How to Find a Church in Palo Alto When You're New to the Bay Area

If you just moved to the Bay Area and you are looking for a church, here is the short answer. Find a place where someone will know your name within a month, where your kids have somewhere to be, and where you can ask honest questions without being graded. Then go three Sundays before you decide.

Now the longer answer.

The problem nobody warns you about

The Bay Area is one of the most connected places on earth and one of the loneliest. You can have a full calendar, four hundred contacts, and no one to call at 2 a.m. Most people who move here come for a job or a degree. They do not come with people.

I know this from the inside. Many of the people in our pews arrived here not knowing a single person. This church became their first home in the Bay Area, and it became that because someone learned their name.

So when you look for a church, you are not really shopping for a service. You are looking for people who will notice when you are missing.

Three things to look for

Someone learns your name. A good church has a system for this, not just good intentions. Ask yourself after the first visit: did anyone ask who I was? Did anyone tell me what to do next? At UAMEZ, greeters meet you at the Welcome Center in the courtyard, and about ten minutes after service a short conversation called Next Steps meets in the Little House. Most people who now call this church home started there.

Your kids have a place. If you have children, ask exactly what happens with them during the service, what ages, and how check-in works. Vague answers are a warning sign. Our kids ministry is called Amazing Kids, it meets during the service for kindergarten through sixth grade, and you check in at the counter on the way in.

You can ask questions. You do not need to have your faith figured out to belong at a church. Some of the people in our room grew up in church, some left it for years, and some walked in for the first time last month. If a church makes you feel you have to pretend, keep looking.

How to try a church without pressure

Come once and sit in the back. See how it feels. Then come twice more, because one Sunday tells you about the sermon and three Sundays tell you about the people.

You do not have to register anywhere. You do not have to give money as a guest. You do not have to sing if you do not want to. You can leave right after the service, or you can stay for Next Steps. Either is fine.

If you are the type who wants to see a place before you walk in, our services are on YouTube at @uamez. But hear me on this: a screen can show you the room. It cannot put you in it.

What UAMEZ is, plainly

We are University A.M.E. Zion Church, in Palo Alto since 1918. We are a historically Black church that is genuinely multicultural. On a typical Sunday you will see families with small kids, Stanford students, young adults new to the Bay Area, and people who have been here fifty years.

We meet Sundays at 10:00 AM at 3549 Middlefield Road, at the corner of Middlefield and Christine. The service runs about 90 minutes. The music is classic gospel and hymns mixed with new songs and contemporary Christian music. There is a message of about thirty minutes from Scripture. Parking is free. Wear whatever you are comfortable in.

We are not a megachurch and we are not trying to be one. We are trying to form people who break bread with strangers, pray with the broken, and welcome without limits.

If it is not us

Not every church is for every person, and that is fine. If you visit and it is not the place for you, go find the place that is. What I do not want is for you to spend another year in this valley alone because looking felt like too much.

Come once. See how it feels.

See you Sunday.

Pastor Kaloma Smith