One could already feel a sense of energy building as the predominately young crowd began filling the 550 seats in what is known as “The House.”
The stage, empty of performers at that moment, was ready for another spiritually uplifting performance. Guitars and drums were already in place from the show that had taken place just two hours earlier.
Like a scene one would expect at a venue like the Greek Theater, the Gabe Watkins band took the stage to a bevy of shrieks and screams.
No, it wasn’t the beginning of a concert featuring various Christian artists — at least, not in the true sense of the word concert. Instead, it was the beginning of yet another Sunday service at Malibu Vineyard.
It takes only moments for even the newest of newcomers to realize the Vineyard isn’t a typical place of worship. After all, it’s probably the only church in the world that includes a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine in its press material.
“The church wasn’t really conservative–not like you have to wear a coat and tie or whatever,” said Jason Wade, of the double platinum act Lifehouse, in an interview with David Wild, that was published in the June 7 issue of Rolling Stone. “It was more like a cool hang.”
Nevertheless, the Vineyard is not only a place for people of all ages to come and worship, but it’s also a place for all faiths. The Vineyard is a nondenominational institution. And its uniqueness lends itself to the performing arts as a means of presentation.
“I’m happy co-existing with people that are different,” said Dave Owen, senior pastor. “For us, anybody is welcome.
“We had a well-known Christian therapist speak at the church. He said he found you don’t have to be weird to be here, but you can be weird and be here. I like the sound of that.”
Owen started the Vineyard shortly after moving to California from his native South Africa in the cafeteria of Webster Elementary School in 1993. However, it has been located in its newly constructed building, which is referred to as a performing arts center as opposed to a church, since December 3, 2000.
Accessible to the Malibu community, the Vineyard is capable of staging television, film, theater and video production. The House, which is designed to “function like a speaker,” is capable of recording audio in high definition DVD format.
“We set our goals and we set our sights specifically,” said Gene Shiveley, finance director and board member of the Vineyard. “And we made sure we met those goals. We’re small in size here, but what we are is able to reach the entire world from here.”
Nearly every room at the Vineyard is fully equipped with uplink and downlink satellite communications giving it the capability of communicating anywhere in the world as well as interactive services with other organizations.
“I don’t know anyone who does the interfacing with satellite communications the way we do,” said Shiveley.
The entire premise of Malibu Vineyard centers on arts and entertainment. Nevertheless, that’s not much of a surprise considering roughly 50 percent of those who attend are somehow involved in the entertainment industry.
“We are some of the most aggressive people in the world,” said Shiveley. “We are sitting in one of the most aggressive, influential places in the world and we can do a lot of stuff. Many things we can do better than anybody else. It may sound arrogant, but that is kind of where this is.”
“Sometimes church is so hidden and not involved in real life activities,” said Owen. “That’s not how I want us to be seen. I want us to be well-rounded people. And, I want us to affirm artistic endeavor.”
Plans are in effect to open a private high school for up to 75 students with a strong desire to eventually work professionally in the entertainment industry.
“It’s an interesting concept,” said Shiveley of the school. Plans for the school, which will be housed in an as of now unused portion of the Vineyard, call for the groundbreaking to take place in 2002.
The Vineyard, which was purchased for $7.25 million, recently was appraised at a little more than $15 million as an office complex and is expected to be reappraised in the near future as a performing arts center.
Shiveley believes that appraisal could possibly be in the neighborhood of $20 million to $25 million.
“If we were looking at this from a business point of view,” said Shiveley, “it’s an incredible move, quite incredible. There are not that many places where you can triple your money in that short of time.
“Well, it’s more than real estate,” added Shively. “It’s taking it and creating something with it. The real jump is when you have vision and then you have created an
entire performing arts center.”
“We wanted to try and establish [Malibu Vineyard] with a theater-type atmosphere,” explained Owen. “I think that’s the way people should be seeing it–that they’re going into a concert environment.”