A pioneering vicar is flying off to California to study ways of making church services more "people friendly".

The Rev John Burniston, of St Martin's Church, Heaton, is on a mission to discover how American churches are using pop music, projected images and simply-worded sermons to make worship a more relaxed experience for congregations.

He hopes to borrow the best techniques to encourage more people to join his own church.

Mr Burniston has already spent £45,000 modernising St Martin's Church by lowering the pulpit to eye level, taking down screens, and moving the altar closer to the congregation.

In July he will spend four weeks of a three-month sabbatical trip visiting parishes in Berkeley to see for himself how progressive churches are attracting, involving and integrating new members.

"I want more people who come to our church to find it works at their level. Most people's first experience of worship can be quite daunting," he said.

"We are trying to simplify church services to make them easier for people to understand what is going on.

"To have the chance to visit California to see the US experience of much fuller churches and technological provisions is wonderful.

"One of the big changes we have already picked up from America is the use of different styles of music in worship that haven't been used in the past."

Mr Burniston said the introduction of new changes at St Martin's has caused some upset among a few traditionalists.

But he said the Church of England is now able to offer more freedom to worshippers to pick a church and service that suits them.

"It is horses for courses. People need churches that work for them and that have a style they like," he said.

"There are plenty of churches that offer a traditional service but now more churches are looking to move with the times.

"It will be exciting for me to see all these new ideas and I want to bring some of them back with me.

"I also hope the trip will help me to write simpler sermons. I think a lot of people in churches are struggling to keep up with the content of them.

"This was the case with at least one of my parishioners but since we modernised things they now realise what the stories are about, and now they can't lap it up fast enough."

The trip is being financed by a £1,250 cash award from Ecclesiastical Insurance.