Buller keeps the faith through pandemic pitfalls

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This article was published 11/08/2022 (1453 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Jon Buller, it’s a reunion more than two years in the making.

“I’m excited to gather with people in Winnipeg again,” Buller said from his home in Vernon, B.C. “It’s been a long time since we could do that.”

Buller, 51, is well known among Christian audiences in the city for his popular Hear the Music concerts that used to fill the Burton Cummings Theatre on weekends in the early 2000s. He was nominated for a Juno in 2000 for Best Gospel Album.

He will be back in town Sunday, Aug. 14 at 7 p.m. for a concert at the Park Theatre.

“I have new music I want to share,” said Buller, who left Winnipeg 15 years ago to take a worship leader position at a church in B.C.

Through the new music, Buller hopes to lift spirits for people who have felt isolated and burdened for the past two years.

“The pandemic has been hard on everyone,” he said. “Through gathering, we can share our sorrows and also our hope.”

The pandemic was also challenging for Buller as a musician, who left his church position in 2019 to focus on his music.

“The timing wasn’t the best,” he said. “There were no concerts, events or conferences for two years.”

Financially, the pandemic was hard. But it was also “a blessing in disguise,” he said.

The time off gave him time to “adapt what I was doing,” he said. “I felt the mission and vision was still good, but my methods needed to change.”

That included the need to learn new skills such as making and editing videos along with internet marketing.

“The learning curve was fairly steep,” he said. “But now I have those skills now.”

He’s using those skills for his new ministry, Worship Arts Canada. “It’s an outlet for me to equip, affirm and care for musicians, artists, technicians and creatives,” he said, noting the pandemic showed the need for people in the arts to be helped develop new business models.

The pandemic also provided time for creative pursuits. “It pushed me back into writing,” he said.

For inspiration, he listened to old demo cassettes he made years ago. “Most of it wasn’t very good,” he laughed. “But there were a few diamonds in the rough. It primed the pump for me.”

The results are two new albums — Come Awake and Different Now — both of which will be showcased at the Winnipeg homecoming concert.

One of the new songs is titled Thankful, something Buller acknowledges can be hard after two years of isolation due to COVID-19.

But he hopes people can find hope in his music, despite the hardships.

“When we share our sorrows, they are divided. When we share our joys, they are multiplied,” he said, referencing the song. “By gathering, we can do that together.”

Tickets for the concert are available at jonbuller.com.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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