Major Moves
The decision to move to Central Heights Church was an easy one for us. The church was only a few kilometers from our current venue and situated closer to the freeway which linked us to all the major cities in the Fraser Valley. This would make it easier for people to locate Doxa. I remember meeting with the Interim Senior Pastor of Central Heights. I wanted to be clear on the things we would need in order for us to continue to do what we did. Included in this list were: keys to the building, a place to store our equipment, use of their sound equipment, and help with securing the facility during the Doxa services. The pastor's response: I know that this is a move of God because of the way lives are being changed and I don't want to be the one to get in the way. With that, we had keys to the building and the blessing of the church. It was over the next two years that Doxa became known by probably every Christian in the Fraser Valley and many beyond.
(Doxa at Central Heights
Church, 1998)
Our
numbers swelled to over 1500 weekly, many coming from as
far as a 70-minute-drive away. We had estimated that there
were probably 3500 to 4000 people who attended Doxa, but on
a rotational basis, allowing for the 1500 weekly. When
there would be 1500 inside the sanctuary, another 300
people would be sitting in the foyer, out under the roof
hang-over smoking, skate boarding in the parking lot, or
gathering for a fight. You name it, and it happened
at
Doxa.
This
is around the time that I began to understand what a true
servant could look like. There were so many who came along
side to help, encourage, and support Doxa including
pastors, youth workers, parents, and youth. I will never
forget the work of the two youth pastors at Central Heights
who would help with setup and teardown, ensure that our
practice times before the service remained private, make
sure that our needs were met, and handle the nightmare of
security issues that would arise on a weekly basis. One
week, a pimp chased a prostitute with a needle into the
parking lot. Another week some teens decided to meet at
Doxa for a fight in the parking lot. Huh? I'll never forget
the time we had a man jump onto the stage and grab the
microphone from the bass player and begin yelling something
into the mic. Our youth pastor friends were there in a
flash to protect us and take care of the issue so that the
Gospel could be preached again that night.
(The packed sanctuary at Central Heights as the Gospel is
shared from the stage, 1998)
By
the end of 1997 I had written fourteen songs that we were
using at Doxa regularly. Someone suggested to me that we
should record a CD. I spoke to Pastor Steve Berg about
using the South Abbotsford Church sanctuary over the
Christmas holidays of 1997 to record a live CD, and he of
course agreed to make that happen for us. The CD was to be
a project that would have one purpose: To get the music
into the hands of those who attended Doxa. It wasn't going
to be about making money, becoming famous, or trying to
make a career out of worship music. It would be created to
simply let the people take the music home with them. I was
determined to never sell the music at
Doxa.
Somehow this didn't sit right with me. I didn't want to
welcome people to worship their God in one breath, and
promote our CD in the next. We recorded the CD in three
days and released it on February 14th, 1998 exclusively at
HMV Abbotsford.
I wanted it to be sold
in a secular store so that it would have a greater chance
of getting into the hands of non-believers. The store
manager literally laughed at me when I cautioned her to be
prepared for a large number of potential buyers during the
first week of sales. Reluctantly she agreed to take a few
hundred CDs on consignment with the understanding that we
would have to clear out the stock if they hadn't sold in
the first week. HMV was willing to keep a few on hand, but
not a few hundred. We made just over $10 on each CD in
order for them to be sold for $13.99 in the store. Had I
wanted to make money on these disks, I would have sold them
for $15 at Doxa where we'd make the whole amount. At the
chosen rate we'd need to sell something like 950 disks to
recover the money I had personally invested into the
project.
(Doxa CDs Left to Right: One By One,
Spiritflow, All For You Live)
To promote the disk, we simply told the Doxa service that
we had recorded a CD and that it would be available at the
Abbotsford HMV beginning February 14th at noon for $13.99
We played a sample at the end of the service and left it at
that. You can imagine HMV's surprise when we sold nearly
200 on the first day. The store manager called me and
invited me to put up some Doxa posters in the store to
bring in more sales. When people walked into the store they
would hear Doxa music playing instead of Brandy &
Monica, Puff Daddy, Savage Garden, or Will Smith. Imagine
hearing the lyrics: I will praise my God
the King at HMV. The CD went on
to sell consistently for the next 6 months remaining at #1
on the local HMV store charts for 11 weeks.
House of James manager,
Lando Klassen called me and asked if I would sell the disks
at House of James. I explained why I wanted them in the
public stores (we had spread the disk to various other HMV
stores as far as Vancouver and Kelowna), but he reminded me
that there were many Christians who wouldn't go to HMV who
would miss out on the product. We added House of James to
our store list and were encouraged to see the Christian
community in Abbotsford embrace our music. We went on to
record two more CDs over the next two years which all did
well at HMV and the various Christian stores in the Valley.
First came Spiritflow in 1998 and All For You in 1999.
Together, those three CDs sold over 5000 copies in the
Abbotsford area.
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The Doxa Story // Beginnings / Growth / Major Moves / Events / A New Direction
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Take It To The
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2008