ABOUT
STAFF TEAM
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Adam Hendrix
Lead Pastor
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Julie Pederson
Senior Associate Pastor
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Jake Dodson
Worship Pastor
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Cris Otonari
Family Ministry Pastor
Shepherd Team
The Shepherd Team is the governing body of The Highway Community, and is responsible for providing spiritual oversight for the church. We have chosen to use the term “shepherds,” as opposed to “elders,” because we believe that it more accurately communicates the function of being an “overseer”— and the leadership of, and caring for, the flock that that involves.
At Highway we believe that God speaks through a plurality of committed leaders, and we are blessed to have this team of women and men who are deeply invested in all that God is doing among us.
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Pam Corsetto
CHAIRPERSON
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Adam Hendrix
Pastor / Shepherd
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Julie Pederson
Pastor / Shepherd
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Marcy Bates
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Dave Chang
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Carl Hekkert
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Laura Herrmann
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Marc Hornbostel
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Vimal Shyamji
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Nicole Wong
As followers of Jesus, we are called to live on mission in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and among those on the margins. Our core values of Community, Truth, Authenticity, and Hope play a vital role in this calling.
COMMUNITY
Following Jesus is a shared journey. It's through knowing, loving, and serving others, and through being known, loved, and served by others, that we experience some of the most beautiful and poignant expressions of faith.
TRUTH
We believe in, and we are rooted in, the truth of God's holy and inspired Word.
Authenticity
We recognize that we are ordinary, imperfect people. It's okay to come as we are, with brokenness, struggles, doubts, and questions, as we engage in the journey of following Jesus.
Hope
Our identity is as beloved children of God. Our hope is found in God's promise to be present with us through the Holy Spirit, and to redeem and restore all this is broken in this hurting world.
THE BIBLE
We believe that the Bible is God’s Word and the final authority for faith, doctrine and conduct. The transforming power of God’s Word guides the life of the church and each Christian.
ONE GOD
We believe that there is one God, perfect and eternal, the Creator of all things, existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God demonstrated His power, wisdom, and goodness by creating the world and everything in it. Through His divine power and providence, God sustains His creation and fulfills His purposes.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is God’s eternal Son, fully God and fully human, born of a virgin, crucified for our sins, and that He arose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven. Christ’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection is the fullness of God’s reconciling work.
Salvation
We believe that humankind was created in God’s image, but was alienated from God because of sin, experienced spiritual death and lives in a sin-damaged world. We, therefore, are unable to restore the broken relationship ourselves. God, in His mercy and love, through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, restores those who believe and repent, and gives a new birth, new identity, and new nature. Jesus Christ is the only Way to receive forgiveness and escape judgment for sin.
Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells and fills Christians with the desire to follow Christ. The Holy Spirit enables obedience to Christ and conforms Christians to Christ’s image. The Holy Spirit brings assurance of Christ’s permanent presence and love and gives spiritual gifts to serve Christ’s body.
Return of Christ
We believe that the resurrected Jesus will return bodily to earth to fulfill history and complete God’s eternal plan for His creation.
The church
We believe that the Church is the living Body of Christ on earth, with Christ as its head and source of life. The Body is comprised of those who have entered into a personal relationship with Christ through faith, gathered locally and around the world for worship, community and service in Christ’s Name. We observe baptism and communion as visible signs of God’s invisible grace.
The Journey So far…
It all began in 1995, as the MTV generation was coming of age, a small Friday night worship service called Highway began at the First Baptist Church of Los Altos. Highway’s founders, Dean Smith and John Riemenschnitter, were passionate about working with Generation X—a young, emerging, media-saturated generation who had supposedly left God behind. The ministry centered on four simple one-word values—truth, authenticity, community, and hope. Throughout its five year incubation, Highway sought a dialogue with culture through the ministry, and an exploration of the Gospel via film clips, popular music, art, and an authentic embrace of scripture in open, authentic community. Over time, it became clear that God was leading Highway to a unique role as a church entity. On Easter Sunday of 2000, The Highway Community began meeting weekly at Palo Alto High School.
In 2005, Highway purchased Red Rock Coffee Shop in downtown Mountain View as a way to serve the local community, and establish a home for local art, music, and conversation. That same year, Highway merged with Community Bible Church in Mountain View, and the Mountain View Campus of The Highway Community was born.
In 2015, after fifteen years at Palo Alto High School, Highway's Palo Alto campus merged with Palo Alto Church of Christ in the midtown neighborhood of Palo Alto to form Highway Palo Alto Community in Christ.
In early 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic beginning to cause catastrophe around the globe, Highway quickly shifted to digital tools as a way to care for one another and the wider community around us.
Additionally, the pandemic pushed Red Rock Coffee Shop to the brink of extinction… until a community-driven GoFundMe generated an outpouring of love in the form of donations and comments, and this inspired a purchase of Red Rock so that it could continue into the future!
The church continued to use digital tools in various ways through the heavy days of the pandemic, and then in the summer of 2021 we began regathering as a church. We’re now centering the life of our community at our Mountain View campus and using our Palo Alto campus for partnerships and projects to bless the wider community around us.
Highway currently holds no denominational affiliation and is an independent, multi-generational body of Christ-followers. Our four core values of truth, authenticity, community, and hope are still the beating heart of our ministry. It's been a wild, unconventional ride, but God is faithful and good, and we look forward to how the story continues.