With a contemporary service complete with an electric guitar, a multicultural congregation, a different location and even a name change, the church has kept pace with the times. Its mission is to be relevant to a new generation of believers, and it seems to be succeeding.

The church, now called Crosswalk Community Church, turned 100 on April 7. Current and former parishioners and pastors commemorated the anniversary on April 10 with an evening of food, music and camaraderie.

However, the church has something to celebrate besides being 100 years old. After facing a dwindling membership six years ago, the congregation has seen a resurgence in popularity.

Marcy Toulon, who is a pastor of outreach and administration, says some 350 people attend services on an average Sunday. The church's congregation reflects Sunnyvale's diversity, coming from a wide variety of ethnicities and economic backgrounds.

One reason for the surge of membership is Pastor John Christie's ability to make the centuries-old Gospel accessible to believers of all ages and backgrounds.

"John's message is relevant," Toulon says. "You can take the Scripture and apply it to your own life. That's really important."

In addition to Christie's sermons, Crosswalk reaches its members through its music.

There are two services on Sundays, each one geared to a different segment of the population. Members sing traditional hymns at one service, and the other engages the younger generation with a contemporary service, replete with an electric guitar and rock-influenced songs.

"If you want to reach people in the Silicon Valley, especially younger people and people with kids, you need music," Toulon says. "What they are listening to is rock. That's what they want to hear."

In fact, it was the church's rock influence that initially drew Toulon to the church in 1998, when it was still called First Baptist.

"For me, it was eye-opening," she says. "When I first went there, I didn't know that type of [contemporary] service was out there. It's not that I don't like hymns, but I go to a different place when I worship with the style of music I grew up with."

When Toulon began attending First Baptist, the church was recovering from a debt incurred by remodeling. The congregation was dwindling and plagued by uncertainty about the future.

Then Christie accepted the position as pastor.

He spent the first year or so winning the trust of the parishioners. He also initiated a missionary program and encouraged outreach in Sunnyvale and abroad.

"A healthy church is reaching out to the community and the world," he says. "It's about honoring God by being servants."

One way of reaching out to the community was by changing the church's name.

Christie and the church rang in the new millennium by re-christening First Baptist as Crosswalk Community Church. The church remains affiliated with the American Baptist Churches of the West, but Christie believes the new name attracts followers across denominations.

"We wanted to reposition ourselves to be a community church so people felt more welcome," Christie says. "Some people have had a negative experience with Baptist churches, and we don't want that baggage to get in the way."

Toulon agrees that erasing "Baptist" from the name has allowed the church to break down denominational barriers that divide Christians.

"When Jesus was here there were no denominations," she says.

The symbolism of "crosswalk" carries a twofold meaning, she says. The cross is a symbol of Jesus Christ, and the crosswalk represents, as Christie puts it, "a safe place to cross through life's busy highway."

Before the church changed names and before Sunnyvale was even a city, the church was known as The First Baptist Church of Sunnyvale. Its 24 members met informally in each other's homes, then bounced around to a few different locations before erecting the first church in 1908. The building was located on Frances Street near the Sunnyvale Town Center. Church officials commissioned a second building on an adjacent lot in 1951.

However, as Sunnyvale's population increased, so did traffic. The church purchased three acres of chicken farm on less-developed Mary Avenue in 1956 and the church remains at 445 S. Mary Ave. today.

At least one face from the past, Oregon resident Jeanne Lapp, returned to Sunnyvale to celebrate the church's first century. The space of 21 years she was gone seemed to fall away as she reunited with old chums and made new friends.

Lapp began attending First Baptist Church on the recommendation of a friend shortly after she moved to Sunnyvale. She says joining the congregation allowed her to establish a community in a new city and nurtured her Christian faith in a social and accepting atmosphere. Participating in socials and study groups helped her forge lasting friendships.

Current members say that the warm atmosphere that Lapp found 36 years ago is still alive and well today.

Ray Spear, who started attending Crosswalk in September 2004, says he discovered the church on the Internet and immediately found a community to which he could connect.

"What brought my wife and me back was the lovingness of the group," Spear says.

Spear is one of many new faces to grace Crosswalk's Sunday services.

Paul Montes, another new member who joined in June 2004 after a friend invited him, says the church inspired him to embrace a spiritual lifestyle after years of "bouncing from religion to religion."

However, a higher power was not the only force that drew Montes to Crosswalk. Humankind had something to do with it as well.

He says, "What drew me in is that they made me feel welcome. When I first came, people came up to me and shook my hand."

For more information about Crosswalk Community Church, call 408.736.3120 or visit www.cross walkchurch.com. The church is located at 445 S. Mary Ave.