The new book launching this Fall, A Multi-Site Church Road Trip: Exploring the New Normal, inspired me to take my own road trip. During my multi-site church road trip last weekend in The San Francisco Bay area, I visited 3 locations of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in the Silicon Valley. Watch the video version or scroll down to read the report about my visit.
1st stop: Mountain View. I attended the 9am worship at a venue called Open Door Church. They met in a renovated fellowship hall on the same campus as First Presbyterian Church. With 2 churches in 1 location, a visitor has to be more attentive to where they go and choosing between options. The 2 churches do have a great partnership--sharing the campus facilities, sharing the children's ministry that now has over 200 kids, and joining together for an annual picnic that happened to be on the same day as my visit! (no, I didn't get to stay)
The worship space was very nice, padded seating in rows, newly renovated floor to ceiling, three big screens up front, candles scattered along front stage, a darker color palette. My favorite part was the overflow room behind the sanctuary, where a dozen sofa seats and bar stools offered a more casual and comfy ambiance with HD tv monitor to enjoy the worship.
The worship music highlight for me was how the opening song weaved in the U2 song, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for," and had a contemporary jazz-ish. The video teaching with John Ortberg was pre-recorded on the same weekend, and the campus pastor segued the closing of the sermon with personal and local application -- a nice touch. Of course, the technology was outstanding, apt for Silicon Valley. The video screens were lit by rear projection, and I commend how the tech team fit the tehnologies into the church's history and community in a way that didn't feel sterile gadgety techie.
2nd stop: downtown Menlo Park @ 900 Santa Cruz. The historic church campus covers almost an entire city block, with a history that goes back 125 years. The church sanctuary looks traditional with pillars and balcony, and I heard during announcement time that they're about to start renovations to improve acoustics, sight lines, and staging. 4 services on Saturdays and Sundays are held there with varying worship music styles.
3rd stop: downtown back room @ 750 Santa Cruz. Took a quick look in on this video venue called The Cafe. What was an overflow video room 2 years ago has now become its own venue and community with live contemporary praise & worship music. The venue was packed out, standing room only! The campus pastor's pastoral voice came through as he led the congregation to pray and commission a missions team that morning.
I was encouraged to hear how this 135-year old church is expanding its ministry beyond its traditional worship services and launching multiple venues with different contemporary services in multiple locations to reach more people in the Bay area.
After brunch, I get back on the road to get to Fresno for one more church visit. I'll tell you about that in my next post.
// DJ Chuang, Leadership Community DIrector at Leadership Network
Next month, MPPC's North Campus in San Mateo will begin it's worship services in a new facility on 41st St., San Mateo. (Currently we meet in the gym at Aragon High School in S.M.) Come by to visit sometime! I don't have the exact street address, but if you go to MPPC.org, it is posted there.
Laura
Posted by: Laura Giannini | August 09, 2009 at 11:38 AM