Rousing worship

A building originally erected as a worship hall -- but which fell from grace in the 1970s -- came full circle Sunday as New Vintage Church held a rousing first service in the former Christian Life Center.

Now known as the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, the building was part of the church run by the Rev. A. Watson Argue, whose 5,000-member ministry came crumbling down in a financial scandal.

On Sunday, about 1,000 members of Santa Rosa's New Vintage Church cheered, rollicked and prayed during a service that resembled a rock concert more than a typical religious ceremony.

After a musical opening by a six-piece band, Pastor Andy VomSteeg, in jeans, a T-shirt and a sports jacket, told the crowd that his first few sermons in the new venue will be about "moral alignment."

"The church has lost its moral authority," he said, speaking in general about religious, and political, leaders whose words and deeds are inconsistent.

As Bible verses flashed on a big screen over his shoulder, he urged visitors to New Vintage to realign their relationships with others and their own relationship with God.

The advice could have come from a study of the site's religious history.

In 1978, Argue admitted to his Christian Life congregation that he had taken an unauthorized loan from church funds, had committed adultery and was taking an extended leave. The revelations eventually led to a demise of the church's $7.2 million trust fund and criminal and civil legal action.

State banking officials ruled the church was operating the fund as a bank without proper authority, which produced a panic among investors. A dozen investors sued in 1979, and the church and Argue eventually filed for bankruptcy.

The site was sold to several local business and community leaders, who turned it into an arts center for Sonoma County, first called the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts and now the Wells Fargo Center.

VomSteeg said when he took over New Vintage about a decade ago, formerly First Baptist Church at Sonoma and Yulupa avenues, church attendance averaged less than 80 people and the aging church "wasn't very relevant."

He has revamped its entire presentation and says New Vintage is now "the church for people who don't like church."

The scandal at the former Christian Life church helped create a distrust of religious institutions in Sonoma County, he said in a video clip on the church's Web site.

Other churches have held services there over the years, including the Resurrection Life Center, which Argue also founded.

VomSteeg said moving Sunday services to the larger, more modern venue isn't an effort to just bring in the masses. (New Vintage will continue services at its Sonoma Avenue site, including two on Saturdays).

The Wells Fargo Center's Person Theater can hold as many as 1,600 people, and Sunday's service mostly filled out the lower section of about 1,000 seats.

"We decided we needed to be history makers and open this up," VomSteeg said of the new venue. "We're not here about drawing a crowd. We at New Vintage are about a tribe."

Brittney McManus, 19, of Santa Rosa, who attended Sunday's service on the word of a friend, hadn't heard of the Christian Life scandal.

"I don't know about that, but this was really cool," she said. "I never really liked regular church. It's too religious and too boring. This is fun and easy."

"People love to be part of a tribe," VomSteeg said, saying those at New Vintage are part of "the tribe of God."

You can reach Staff Writer L.A. Carter at 568-5312 or email at lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com