Worship Artist Michael Cochren: ‘God’s Timing Is Perfect’

Michael Cochren is the lead singer for the Christian band Cochren & Co. and uses music to impact people’s lives for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But he wasn’t always all in for Jesus Christ, as he filled his high school and early college years with alcohol and parties.

Find out how Michael’s life changed forever as he sat in his car in a parking lot on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories.
 
Connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Facebook at Billy Graham Radio.

If you’d like to know more about beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, or deepening the faith you already have, visit FindPeacewithGod.net.

If you’d like to pray with someone, call our Billy Graham 24/7 Prayer Line at 855-255-7729. 

Transcript

MUSIC STARTS

Michael Cochren:
00:00:01 There was this like, double life of the good image, the nice funny kid that was the president of the choir and all this stuff, and sang some hymns on Sunday morning and whatever, would help the old lady across the street with her groceries.

Jim Kirkland: That kid was Michael Cochran—but … so was this kid:

Michael:
00:00:19 The kid that, you know, would just do whatever to get a laugh on Friday night and would drink way too much and not remember what had happened. And, there’s this double life going on.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Today, Michael Cochren is all in for Jesus Christ. He’s a singer, songwriter, and worship leader, whose music has been getting a lot of airplay and exposure lately. Maybe you’ve even heard his band, Cochren & Co. 

His story is a fitting one for the start of a new year, because it’s the story of a new beginning—a life transformed by Jesus Christ. This is GPS: God. People. Stories., an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Happy New Year! I’m Jim Kirkland.

A little later in the episode, you’ll hear Billy Graham talk about the type of new-life transformation that Michael Cochren and countless others have experienced. 

Billy Graham:
00:01:30 Christ indicated that we do not have the inner resources to face the problems, frustrations, and crisis of life. We need new inner resources which He alone can provide. He said you must be born again. The new birth brings about a change in disposition, in affection, in design. 

Jim: If you’d like to know more about new birth in Jesus Christ, visit us. We’re at FindPeaceWithGod.net. That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net. If you’d prefer to talk with someone, call the 24/7 Billy Graham prayer line: 855-255-7729. That’s 855-255-PRAY.

Intro: GPS: God. People. Stories.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Michael Cochren grew up in a small town in Indiana with his parents and older brother, Tim. 

Michael:
00:02:28 When I say Indiana, everybody thinks like that’s a northern state, but where I lived, it really felt country and it felt southern and it just felt warm. I had a great upbringing. I had great parents, great grandparents in my life. I was fortunate enough to grow up with both sets of my grandparents and saw them often and that was just a huge blessing.

Jim: Michael spent much of his childhood playing with his cousins—who lived a couple of streets down from him—and going to church. His family had deep roots in church. For example, his grandfather was a minister for over 50 years and his grandmother was the organist at his family’s church. 

Michael:
00:03:06 My earliest memories are from singing hymns with my family on Sunday mornings and having potluck dinners after church and all that stuff—but music was a big part of my upbringing as well. My aunt was a fantastic piano player. My grandfather was a great singer. My dad played the guitar, and I have a lot of fond memories sitting out on the front porch of our home. We would sit on the front porch and the spiders would be building cobwebs up in the corner in the evenings and my dad would have his old acoustic guitar out and we’d be singing songs together out there. 

Jim: Surrounded by both music and church, Michael knew about Jesus from a young age. When he was 8 or 9, he responded to an altar call invitation that his pastor gave.

Michael:
00:03:51 And I was like, I want to do that, you know, I want to get baptized, and I went to the front. But my life didn’t really change, you know? Looking back, that decision wasn’t one that I think I was prepared for the implications of what it means to follow Jesus. I liked the way it sounded, and I liked being in the club, so to speak. You know, my grandparents were Christians, my mom, my dad, my family. I was raised in a Christian household, so I wanted to be a Christian. I wanted Jesus in my heart; I wanted to be like that, and I wasn’t prepared for what it meant to follow, what it meant to pick up your cross, what it meant to die to yourself. 

Jim: Michael would eventually learn what that meant, but not before he suffered some hard blows and made some bad decisions. The first blow came when he was in fourth grade. That’s when his parents told Michael and his brother that they were getting a divorce.

Michael:
00:04:40 I remember the morning they sat us down and it was a shock. … We were on the couch in the living room and there’s a lot of tears and a lot of not understanding.

Jim: Michael felt like he had done something wrong, but his parents assured the boys that their decision had nothing to do with them. Still, Michael’s heart hurt. Divorce didn’t feel normal to him.

Michael:
00:05:02 We didn’t have family members at that time that had, so this just felt like something that happens to other people, other families, like, not us, you know, and it was earth-shattering. So there was a lot of struggle with that, of dealing, and pointing blame, and all these things.

Jim: The boys continued to live with their mom, but their dad remained very present in their lives. He coached them in sports and attended all their games. Despite that, Michael couldn’t ignore the instability in his life and that led to his making some bad decisions.

Michael:
00:05:35 The reality is that I wasn’t coping well and I was turning to other things besides the Lord. Even though the Lord was right there, waiting for me to run into His arms, I was running into the arms of other things. I started drinking alcohol when I was probably 12 or 13 years old. I just had some friends that had it available.

Jim: Michael had a lot of friends. He says he loved being liked by people and making them laugh. He was the class clown. He looks back and sees now that a lot of his behavior was an attempt to numb the pain he was feeling. So was the drinking he had started. One particular evening of heavy drinking at a party stands out in his memory. 

Michael:
00:06:16 I just remember being in my friend’s basement and my heart beating so fast, and I was like, I’m going to do this thing that I know is wrong, but I’m just hoping that it makes me feel better. And that started just a lot of binge drinking, started a lot of other mild substance abuses, those kind of things. It was just anything to try to make me feel better. And, like kind of self-medicating, you know?

Jim: But not everyone knew this side of Michael. He was from a family with a good reputation and continued to do well in school. Most people had no idea that he was spiraling.

Michael:
00:06:49 There was this like good image, the nice funny kid that was president of the choir and, you know, all this stuff, and sang some hymns on Sunday morning and whatever, would help the old lady across the street with her groceries. And then there was the kid that would just do whatever to get a laugh on Friday night and would drink way too much and not remember what had happened. There’s this double life going on. And as God began to just show me the emptiness of one, I started to see hope in the other of like, OK, my way’s not working, but I would keep going back to it. I would hear something, or I would see something, or I’d read something in a moment of desperation, and I would be like, OK, I’m going to, you know, quote, ‘Get my life together.’

Jim: That resolve would only last until the next time his buddies would ask him to hang out and he was tempted again. Then he’d go right back to his old habits. While he was struggling, Michael’s love of music was growing and he started his own band right as he was graduating from high school. 

Michael:
00:07:48 When I first started playing music, my main motivation was, I just want girls to like me [laugh], you know, like, I just want to be cool. I want to be a rock star. I want to move to Nashville. I want to have a rock band, or a country band or whatever, you know, whatever it takes just to be cool and to be loved. And that started to change towards the end of high school, first part of college. And there was this desire to know the Lord like I knew I should, but there was also this fear of the implications of what that would mean for my life.

Jim: Michael and his band played shows all throughout his freshman year at Vincennes [VIN-sinns] University in Indiana—and God was at work.

Michael:
00:08:25 I went there for audio engineering. I just wanted free studio time. I didn’t really want to learn how to record stuff. I just wanted to be recorded ’cause I wanted to make music, you know. So I paid a lot of money to go in there and use the studio. And knowing what I know now, I could have spent a little less, went to Nashville, and used a better studio, but I did enjoy it, and it played an integral part in my life because it put me around the people that God wanted me to be around.

Jim: And Michael liked being around those people, Christians. But he still wasn’t ready to be one himself. He was not ready to commit to Jesus Christ. 

Michael:
00:08:56 I knew enough to know that I wasn’t living, like, if I follow Christ, that means I have to die to these things over here and I just couldn’t ’cause I thought those were saving me. And, it was, that idea was slowly moving, but it was this just this blending period of, these things aren’t satisfying me, but I can’t quite seem to grasp that this will satisfy me.

Jim: One night, at a lake party with some friends, Michael drowned his struggles in alcohol. And as he woke up the next morning, with the sun in his eyes, he saw something he didn’t like: The person he never wanted to be.

Michael:
00:09:32 That night I realized that that part of my life had overtaken the other, and I’d become something I never wanted to be. And truly, looking back now, I see from the Word, sin does take you farther than you ever want to go, and it costs you more than you ever think you’re going to have to pay, and you don’t realize it. It’s a slow creep until you just, you look one day and you’re like, I’ve become somebody that I never wanted to be.

Jim: Michael knew he had a choice to make.

Michael:
00:09:57 I can keep doing this and I’m going to be miserable my whole life, or I can actually surrender, and I choose to surrender now. When I started seeing that, I started to see all of it for what it was. And that one night by the lake was just this veil came off my eyes and I was like, I’ve turned into a wicked person and that’s never what I wanted. Nobody sets out to be that way. Nobody sets out to find themselves just completely shackled by sin. But … it happens.

Jim: In his sophomore year of college, Michael made the decision to transfer to a community college. It was a move that took him away from the friends he used to party with and put him closer to friends who were serious about their faith in Jesus. 

Michael:
00:10:37 They had walked through a faith journey in a trial and they had come out knowing the Lord, and they were taking their faith really seriously, and I noticed that, and I knew enough about the Lord, I knew enough Scripture to know that Jesus was what was giving them their peace and their happiness, and I wanted that. That sounds cliche, but I saw what they had and I wanted it, you know? And so I had two sets of friends in those years. I had my friends that I could go and be wild with, and I had my friends that I could sit down with and have a conversation about Jesus. And I became increasingly more hungry for that set of friends. I just wanted to be around them more. And so they invited me to start coming with them to this Bible study on Tuesday nights.

Jim: Attending those Bible studies and being around Christians made Michael feel better in one way, but inside, he still felt miserable and broken.



Michael:
00:11:28 Soon enough God was using that simple little Bible study to break through some walls that I had built up. And I started seeing all the holes in my worldview and all the holes in the way that I was living and doing life. And, one night, the guy preaching there at the Bible study just laid out the Gospel. And I had heard it so many times growing up, but it was like I’d never heard it that night. 

Jim: “I was wrecked.” That’s how Michael describes what happened. For the first time in his life, at 19 years old, Michael felt the walls in his mind fall. But he didn’t want anyone to see the tears streaming down his face, so when the Bible study was over, he went right out to his white Buick Regal and sat there as everyone else drove away. It was just him and God. 

Michael:
00:12:18 I just sat there in that parking lot in my car by myself, just, uncontrollably sobbing, [chuckle], and just years of hiding and years of pain just rolling out of my eyes. And I’m just crying out to God, like, God, I want this to be real. I don’t want this to just be like another youth conference that my parents made me go to when I was in high school that was a spiritual high or an emotional high and then I come back to the real world and nothing changes, my life doesn’t change, you know. I want this to be real tonight. And, am I too far gone for that, you know? And He answered my prayer right there.

Jim: As Michael got ready to drive home, he turned on the radio and heard a song come on called “East to West” by the band Casting Crowns. This particular lyric caught his attention: “I feel like I’m just one mistake away from You leaving me this way. Jesus, can You show me just how far the east is from the west?” It refers to Psalm 103, verse 12, in which God promises to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west when we give our lives to Jesus.

Michael:
00:13:28 That was my prayer come to life. And as I heard those words wash over me, it really was like God was just speaking directly to me through the radio. Like He just was reminding me of Scriptures that I knew, and even what the guy said in the Bible study, and I just felt this peace and this calm of, I can be the Lord’s and I can walk with Him and I can be forgiven for all the mess that I’ve made of my life. And that night, right then and there, that was the beginning of a real walk with Jesus and understanding grace and what was done for me. 

Jim: The next year, Michael stopped going to community college so that he could pursue a career in Christian music. He didn’t know how it would all play out, but he was going to give it a try. 

Michael:
00:14:13 My heart was just on fire for the Lord, like it was new, and I was just so ready to go. I was writing Christian music and I was singing in church, and I was working in music at a church, and I was all in it. So I was like, I’m going to give this a year just to see what happens. Like, I’m going to go after Christian music, whatever, and then I met a girl.

Jim: That was in July of 2013. Michael’s band was headlining a small concert at a college and a young lady named Leah and her sister sang a duet to open the show. 

Michael:
00:14:42 We were loading in our equipment in the back, and I just was young and still pretty arrogant and I just thought, like, we’re really cool. We got this show, and I got this van now—which was like my dream to have a van to drive around in. So, we load our stuff and I just hear this voice singing and sound checking. And I just nudged my guitar player, just joking, and I was like, I’m going to marry that girl. And then I met her that night, and, I don’t know, I guess I’m a man of my word.

Jim: After the show, they connected on Facebook and chatted back and forth all night. A few days later, Michael mustered up the courage to ask her to lead worship with him at a camp. Leah agreed and the two continued playing music together. But Leah still wasn’t feeling the same romantic feelings that Michael was. 

Michael:
00:15:27 And I remember going to my pastor at the time at this new church that I was serving at in music and I said, Hey, this girl is so special and she just wants to be friends. I don’t what to do. He’s like, well, it’s really simple: Be the best friend she’s ever had. And I was like, I can do that. And so we just became really good friends and … I don’t even remember how it just slowly turned into more. 

Jim: Along the way, Leah encouraged Michael to finish his degree. So, he went back to school, joining her at Oakland City University, a small Christian college in Indiana.

Michael:
00:15:58 I went to the guidance counselor there and I laid all my credits on our table and I said, tell me what gets me out of here the fastest [laugh], because I was so done with college. I was done with school. Leah was going to be out in a year. She was just going there to finish up, and so I was like, what gets me out? And she was like, well, a general studies degree, you’d only need however many credit hours. And I said, done. And it’s really funny ’cause I always tell people I have a bachelor’s degree in general studies and studying is generally the thing I didn’t do. 

Jim: Instead, Michael spent his time playing music … and hanging out with Leah. 

Michael:
00:16:34 We would go grab dinner at Denny’s, which the only restaurant next to our college. We just got to know each other more and more. I sat down and we had a plate of zesty nachos, and I said, Leah Helms, I was wondering if you would be my girlfriend and she said yes and we celebrated with the nachos and it was a great night.

Jim: Within a couple of months, Michael and Leah were already talking about getting married. 

Michael:
00:16:56 What’s so cool about our story is if I had met her a year and a half earlier, it would not have worked. I was not who she needed me to be. I was not looking for someone like her and God knew that. And what’s crazy—so we started dating there in 2013. About a year and a half after that, she was already playing in my band with me and we were touring and stuff. And we were going to be opening up for Skillet, which is like Christian rock band, and I was like, OK. I remember seeing Skillet in 2012 in January at our town for Winter Jam. They came through and it was just this big concert. It was awesome. And we were in the very top overflow section ’cause I got there so late and you could feel the pyrotechnics from the stage. And she was like, yeah, I remember that too. I was at that concert. And I was like, yeah, I was in the top left, like right here, you know, this area. She was like, yeah, I know. I was there as well. I was like, that’s crazy.

Jim: Leah pulled out her phone and showed Michael a panoramic selfie of her and her friend at Winter Jam.

Michael:
00:17:56 And I was like, oh my gosh. I take that and I zoom it in and I brighten her phone up a little bit and I keep zooming. And it was her friend, her, two empty chairs, and then me. I was in the background of her photo that night with my buddy Alex. We were there. We didn’t meet; I don’t remember even anybody being next to me. It was like God had just put a blinder up of like, you’re not going to meet tonight, but you’re going to meet in a year and a half when your heart’s ready and her heart’s ready. And so, like anytime in our life when we’re just frustrated and struggling and waiting on God’s time and we look back at that photo of us together and not together and just realize God’s timing is perfect and it’s always been perfect.

Jim: And in God’s perfect timing, Michael and Leah married on June 27, 2015. That’s when Leah also joined Michael’s band, taking over as the pianist and pushing Michael to be more of a front man. 

Michael:
00:18:49 Her joining the group was this pivotal moment of like expanding what it was we were doing. So that was huge. And then, I just was so hungry to play. And I was especially so hungry now to just share this message with like anybody that would listen. So I was calling, I don’t know, in those years, probably a hundred churches or coffee shops. I was looking at other artists like that I respected. I was like, well, where do they just play? Well, I’m going to call that place, see if they’ll let me come play there. And like, well, where, you know what’s—OK, so we’re going to play in Cincinnati tomorrow. We’re going to play in Indianapolis the next day, so I need to find a coffee shop somewhere in this region. I was just calling all these places and, you know, for every 100, five people would call me back and one person would say yes or whatever. 
Jim: As Michael began to knock on doors, God opened them for him. 

Michael:
00:19:35 People were getting excited that there’s this Christian band, they’re really trying to do something, and so they would have us come sing at their church, whatever. And, finally we built it up enough to where if somebody was going to bring like a national group through the area, more often than not, they would call us to have us open ’cause they thought that might help the attendance or whatever. And so that happened with Newsboys and some other groups coming through.

Jim: But the turning point for Michael’s career occurred when Christian artist Ryan Stevenson was having two shows in Indiana. Cochren & Co. was booked to play at both events. 

Michael:
00:20:06 And I didn’t know, but his management team came with him. And, I just saw all these guys standing around in all black next to Ryan and I knew like, oh, they’re from Nashville [laugh]. They just looked like they were in the music industry, you know. And so I just went up to ’em and I was like, Hey, you don’t know me, but I’m going to play here in a minute. I would love it if you would watch the set, gave my card, like, email me some thoughts, anything that you think would help. And I didn’t think they really would, but they did. So Monday morning I got an email and they were like, Hey, fantastic. Here’s some things maybe that might help you. Also, would you want to come and just have a conversation in Nashville sometime? Like, we’d love to know what your goals are, what you’re, you know, what you’re after. 

Jim: Michael said he’d head down to see them immediately.

Michael:
00:20:49 I go and I meet with them and there’s all these gold records and platinum records on the wall from artists that they’ve worked with, and they were just like, we believe in you and we think that you have what it takes and we’ve heard your songs, we’ve heard your voice and we’ve heard what you have to say and what your heart is and what you’re about; we would love to work with you if you would work with us.

Jim: That was in 2017. The management team started sending Michael’s music to record labels … something that Michael had been doing for years. But this time, Michael had his foot in the door with a reputable company.

Michael:
00:21:20 And so we started taking label meetings with all the big labels in town. That just was overwhelming season for me. It seemed like it happened so fast. I dreamed of it and dreamed of it and dreamed of it, but I’m from a small town in Indiana. I served a small church—but just a lot like how I just felt drawn to Leah and couldn’t explain it, I just felt drawn to do this. I never really thought it would happen at this level, but I just couldn’t do anything else. It’s all I ever wanted to do. And God just opened those doors.
Jim: When Michael was in talks with one label, he ended up writing a song with a producer entitled “Church.” He had no idea that the producer was working with TobyMac at the time, nor that he would show TobyMac his new song. But once TobyMac heard it, he wanted to meet Michael.

Michael:
00:22:08 Toby just flipped out and came to the studio the next day to our session. And this white Tesla pulls up and TobyMac gets out with his fedora on, you know, and I’m like, oh my gosh, this is TobyMac. And he comes in and he says, Hey, listen, I know you’re down the road with some of their labels and stuff, but we want to throw our hat in the ring and we’d love to work with you. He takes his hat off and tosses on the table, you know. I was like, oh, wow. Love to pray about this. This is unreal. 

Jim: Michael ended up signing a record deal with TobyMac’s label, Gotee Records, in 2018. After that, he began touring with established national artists, going solo on the longer tours, and coming back to play summer shows with his band. 

Michael:
00:22:49 It’s been tremendous to know that God used a song in my life to really speak into my heart and tell me what I needed in that moment—and I hear the exact same story from other people and now it’s our music, and that’s just surreal. We actually had a song called “Parking Lot” that was about that night in the parking lot when things became real with Christ and people have told me that that song has come on for them in a parking lot and it’s been that moment for them. 

Jim: Michael’s grateful for those stories and the stories of how God has used some of his other songs in people’s lives.

Michael:
00:23:19 Our song, “One Day,” we would get videos sent to us during the pandemic of hospitals playing that song as they would be releasing patients that were healed and could go home and they’d play that over the loudspeakers. And I don’t know how many people have come up to us at shows and have said, I was really far from the Lord and I heard your song “Church (Take Me Back)” and I decided to go to church that morning, or I decided to go to the Bible study that I had been thinking about going to and now I’ve been going to this church for how many months and God’s changing my life. It’s just, it’s unreal that the Lord uses—He doesn’t need to use music, but He chooses to for whatever reason, and He lets us be a part of that. It’s just, it’s awesome.

MUSIC TRANSITION

Jim: Michael Cochren found fulfillment and purpose after he asked Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and take control of his life. 2025 can be the year that happens for you, the year that happens, and we can help. Visit us online at FindPeaceWithGod.net. Or call our 24-hour Billy Graham prayer line. The number is 855-255-PRAY. 855-255-PRAY. And our web address again is FindPeaceWithGod.net.
In just a few minutes, you’ll hear one final word from Michael ... about New Year’s resolutions.

Voice-over: You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories., a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

MUSIC STARTS

Billy Graham:
00:25:12 All through the Scriptures runs the truth that a change is needed. Christ indicated that we do not have the inner resources to face the problems, frustrations, and crisis of life. We need new inner resources which He alone can provide. He said you must be born again.

Voice-over: Billy Graham …

Billy Graham:
00:25:33 Jesus taught clearly that unless we experience a new birth or conversion, we cannot enter the kingdom of God. The new birth brings about a change in disposition, in affection, in design. New aims, new principles, new dimensions of life can be yours if you put your faith and confidence in Jesus Christ. So Jesus said, “I am going to be lifted up.” “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” Our generation could be saved by a look of faith to Jesus Christ. Science and medicine can help. Psychiatry can help. But our ultimate salvation is at the cross of Christ where He died for our sins and where all the possibilities of a new dimension of life exists if we will look and live. 

Jim: Are you ready to experience a new dimension of life by putting your faith and confidence in Jesus Christ? If you are, visit us at FindPeaceWithGod.net. FindPeaceWithGod.net. Or call us at the 24/7 Billy Graham prayer line. The number is 855-255-PRAY. Both the link and phone number are in the show notes. 

Our guest on this episode is Michael Cochren, lead singer of the band Cochren & Co. We asked him about New Year’s resolutions. He says he doesn’t make them. Instead, at the start of every year, he tries to remind himself of who God is. 

Michael:
00:27:09 I think sometimes when you just have all these things of like, I’m going to this, this, this, this, this. You’re the main character of that story and it puts it all on your shoulders and you got to just like muster up the strength and the courage and the whatever. And it’s like, I want to remember what God’s doing on my behalf in the ways that I can’t see. I want to remember that He’s fighting and He’s already ahead of me in this year. He’s already been there and He’s already laid it out for me, and that should give me the confidence to go after whatever goals that I may have. 

Jim: We’re grateful for Michael Cochren joining us on this episode and sharing his journey of faith. When he’s not traveling with Cochren & Co., he’s involved with his local church, which is in Montgomery, Indiana, where he lives with his wife, Leah, and their dog, Lucy.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, would you please leave us a rating or a review? And also be sure to subscribe to GPS wherever you find your podcasts, that way you’ll never miss an episode. We post a new episode every other Wednesday. I’m Jim Kirkland, and this is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—Always Good News.

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