Aspen Project Portfolio–The Vineyard Church

Project Details:

92,000 sq. ft. facility
1,200 seat sanctuary
Themed children’s space

New student center
400 seat chapel/multi-ministry space
New admin/multisite support space

Project Background:

When Vineyard Church, located in Urbana IL, embarked on the third phase of a design-build project with Aspen Group, they focused on two key areas—the youth ministry and multipurpose room.

After completing a significant remodel of their children’s ministry space, Vineyard turned their attention to the needs of their youth, who didn’t have a space to call their own. They wanted to build an addition for their middle school and high school students—ministry space that would meet their unique needs for adaptability, fluidity, openness, and creativity.

“We now realize that people hang out longer after services because people have space to linger in….”

Company Name

Pastor Brian Coffey, Senior Pastor

Project Results:

When Vineyard did their soft opening of the new youth ministry wing, Greg Snider, Aspen Group’s Senior Project Developer for this phase of Vineyard Church’s building project got a text from the pastor saying—“We didn’t build big enough!”

Vineyard Church has seen a quick return on their investment. Before adding the new youth ministry wing, Vineyard averaged less than 200 students. Now, attendance is up by 50 percent. “Our numbers used to be pretty sporadic, and now there is always a consistent crowd,” said Adam Waters, Community Life Pastor at Vineyard. “Another awesome thing to see is so many of them jumping in and serving in both worship and tech in new ways.”

The new space is both cutting edge and relevant to the current generation, and has brought about a lot of new energy at the church. The innovative building project played a part in a major revolution in thinking at Vineyard Church.

In addition to the new high-impact ministry space for youth, Vineyard also renovated their gym into a flexible, multipurpose room to act as a second venue for the church. Vineyard frequently hosts trainings, conferences, banquets, special events, dinners, or weddings, and this newly renovated space allows them to flip the room faster and host more events with ease. Vineyard’s pastor says that the multipurpose room has allowed them to “think outside of the box.”

For Vineyard, more space has meant more ministry opportunities and more growth: exciting new progress for the church.