“Lord, I’m Coming Home” is a gospel hymn written in 1892 by William J. Kirkpatrick, a prolific Philadelphia church musician who composed well over a hundred hymns. It is sometimes known by its first line, “I’ve wandered far away from God.”
By the well-known account, Kirkpatrick wrote the hymn at a Methodist camp meeting, troubled by a soloist who would sing his part and then leave before the preaching. Kirkpatrick prayed for the young man, and, the story goes, the words and tune came to him; he handed them to the soloist to sing that night, and the man was moved to stay and was converted. The lyric is a prodigal’s plain confession and return — a sinner, weary of wandering, coming home to God.
The hymn became a standard of revival and church singing and passed readily into country and bluegrass gospel.
