Juno award-winning Christian musician Brian Doerksen will be coming to Powell River Evangel Pentecostal Church for the first date of his worldwide Level Ground tour.
Doerksen is making Powell River his first stop because his daughter is marrying a local man. Doerksen visited here in December to visit his future son-in-law’s family and took a shine to the city. He realized he had a window of time for a show here before setting out on a tour that will see him visit Europe, Africa, Asia and the rest of Canada.
The idea is to have a concert where the musicians are on the same level as the audience and where stories from the audience are incorporated into the show. The music alternates with personal stories of hardship and grace told by members of the community in the audience, further blurring the line between performance and gathering. This concept is the backbone of Level Ground, which does just that, creates a space where everyone is equal and a part of the event.
“There was this thing in me that wanted to try something different, wanted to try something simpler and more relational,” said Doerksen. “To do an event where at the end of the event people are walking out not necessarily talking about me or my songs, they’re talking about some of the stories they heard.”
From the point of view of sound the show is also unique. Rather than having a wall of speakers facing the audience Doerksen is using new speaker technology that sees speakers placed out among the audience that are specially designed to emit sound at the same volume regardless of where the speaker is located. This allows the sound of the show to come from within and among the audience, rather than at the audience.
Doerksen conceived the idea for the show while volunteering at a prison in the Fraser Valley and through charity work with women with addictions. Working with people fighting with troubled pasts taught Doerksen the negative power of feelings of vengeance and retaliation and of the gap between people from different walks of life.
From the show Doerksen hopes the audience will come away with some encouragement, some inspiration and feeling of coming closer to grace. Grace, to Doerksen, is about forgiveness, kindness, a big picture concept of God but also interpersonal connections between people. Working with prisoners and recovering addicts showed Doerksen that change and redemption comes from the power of this concept of grace and not feelings of judgement or eye-for-an-eye vengeance.
“They experienced something that is way more powerful than all of those things and that is the power of grace, the power of unconditional love that changes somebody from the inside out,” said Doerksen. “To really live is to live with an open hand and an open heart and to love others and forgive others. I think that’s the way we were designed to live.”
Doerksen will be playing at 7 pm, Saturday, March 12. The show is being presented by Open Door Healing Rooms.
