photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

John Flynn, community life pastor at Vintage Church, is spearheading the effort to turn the old community theater space that the church inherited into a concert and events venue for the community.

The best bet for a rock concert to break out at my church is if someone slips the organist a Red Bull in her Sunday morning coffee. But there is a church in central Lawrence that is now actively recruiting rock concerts and a whole lot else as it tries to become a significant concert and events venue.

For the past eight years, Vintage Church has occupied the old building at 1501 New Hampshire St. But before then, the building was home to Lawrence’s community theater, now known as Theatre Lawrence, which means the building has a full stage, sound system and nearly 200 theater seats.

It also has an associate pastor who is a fixture in the Kansas City and Lawrence music scenes, which has led to the church starting the whole new venue venture.

“We have a wide range of events we want to do here, and not all of them pertain to church or Christian music,” said John Flynn, community life pastor at Vintage Church and a longtime guitarist in the Lawrence and KC area.

Indeed, the group already has teamed up with Lawrence-based Americana Music Academy to bring some bluegrass acts to the space, a local singer-songwriter hosted an album launch party there, and the venue recently hosted a concert for Yale University’s Tangled Up In Blue vocal group.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Between ground floor and balcony seating, Vintage Church has about 200 theater seats to use for concerts and events. The space years ago housed the Lawrence Community Theatre, now known as Theatre Lawrence, before the nonprofit theater organization moved to west Lawrence.

Flynn — who is a guitarist with Kansas City-based yacht rock band Summer Breeze, and years ago was an owner of Lawrence-based Red House Recording Studio — said Lawrence needed another concert venue.

There’s the Lied Center for large acts that can fill a couple thousand seats, and there is Liberty Hall for acts that aren’t quite that big but can fill 700 to 1,000 seats. There are, of course, a multitude of bars with stages and seating areas, but that’s a different vibe and atmosphere than a true concert venue, Flynn said.

“The acoustics here are really good,” Flynn said. “Usually to get acoustics this good you are talking about a venue that is way smaller or way bigger.”

That leaves Flynn thinking that Vintage can carve out a nice niche in Lawrence’s music scene.

“It is a good space for someone who can fill a 200-seater but maybe can’t fill a 500-seater,” Flynn said. “We’re talking about artists who maybe aren’t giants yet, but are really up-and-comers. We’ve been focusing on singer-songwriters, but we are in the works of bringing in some bands as well.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Vintage Church, 1501 New Hampshire St., is pictured on May 4, 2022.

But, let’s address the elephant in the room: It is a church. Is it truly going to be a concert venue or will there also be some church element to each show?

Flynn said while the space will host some events that have a religious connection, there will be plenty that are simply your ordinary concert. Flynn said concertgoers shouldn’t be concerned there will be a sermon or some type of message attached to the show because it is happening in a church.

“There are no surprises,” he said.

That said, church leadership is excited that the events business will expose more people to the building and the fact that there is a church that operates there.

“We’ve always wanted to be a church that is there for our members, but wanted to be something that is open to the community in other ways,” Flynn said.

In terms of how often it will be open, Flynn said the current goal is to get some type of concert or event booked once per month. The venue is in a largely residential area, so there will be some parking issues and other neighborly relation topics to deal with if the venue becomes extremely active.

Flynn said he does have permission from Liberty Memorial Central Middle School — which is across the street from Vintage Church — to use the school’s parking lot on concert nights. But if an event does attract a couple hundred people, concertgoers also are likely going to have to park on residential streets in the neighborhood.

Not all the events at Vintage are expected to be concerts. Flynn said the space also will host some TED Talk-like events where experts come to talk about various subjects. Vintage also is interested in hearing what else promoters might have in mind for the space. Vintage plans to host and promote some events on its own, but also plans to simply rent out the facility on a case-by-case basis to promoters, who then would be responsible for organizing and running the event.

“We are working on bringing in other guest speakers that are more high profile, and we will be working with Americana to do more,” Flynn said. “I would be open to any and all ideas.”