South Bay
South Bay (南灣) Chinese Seventh-day Adventist Church
Wu Chook Ying
Basic Demographic Information
Official Name: ???
Church Administrative Unit: ???
Date Officially Formed: 1985
Founding Minister: John Lu
Church Website: ???
Current Address: 1904 Silverwood Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043
Date on which Current Sanctuary was Established: 2012
Current Membership: 146 in 2015
The Chinese Adventist Church was first located in Silicon Valley of California, where there are many Chinese. The church was organized in 1985 by Bertram Chan (陳儉昌), Stephen Chang Han Liong (張翰良) and his wife, Holley Lian (連伯祥) and his wife, and Pastor John Lu (呂俊明). The Chinese church shared the same facilities with the Sunnyvale congregation at the former Pacific Union Press at 2100 Woods Lane, Los Altos, CA 94024. This space was huge but there had no formal church building The Chinese congregation was thinking to sell the site and erect a new church building somewhere else. There were around 150 church members in 2002.
In 2012 the Chinese congregation purchased a church building at 1904 Silverwood Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043, and by January 2013 fully paid for it. Built in 1997, the main sanctuary has enough seating to host 220 worshippers. The facility comes with two parking lots. The main parking lot can accommodate 48 cars and has four spaces for the handicap. The overflowing parking lot can allow for 20 cars. These are all separated by double stripes. In daytime the sanctuary can be amply illumined by natural light from the roof. The acoustics was so designed that only limited use of sound system is required. It has high ceiling to keep the meeting space cool and radiant heat to keep the enough cost low.
There are men’s room and ladies’ room in the lobby and a mothers’ changing room next to the reception area. A back stage restroom meets the need of stage crew.
The social hall behind the sanctuary used to be the old church. It is now used for the English weekly service and for potlucks after the meeting. The social hall by itself can house 160 people, and is adjacent to the office and six classrooms. There are six additional sets of restrooms in the social hall. This part of the building has central heating and cooling. The whole facility is fully ADA complaint for handicap access, including the stage.
Those who have served as pastor in the Los Altos church are Nathaniel Yen (顏榮哲) and Dayton Chong (張振强), son of Pastor Joshua Chong (張永和). On February 18, 2012, its current pastor Samuel Hsiao (蕭希聖) was ordained to the gospel ministry. His late father Pastor Richard Hsiao Ming Yao (蕭明耀) was the first national worker to serve as president of the Taiwan Mission. His mother Nancy Hsiao (蕭陳碧霞) made a special trip from Taiwan to witness the ordination service. The church membership as of May 5, 2015 was 146. Its telephone is (650) 940-1062.