Road trip stop at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

Posted on 7/21/2009 by Leadership Network in the Multi-Site Blog

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.