The band could be heard down Church Street on a recent Sunday night in March. Guitars, drums and a chorus boomed out from Lagoinha MV, a church in Vineyard Haven that has been growing.
From the outside, the church’s building is unassuming, except for a black-and-white flag out front boasting the organization’s dove logo.
Inside, the larger part of 100 people filled seats — many of them worshippers from younger generations, with some young children weaving between. Facing the stage, they swayed and sang with the band in Portuguese.
Just two years ago, the local baptist congregation started out in the living rooms of homes. It only began leasing its Vineyard Haven building a year ago, and the congregation is already looking to double its capacity as its membership, mostly younger people from the Island’s Brazilian community, is on the rise.
While many churches across the country are struggling to retain worshippers, Pastor Ricardo Duarte credits his congregation’s need to expand to interest from the Vineyard’s prominent Brazilian population — the church, like other Brazilian congregations on the Island, is a beacon of sorts for many immigrants that are trying to find a connection back home. Lagoinha also stands out in its reach with young people.
Formed in 2023, Lagoinha MV is the local chapter of an international church that has grown along with the global Brazilian diaspora. The church, Duarte said, began in the middle of the last century in a place called Lagoinha, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais where many Vineyarders trace their roots. He told The Times that there are now over 700 international locations, with the first in the US having opened in Orlando in 2017. Lagoinha has been growing regionally as well, with a dozen churches recently opened in New England, the pastor said.
Services and sermons at Lagoinha locations are backed by live music, while its buildings have a distinct appearance inside — simple, black walls, stage lighting, and a screen on each side of the church showing lyrics, bible verses, or images. A Sunday service attended by The Times used a smoke machine during its opening songs. Duarte said the church offers a more engaging worship than many Islanders are used to.
“It’s a new reality for many people that come that have a background in church in Brazil,” he said. “You come to the church, you see black walls and lights, and a screen in front of you with the lyrics, and the band inviting you to be on your feet worshipping God.”
That said, it is still a church. “Obviously, after that, we’re going to have the preaching of the gospel.”
After around a year in Vineyard Haven, Lagoinha MV now holds two services per week, each with about 75 people. And facing a growing faith base, Duarte has been on the lookout to find room for 150 worshippers at once.
He attributes much of this need to young worshippers, many of whom attend middle and high school.
“The majority of our members now, they’re youth, and it’s [making] a difference amongst them,” he told The Times. “The youth have a service on Fridays, and they keep inviting people around the Island, and they keep turning up.”
While Lagoinha may stand out with its youth membership, it is not the only church that works to address concerns about young people in the Brazilian community.
With an immigrant community that is thousands of miles away from their homeland, pastors say church can be a way to stay connected with their home country and with their community.
Pastor Fabiano Pereira of Revival Church for the Nations in Oak Bluffs, a Brazilian congregation, says they have been growing as well. But he said that getting young people to participate is a struggle. “It has always been a challenge to attract young people and keep them in the church,” he told The Times.
Pereira pointed to the typical pressures on young people, but also to compounding factors like addiction, difficult home lives, and the overall immigrant experience. “It is a difficult time,” he said. “In addition to struggling with the pressures of youth, many of them do not have the necessary family structure, or because they are immigrants, they are alone in this nation, making them easy prey to a life imprisoned by highly destructive addictions,” he said.
Back at Lagoinha in Vineyard Haven, interest from youth is clear, as young adults and even some high schoolers made up much of the crowd at services. At a recent Friday “Rocket” youth service — named for the church’s vision of youth taking off like a rocket — a few dozen middle and high schoolers crowded around the stage flashing lights to belt out songs of worship, some leading performances onstage with the live band.
Speaking to The Times, young people said they go for a sense of community.
Eighth grader Phillip Torres, whose father Marcelo had just played in the live band, said he is grateful to have found Lagoinha.
“I’ve been coming for about a year now, and it kind of changed my life,” Torres said. “I was kind of lost. And all of my friends … said, ‘Come to Rocket! Come to Rocket!’ I came to Rocket, it’s animated! It’s like, everyone’s screaming, everyone’s praising the Lord! It just changed my life that day. And I was like, ‘This is incredible … It’s beautiful.”
Middle schooler Leticia Fogaca said she values the dedication of other young worshippers. “I went for my friend’s baptism, and it was a really fun experience … Expressing your feelings towards God is such an amazing opportunity, especially with such a large community who loves and worships the Lord as much as we do,” she said.
Duarte said that his church serves not only the Brazilian community, and that it is for all ages. But, he said, competing for young people’s attention is key, particularly considering the pull of social media.
“We are here to make an impact on the Island,” he said. “Our goal is to get [people], especially those youth, and give them a purpose instead of just going around and being guided by social media.”
Duarte also cites Lagoinha MV’s own social media as a possible factor behind youth participation. The church’s Instagram page frequently posts footage from services and baptisms side by side with official announcements.
At Friday’s Rocket service, Lagoinha’s focus on other aspects of young people’s lives was also apparent. The main event was a discussion with a married couple from the Boston chapter who answered teens’ questions about relationships. The couple came with advice for a number of teens’ standard questions about relationships, telling them not to date until they have a strong sense of themselves, to look to their parents for guidance, and that communication and hard work are key. They also taught more traditional values, saying that people in Christian relationships do not stay dating for long before marriage, that one should date someone who loves God more than their partner, and that one should date within their faith.
While Lagoinha MV looks for a new location, its project to expand the current location awaits final approval from Tisbury’s building department. Duarte hopes to add room for 100 people in all on Church Street.
So far, the pastor has looked into a space near the Vineyard Wind Operations and Maintenance building on Beach Road, but he says he is willing to make it work anywhere on-Island. “We have to consider everything,” he said. “We don’t want to disrupt any place.”
