Michael L. pretty much says it all. GrX has been my home since moving back to the South Bay. Like Shannon L. said, it may be hard to get plugged in at first, but as soon as you find a small group, service opportunities proliferate. The partners just approved the move to go ahead with purchasing a building on Patrick Henry Drive in Santa Clara, so hopefully we'll have a permanent building soon! --------- edit: 1/29/2009 GrX is still a great church, but more and more it seems to be geared toward a niche group of people. If community is your first priority in choosing a church, I would recommend giving GrX a try (at least 6 weeks in a row, according to P. Dave). The pastoral staff puts a heavy emphasis on "self-feeding," but doesn't provide the tools/teach the methods needed to self feed to a fuller extent. GrX is currently undergoing a lot of transitions in staff, ministry foci, and consequently attendees/members/partners. 1. Sermons: Every pastor has his own style. Overall, I'd like to see more of the sermons have more scriptural references rather than anecdotal. At the end of last year, there was a 3-week series on relationships that I found a little pointless (the first 2 weeks were characterized by a lack of biblically-based advice). 2. Community: One common conception about Great Exchange is that it's really the "Great Exchange of Phone Numbers", but it varies from small group to small group and person to person. The great thing about GrX is that it has many small groups to choose from. Here's a quick list of some: - Inside Out: Huge fellowship group that breaks into several smaller discussion groups after dinner and worship. Many members do not attend GrX. - MSG: A large and extremely energetic group. If you're looking to get plugged in quickly, MSG's the group for you, but if you're more of a low-key person, you might want to skip it. - Real Lives: Geared toward seekers. RL is an extremely social group and has something going on outside of actual small group pretty often. - Hungry: A small group made up of a hodge podge of quirky and different people, but somehow it works. It has a distinct "family" feel. 3. Children's Ministry: GrX's children's ministry is called KidZone, and if I were rating KZ alone, I would definately give it 5 stars. I've served in children's ministries for about a decade, and KidZone has been the best one so far. All the kids are truly loved, and the KZ staff provides the volunteers with a lot of resources, including class curriculum, coaches, seminars on specific topics, and orientation. KZ does background checks on all of its volunteers, and is diligent in ensuring a safe environment for the kids. 4. Missions: GrX has an abundance of missions trips that you can apply to. Most go out in the summer. This year, however, things are off to a late start and most of the trips will have to be initiated by lay people in order to get off the ground. Last Note: The staff would probably tell you not to approach attending church with a "consumer mentality" (pretty ironic when it comes to yelping about it), but when it comes down to it, you still need to use your judgement. read more

Hmm. In a quest to find a new church to visit while on Sundays back up in my native San Francisco Bay Area, I heard a lot about Great Exchange. I've had a friend who actually found her husband at this church. I'll have to say that it's difficult to find good churches in the Bay Area, as I've always been a part of the Korean American church. I already miss my home church in L.A., where there are thousands that you can just happily find a church home. Since there's such a dearth here, I thought I'd check GrX out. As this church is an offplant from Newsong based in Irvine, I was looking to see what this northerly cousin up north would be like (although they are unrelated). Some observations from my visit today that may be helpful for you to know before you visit... 1. Demographics is mainly Asian American: most of the pastoral staff are Korean American like Pastor David Chae and Min Tak of Fremont GrX, but the majority of the congregation is 95% or so Chinese American, less than 1% Caucasian and the remaining 4% Korean American, Filipino or other Asian American. This makeup is similar to the other Covenant churches like Newsong and GrXs around here, so it wasn't much a surprise. I think I fit in. 2. Pastor David Chae a Yelp Star!: the message was pertinent and relevant, although it tended to be dry at various points. He does have a passion for reaching the external community, although there was various ambiguities in his points today. There was some disconnects in today's message between the implications of alienation, and our duty to reach out to others. It left me scratching my head to figure out what the connect there. 3. Welcoming? ehh..not really: my friend and I walked around King's Academy for a while when we got there, and we weren't sure where the service was going to be held. Although there was a Small Group fair going on in the courtyard outside the school's auditorium where the 11 a.m. service (they also have another at 9:15 a.m.) is held, no one pointed us in the right direction. I'm sure regular goers had some idea that we were lost, but no one referred us to the right direction until I had to ask. Also, no one really said hi or hello, even though I thought that they would the whole time we were there. It seemed kind of cliquey to me. 4. Overall tone of the message and sincerity of church culture a Yelp Star: this is a church that is part of the Covenant denomination, and emphasizes inclusiveness and outreach and the Gospel's relevance in the Silicon Valley. The prayers and people do have a heart, so this is a good start. You can tell that this is an extremely new church. 5. Improvements for Frontline needs to be made: there was a Frontline staffer who was ushering and chewing gum during offertory. Why are you chewing gum during service? lol Inappropriate. GrX would be a great church if they worked on being welcoming to newcomers, especially if they took steps on appropriate signage. It could've been a problem stemming from the fact that they don't have their own facilities. The $2M building hasn't been bought yet and still hasn't been approved by the local authorities, so we'll see how that works out. I was expecting much more from GrX, since their website is pretty glossy, but I was rather underwhelmed today. I probably won't be back, but GrX is a good start for some--but not necessarily for me. read more

The vision of Great Exchange Covenant Church (GrX) is transformation - changing your life for the better. 5 Reasons Why You Might Want to Check Out GrX: 1) Powerful Worship/Praise Team: the worship singers and musicians are only exceptionally gifted. Even my friends who don't believe in God feel an uncanny sense of fulfillment when they listen to GrX's worship team. 2) Inspiring Sermons: every sermon challenges you to make a gut check, focus on the relevancy of Scripture, and analogize everyday life situations (especially in Silicon Valley) to Truth and Love. 3) Awesome Fellowship: GrX is made up of about 40 small groups. Imagine each small group acting as a church of believers (ranging from 8 - 25 people) who reaches out to others to share the their lives together and be there for one another. Then on Sundays, all 40 small groups join together to celebrate Jesus Christ and His promise for all those who believe in Him. 4) Constantly Growing: In about 5 years, GrX has grown three regional church services every Sunday - San Francisco, Sunnyvale, and Fremont. As more people become involved with GrX, small groups expand and multiply into new small groups. As a result, GrX's congregation is never stagnant. 5) Global and Local Mission Oriented: Every quarter, ministries and small groups share Christ's love with regional and overseas missions. Mission trips range from urban development in Bakersfield, CA to evangelizing in Kenya, Africa! read more

Blah what the heck. Their meeting times and locations are all over the place. Refer to their Google Calendar for specific times and location: http://grx.org/calendar/ It's like a scavenger hunt, trying to find this church. x_x read more

really cares about the community. impressed and encouraged. Duane Ave

this church has gone through some changes over the years but for the better! pastor scott loo connects well with the congregation and keeps his sermons light, informative, and applicable. grx is great for families. it's not multi-generational like most churches. i would say that most people are 20s-30s with some in their 40s and 50s. kidzone has grown a lot with baby explosions. this is what makes grx unique compared to other churches out there. they have programs for babies (yes, babies!). i didn't realize babies can learn about God until i had kids. my son started to sign God and Bible when he was less than 2 years old. amazing! food fellowship every other sunday has been wonderful for congregation to connect with each other. i think we've had mostly food trucks come by, which gives us variety and interesting foods to try out. the atmosphere is pretty casual. so no dressing up unless you really want to. stay for 6 weeks to try out the church. read more

Warm and welcoming church that really focuses on caring for its neighboring community and congregation. It has grown fairly fast in the past four years so don't get overwhelmed if you are checking it out for the first time. My husband and I had to visit a couple small groups before things "clicked" and we felt connected. The Moms Ministry is especially excellent and provided a nice way for me to connect with other moms! read more

It helps to know more about a church before you invest in it. I have attended GRX for many many years and seen it in all of its various phases. A few thoughts: - GRX aims to be a multi-ethnic church. Pastor Dave has always stated that as his mission from the start. Realistically, that has not happened, but it is a vibrant Asian American church. GRX is the "multi-ethnic church" for Asian Americans who believe they want to attend a church that is multi-ethnic, but are more comfortable in a real Asian American church. I preferred an Asian American church, so while the vision pointed towards something different, it was a good fit. - Pastor Dave is a visionary pastor. He has great ideas and is an inspiring speaker, but it is hard to execute from a mobile church. He is so focused on the vision that sometimes the people get lost in the shuffle. I think the care given to the people in the church is less than it should be in such a community of this size. At times, I felt like Pastor Dave was trying to build the next mega-church and the small intimate community along the way was lost. He has worked to correct this, but I am not sure this is in his DNA. - Staff and pastoral turnover is high. There have been many pastors who have come and gone in the past few years. I am not sure why, but it is tough on the community to see the leaders move on after just a short time. - Small groups are the heart of this church. If you do not attend a small group, you are getting less than 50% of the experience of GRX. The small groups are intimate, loving and generally well-run. The only concern is that the leaders are sometimes burnt out, but it is hard to serve weekly for years in this capacity. Overall, GRX is a good church, but it is not an easy church to love. You have to really work at it, and even then there are times you will be disappointed. But the people are doing the work of God, and the relationships you build there will last you a lifetime. read more