Gatlin coming to Nazarene in January
The North Fort Myers Church of the Nazarene is known for bringing in singers and celebrities from the religious sector.
On Saturday, Jan. 23, it will be bringing in one of the biggest stars it has had yet.
Larry Gatlin, one of the famous Gatlin Brothers, will be coming to the church for a concert performance at 7 p.m. Ticket prices are $25 for general admission, and $35 if you want to be part of a meet and greet after the show.
Van Garner, the church’s pastor said he was looking for something to outreach into the community that wasn’t necessarily southern gospel, quartet music.
“I found on the Internet that Larry has an agent especially for church events. I called, got the details and went from there,” Garner said. “It’s just him and his guitar. It will be a night of relaxing and good music.”
Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers were very successful from the late 1970s and through the 1980s, achieving more than 30 Top 40 hits.
Many of the people who attend the church have a good idea of what he’s about, Garner said, providing the church with a great Saturday night fit.
Garner has brought in many popular groups and speakers. Lisa Whelchel, star of the 1980s TV show “The Facts of Life,” spoke at the church last year, and the Collingsworth family, one of the biggest gospel groups around, performed at the church twice on its way up the gospel ladder.
“Being a church of my size, I usually get them either on their way up or on their way down,” Garner said.
This show, Garner said, is a bit of a risk, with having to sell 500 tickets for a name as big as Larry Gatlin, Garner knows he will do little more than break even after advertising and paying everyone.
“We need to sell out to make sure we make payroll. We’re not trying to make money on this, We’re trying to reach out into the community and get people into our church and our environment,” Garner said. “Hopefully we can get them for other events.”
Garner wanted to stress that this is a concert and not a church service and will be treating it as such. He said the parishioners are fine with that.
He also said future big name concerts in the future will depend heavily on the success of this one.
“This is our first ticketed event in the history of this church and we’ll see how it goes. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking thing because we need to sell these tickets,” Garner said. “If we almost sell out, we’ll squeak by. If we sell 200, we’ll be in trouble.”
The North Fort Myers Church of the Nazarene is at 6781 Bayshore Road. For more information, call 567-0150.