is quite literally the Word—the Scriptures. When He was beaten and tortured, He bled the Psalms, the prophets, the Torah.
I’ll never understand how deconstructionists of the Bible expend any energy in faith at all. If you start taking apart the Bible, you are taking apart the Word made flesh, and you have nothing.
As tired as I may be, as distracted or as time crunched, I make it a habit of starting my day reading my Jesus.
I’m also a fan of journaling. Journaling helps me think through what I’ve read, what I’m feeling, what I know to be true, and how to move forward through the day.
At the end of each day, I try to say the Lord’s Prayer. Simple. Clear. Reminding myself of who He is and who I am in Him.
I read this quote recently: “If you want a better morning, talk to God first. If you want a better night, talk to God last. If you want a better life, talk to God all day.”
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
Reading and studying the Bible in my late teens changed the trajectory of my faith. I was raised in a legalistic, strict church that taught that we are saved by works alone. Work harder, believe more, do more, and maybe God will let you into His good graces. Instead of being inspired to serve out of the love God has shown, the message was drilled into me that I had to earn His love—or else. By the time I was 18 or 19, I began to study the Word of God with the intention of resting on His Word versus any denominational theology. It was a freeing and intensely personal journey into simply reading and meditating on the Bible that has created a lifelong hunger in me to learn more.
In my twenties, I sat under the powerful teaching of Pastor Don Finto at Belmont Church in Nashville. He taught on the grace of Christ, the call to serve from gratitude, and the importance of Israel in history, and sitting under his guidance became a renaissance season among my peers. We were drenched in strong Biblical teaching, and it changed many of us for life.
Scotty Smith is another pastor who was instrumental in shaping my faith. He also became a touchstone for me personally while going through a divorce, single parenting, and losing my dad to Alzheimer’s. God used Scotty to keep me grounded in the Word and reliant on the move of God in the worst and best of times.
Pain and failure can be great teachers. In my personal journey, there are a lot of both: divorce, single parenting, date rape, clinical depression. Each of these situations forced me into the dust at the foot of the cross. The presence of God in the middle of my worst moments has become the most tender and powerful catalyst for growth. Instead of feeling alone, I felt more loved. Instead of hopelessness, He brings healing. I’ve grown to cherish the intimacy that comes in times of despair. Jesus is a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with all our grief. His humanity and divinity are the cornerstone of my peace. In His arms, I move on one day at a time.
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
I absolutely believe God is allowing the internet to be used for spreading the Gospel. Social media is basically a rolling feed of human need and emotion. Thousands of people all over the world have access to the Bible, great pastors, and powerful teaching. When the internet becomes too dark, I remind myself that the Holy Spirit can use anything for good, for eternal purposes, and for light.
I take advantage of podcasts and sermons every day. I love having access to so many life-giving, Gospel-drenched resources. I enjoy listening to “Real Life with Jack Hibbs,” “Culture and Christianity” with Alan Jackson, “The Steve Deace Show,” and “Understanding the Times” with Jan Markell. The podcast app on my phone is my go-to.
People laugh when I tell them I’ve discovered some of the strongest, best pastors on X (Twitter). Sure, there are a lot of negativities on any social platform, but in the midst of it all, God is allowing brave men and women who follow Him to post in real time about what’s going on in the world and how we can best handle and respond to these challenges. I’m constantly finding new voices of hope and courage in Christ on X.
I truly feel God is using the internet to open the eyes and hearts of people all over the world and to bring new converts into the family of Jesus. Technology, like everything else, is limited by God’s hand alone, and I think the day He decides “no more”—it will all be unplugged. But for now, there are voices to be found that offer hope and encouragement every day to a terribly broken world.
QUESTION #8: dream
God's continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I’m in Act Three of my life, and I want to leave this world with my boots on, learning more about Jesus, walking from this side of heaven into His presence. As I look back over my life, I see the imprint of God's guidance and grace over every season. I am humbled and comforted to remember how He has carried me through the most difficult of times and how He has given me joy and peace despite my circumstances.
I have a stir in me now about whether to write a book about some of the hardest times in my life to possibly help other people who may be going through similar situations. Divorce has been one of my deepest griefs. I know God hates divorce, yet I cannot deny He removed me from the destruction of marriages that were literally taking my life. I’m torn about whether I should ever put my journey into print and am praying for clarity and wisdom if I am led to speak about it publicly. Nothing in me wants to see marriages end. I also know firsthand how staying in an abusive, betrayal-ridden marriage can destroy a person. So I will wait until prompted by the Lord to put what I’ve learned the hard way into a public arena. Time will tell. I would love to look at writing and recording more new music—maybe a Christmas project, if the Lord wills.
How God moves in us to enlighten and mature us is a mystery. I’m more in love with His Word with each passing year. I’m stunned by His mercy and the gift of His Beloved Son every day. Easter seems to be the theme of each day—the lifeblood of Christ, my hope. I trust the Lord to continue to prune away the dead things in my life and to bring forth fresh sprouts of truth in my spirit.
Bonnie Keen shares how God met her in the middle of difficulty as a child and revealed Himself to her through music. She has since spent her life singing, writing, recording, traveling, and bringing His presence to people and places not expecting to encounter Him. In the interview, Bonnie explains the meaning behind her song titled “Gethsemane Brave.” She encourages believers to consider what it meant for Jesus to endure the garden alone, knowing that the cross was coming. Spend some time reflecting on Bonnie’s prayer: “ I pray that in this time in history, the body of Christ will truly walk with humility and boldness and live Gethsemane Brave. No matter the cost.” What does it mean for you to count the cost? Ask God to give you a vision for what boldness could look like in your life.
Bonnie Keen is a Dove Award–winning recording artist, author, and speaker, and a founding member of the Grammy-nominated trio First Call. She has toured with Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Young Messiah, BeBe and CeCe Winans, The Music of Whitney Houston, among many others. She has performed at the County Music Association Awards, Grammy Awards, and on the Johnny Carson show. In addition to her musical accomplishments, she has authored five books and bible studies and currently co-hosts the podcast Women Who Dare to Believe. Her self-titled album is available now on all streaming platforms.