Just nine days after his story of spiritual renewal began circulating across Christian music circles, Cory Asbury went further. In a post shared to his Facebook page overnight - already drawing nearly 8,000 likes within hours - the Grammy-nominated worship artist behind "Reckless Love" gave the most detailed public account of his five-year absence from church and worship ministry. And he named, plainly and without hesitation, the person God used as part of his turning point: Forrest Frank.
The post was not polished. It was a series of slides, each carrying one honest statement, building into a confession that read more like a journal entry than a press release. Asbury opened by pointing to his own song: "Homecoming was the last worship song I released before I walked away... how fitting." From there, he traced the shape of a prodigal story he says is even more personal than the one that originally inspired "Reckless Love."
The mention of Forrest Frank is the detail that stands out most. Frank - the Dove Award-winning artist who took home Artist of the Year at the 56th Annual GMA Dove Awards in October 2025 - is not described here as someone who offered a gentle word of encouragement. Asbury uses the word "rebuke." He describes it as a brotherly correction that stung, and that stuck. And in one of the most unexpectedly transparent lines in the post, he says that rebuke helped heaven gain another soul. His own.
What gives the post its weight is not just the confession, but the self-awareness behind it. Asbury doesn't frame his five years away as a simple crisis of faith or burnout. He names it as willful running - choosing lesser things while fully knowing where home was. He compares himself to the older brother in the prodigal son parable: someone already in the house, already established, who still chose to take what he had and walk. The honesty is uncommon, and the Christian music community has responded to it quickly.
There is also a layer of accountability in the post that goes beyond personal confession. Asbury acknowledges that while he felt justified in his frustrations with the church, he was simultaneously doing harm - his words, his distance, his posture - to people who were still inside the Father's house trying to hold things together. He calls it "Saul's work." That kind of public reckoning is rare.
"This running - and His pursuit of my heart - was much more of a true 'prodigal son' story than the one that originally birthed Reckless Love."- Cory Asbury, Facebook, May 11, 2026
Asbury had described feeling spiritually redirected while working on a country music project, eventually walking away from a significant record deal to return to worship. This new post fills in the five-year arc that preceded that moment - the restlessness, the running, the breaking point last autumn when God, in Asbury's words, came running to find him "bruised, beaten, broken." He adds that he is still willing to share more. His note at the end of one slide reads: "more on that later."
For the millions of people who have sung "Reckless Love" in churches around the world - a song built entirely on the image of a God who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one - this confession carries a particular resonance. The man who wrote about being pursued spent five years running. And the God who put those words in him came after him anyway. His final words in the post make it personal and complete: "I am The One. Thank you, Jesus."
The Christian music world is watching what comes next. If this overnight post and the May 3 update are the beginning of a fuller story, it is already one of the most honest public faith reckonings an artist in this space has shared in years. And it is only just beginning.
Related Article: Cory Asbury Shares Honest Journey of Calling, Renewal, and Returning to Worship Roots
