Our mission is clear from Andy’s initial call to plant a church in King's Lynn
God has called us to be a Gateway for the Gospel to go to the nations
To do that…
We gather in the presence of God, to grow as passionate followers of Christ and go to locally and globally on mission.
Gather…
Gather
We gather together in the presence of God
Grow…
Grow
To grow as passionate followers of Jesus Christ
Go…
Go…
To go locally and globally on mission
Values
Our values are our culture, the way we do things. We have four doctrinal values, four church life values and four missional values.
Doctrinal Values
God focused
Everything we do has God at the centre and flows out of relationship with Him. What we do comes out of God’s heart, as we co-labour with Christ.
Matt 6:33; Col 3:17; Prov 3:5-6; 1 Cor 3:9
Word Based
We believe in the absolute truthfulness, sufficiency and final authority of Scripture. The Bible has the central place in governing doctrine, practice, ethos and patterns of what we do at The Gateway.
2 Tim 3:16-17; Matt24:35; Heb 4:12; 1 Thess 2:13
Spirit Empowered
The Holy Spirit both awakens us to respond to Jesus and fills us with power to be holy and to be witnesses. We believe all the gifts of the Spirit are available today for building the church and extending the Kingdom of God. Every believer should be baptised in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit to be empowered to serve God.
John 3:6-8; Eph 5:18; Acts 1:7-8; Gal 3:1-5; 1 Cor 12:1-11;14:1-3
Grace fuelled
The message of the gospel of grace is vital to Christian life and the local Church. We are saved by grace and sanctified by grace. The grace of God underpins our salvation, church life, relationship and how leaders lead.
Eph 2:8-10; Rom 6:1-14; Titus 2:11-13
Church Life Values
Intercultural
Heaven is made up of believers from every tribe and tongue and nation. The Gateway church aims to be an outpost of heaven on earth. We are a thoroughly international church appreciating, valuing and encouraging the different cultures and backgrounds of our people. This is expressed in everything we do, including our worship, preaching and our leadership.
Gen 12:1-3; Revelation 5:9-14; Eph 2:14-16
Family
An international church is made up of people who are often far from their earthly families. We value the church as family highly. Family is meant to be a place of safety, love, belonging, encouragement, eating and laughing and crying together.
Ruth 1:16-17; 1 Tim 5:1-2; Acts 2:42; Rom 8:14-16; John 1:12
Team
Team flows out of being a family. We are led by a team of elders and every part of church life is served by teams, following the examples of Jesus and the Apostle Paul who always worked in teams.
John 13:35; Col 4:7; Phil 1:21; Eph 6:21
Elders, deacons, saints
All believers are by nature saints, “holy ones”. New Testament churches were led teams of elders. The Holy Spirit appoints elders recognised by the church and apostolic ministry. Church government is not a democracy nor an autocracy but rather a theocracy. Elders main functions involve leading, feeding, guarding and guiding the church and equipping the saints for works of ministry. We see eldership as the calling of qualified men who oversee the local church in its shared endeavour.
Deacons are godly men and women who serve the church in various different roles. Anyone serving in leadership is functioning as a deacon even if we don't often use the title in practice.
Phil 1:1; Acts 6:3-7; 1 Tim 3:1-7; 1 Thess 5:12-13
Mission Values
Local church focused
The local church is central to the mission and purposes of God. It's God's plan A for building the kingdom and while we are not always perfect, it shows God's multi-coloured wisdom to a broken world.
One of the strengths of the local church is the love and support that we can give one another to on a day-to-day basis.
The local church focus, means we can impact the area that God has planted us.
This value is expressed globally through working with other local churches for instance when giving to disaster relief or supporting church planting and care of churches.
Eph 3:10-11; Acts 2:42-47; 2 Cor 8:1-4
Outward looking
Jesus' last words were to go and make disciples of all nations. We are outward looking and missional. We bring good news to a broken world around us by making disciples of all people, binding up the broken hearted and setting captives free through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Matt 28:18-20; Luke 4:18-21; Acts 8:4
Developing people
We are a family not professionals. The Gateway Church is a safe environment to grow and have a go. We strive for excellence with lots of grace for mistakes and learning. Everyone serving in the Gateway is encourage to be training up someone else.
1 Thess 5:11; 1 Sam 2:26; 2 Peter 1:5-7
Culture of honour
Honour is purposefully seeing people the way God sees them and relating to them out of that. Romans 12:10 tells us to “be devoted to one another, in love honour one another above yourselves.” That’s quite a counter-cultural challenge! We are passionate about honouring one another – so we don’t tolerate backbiting or gossip and prefer to be encouraging and honouring about others, especially when they are not present.
Christian leadership, in its essence, is a call to be an example not an exception. Following the example of Jesus, Christian leaders are meant to serve others not be served. This creates a culture of one-anothering by everyone in the church.
Mark 10:42-45; Rom 12:10