Join Our Christ-Centered Community in Palo Alto

If you are looking for a church in Palo Alto, I want to make this easy for you.

We meet Sundays at 10:00 AM at 3549 Middlefield Road, at the corner of Middlefield and Christine. Look for the UAMEZ flags. Service runs about ninety minutes. Parking is free. Kids have their own thing during service. That is the whole barrier to entry.

Everything else on this page is why I hope you come.

Who we are

UAMEZ Church stands for University African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. We have been in Palo Alto since 1918. We are a historically Black church that is genuinely multicultural, and 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.

I have been the pastor since 2013. My wife Larin and I raised our son here, and we are foster parents. This is our home, not a stop on the way somewhere else.

Why a church, and why this one

The Bay Area is one of the most connected places on earth and one of the loneliest. You can have a full calendar and no one who knows what you are carrying.

Christ-centered community is our answer to that. Not a program. A people. We gather around Jesus, we open the Bible together, we pray for one another by name, and we show up when life gets hard. That is what the first church did in Acts 2, and it is still what works.

You do not need to have your faith figured out to sit with us. Some of us grew up in church. Some of us left it for years. Some of us walked in for the first time last month. You belong here.

What Sunday looks like

Park in our lot or on Christine Drive. Greeters at the Welcome Center, the navy booth in the courtyard, will say hello, help you check your kids in at the Amazing Kids counter, and walk you to the sanctuary. Sit wherever you want. There are no reserved seats.

Service includes singing, the Apostles' Creed, prayer, an offering you are welcome to pass on as a guest, and a message of about thirty minutes from Scripture. Everything is on the screen, so you will not be lost. Wear whatever you are comfortable in. Some people wear a suit and some wear jeans, and nobody is checking.

Communion is the first Sunday of the month. Baptisms are the second. Those Sundays run a little long, closer to 11:45.

How to get connected

One step. That is all I am asking for.

Next Steps meets in the Little House about ten minutes after service. It is a short, relaxed conversation about who we are and what is here for you. Most people who now call this church home started there.

From Next Steps, people usually land in one of three places: a small group or Bible study during the week, Amazing Kids if they have children, or Team Amazing, which is what we call everyone who serves on a Sunday. Around here we do not say "volunteering." We say "I get to serve," because that is how it feels once you have done it.

If you have questions first

Call us at (650) 272-6742 or email info@uamez.com. If you do not have a car, the 21 bus stops at Middlefield and Meadow, a three-minute walk from our door, and there is a bike rack out front for anyone coming from Caltrain.

You do not have to audition for a place here. Come once. Sit in the back if you want. See how it feels.

See you Sunday.

Pastor Kaloma Smith