11/6/2008 by Richard Thomas

(Photo: Michael Gatlin, senior co-pastor of Duluth Vineyard Church, in front of the new Arrowhead Rd. building under construction.)

Vineyard Christian Fellowship, located in the Lakeside neighborhood of Duluth, has seen membership grow in the past 10 years to the point that is constructing a new $4 million home at 1533 Arrowhead Rd., to open in February.

While the current facility at 5202 Colorado St. has a total of 9,308 square feet, the new building will be 35,000 square feet.

Duluth’s Vineyard Church began in 1990 with roughly 50 members. Today an average 1,100 people turn out for weekend services. The new building “will allow us to grow to over 2,000 people on this site,” according to Vineyard’s Web site.

The new auditorium will seat 500 to 800 people per sermon.

If the church grows to its designed capacity, it would qualify as a “megachurch.” The term is used widely without clear definition, but the Hartford Institute for Religious Research defines it as a Protestant congregation with a sustained average weekly attendance of 1,800 or more. (Catholic churches are not included because they tend to have different internal dynamics.)

Duluth Vineyard’s Pastor Michael Gatlin doesn’t see it that way, necessarily. He’s not fond of the “corporate culture” of a megachurch. “A megachurch can be healthy or unhealthy. We’re learning what makes a healthy church,” he said.

The Hartford Institute’s database lists 1,360 megachurches in the U.S., ranging up to 47,000 in weekly attendance. There are 24 listed in Minnesota, but only in the Twin Cities area.

Twelve Vineyard churches, ranging in size from 2,000 to 7,000, are on the institute’s national list of megachurches. There are more than 1,500 Vineyard churches worldwide.

The institute’s Web site states, “Although very large congregations have existed throughout Christian history, there has been a rapid proliferation of churches with massive attendance since the decade of the 1970s. As such, some researchers suggest that this church form is a unique collective response to distinctive cultural shifts and changes in societal patterns throughout the industrialized, urban and suburban areas of the world.”

Megachurches are often criticized for drawing members away from smaller churches, though defenders say they bring in people who previously did not attend services.

Duluth’s Vineyard shares common characteristics of the megachurch: a network of programs and ministries organized and maintained by members; high levels of commitment and giving by members; contemporary worship with advanced sound and projection systems; an espresso bar.

Also typical of megachurches, the Duluth Vineyard draws people from a large area and across parish boundaries. Members come from 30 different zip codes, some as far as away as the Iron Range. Large groups attending from Superior and Silver Bay lead to new Vineyard churches opening in those towns.

Megachurches tend to grow rapidly in less than 10 years under the tenure of a single senior pastor. Gatlin said growth has been steady and "sustainable," around 25 percent per year. “People say the church is growing so fast, but when we were 100 people, 25 percent wasn’t that much.”

Megachurches are usually located in suburban sprawl areas near major traffic thoroughfares, with large tracts of land to accommodate high volumes of worshippers and their automobiles.

The new Duluth Vineyard location is far more accessible and centrally located than its current address. It will have parking capacity for 250 cars. It's tough to argue that Arrowhead Rd. qualifies as a major thoroughfare in the midst of suburban sprawl, though it may be as close as Duluth gets, other than Hermantown.

Unlike the stereotypical megachurch, Vineyard does not openly promote conservative politics. Nor is it dominated by a flamboyant male pastor; Gatlin shares co-pastor duties with his wife Brenda. Prior to becoming Duluth Vineyard’s pastor in 1997, Michael was a professional graphic artist and art director for Minneapolis Star Tribune.

A service at Vineyard may best be described as informal. Patrons spend the first 20 minutes serenaded by a live Christian rock band. Then the Gatlins, clad in blue jeans, give soft-spoken and gently humorous sermons.

At an Oct. 26 service Michael Gatlin told the congregation, “If all we get is a new building we consider that a failure. A building is just a building. The church is the people.”

To help with the construction, he said, “You just pray. Well, that’s not all you’re gonna do, but it’s a start.”

Around $1.2 million has been raised by asking members to commit to increase their pledges for three years. "We haven't noticed the effect of the current economy," he said.

Duluth Vineyard purchased the 10-acre plot on Arrowhead Road in 2005. The design is intended to be “more like a community center than a church,” Gatlin told BusinessNorth.

The contractor, J.R. Jensen of Superior, has built other churches — United Presbyterian in Superior, Living Stones Fellowship in Duluth, and Grace Lutheran in Hermantown. But Gatlin said the church wanted something more akin to other J.R. Jensen projects like the Bullyan R.V. Center and the Harley Davidson Sports Center, both in Hermantown. “We needed a big barn,” he said.

Construction has been kept at the “impossible” low price at $104 per square foot, he said. “We’re fiscally conservative.”

The church secured bonds through Ziegler Companies in Milwaukee, which specializes in aiding church and school construction. Sale of the existing church, ministry house and garage in Lakeside also will provide financing.

The international Vineyard Fellowship has its roots in the hippie-oriented “Jesus Movement” of the 1970s. The first meetings were organized for musicians and actors by Larry Norman, best known as the father of Christian rock, in his living room. Bob Dylan attended these meetings when he released three gospel albums in the late 1970s and early 80s. (Dylan now says he is not part of any organized religion.)

The Vineyard began growing nationwide in the 1980s under the leadership of John Wimber, a founding member of the band The Righteous Brothers. Wimber was a leader of a Calvary Chapel church that joined with the small group of existing Vineyard churches in 1982. Music remains an important part of worship.

The Vineyard church combines elements of the evangelical and charismatic Christian movements, and as a result has drawn criticism from both sides, often being called a “new age” church. Still it has been associated with conservative movements such as Promise Keepers, some of whose founders are members of the Vineyard.

As part of its charismatic element the Vineyard engages in practices such as faith healing and speaking in tongues, though they’re not openly evident at services. “We don’t necessarily do it publicly,” Gatlin said. “We’re low key.”

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