Welcome to the gate dc

We are the Jacobs of the twenty-first century.  We are on a journey.  The road is often crooked and, at times, very lonely--even a little confusing. All the pieces don't fit all the time.  We know that, like Jacob, we have weakenesses, but we are hungry for an encounter with a living God, a face to face with the God for whom all creaton longs.  Jacob encounters God and confesses. "How awesome is this place.  This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven."

The twenty-first century person is searching for the gate of heaven, an entry point into the unknown and the supernatural.  A place of acceptance and love.  The gate of heaven that Jacob saw is not some mystical experience wwe might stumble into. It's not some eastern religion or a new religious experience. 

The gate of heaven is first Christ, the One who opens the heavens and opens a way into the manifest presence of a real and living God in spite of our imperfections.  The local church is the vehicle we use to preach Christ and establish a gateway to God.  The Gate church is founded upon Christ, preaches Christ, is filled with the manifest presence of Christ, sees the power of Christ at work and creates an atmosphwere where Christ is genuinely experienced by all.  

The twenty-first century person is not looking for better church buildings, more creative church programs, shorter services,  more relevant music, and hot public speakers.  No!  A thousand times no!  This indivdiual is looking for the living presence and person of a living, powerful, loving, life changing God.  The twenty-first century person will risk visiting a church when he or she hears that there is a presence in that church, a real "life encounter" with the invisible God.

The Gate Church has a different atmosphere, an atmosphere charged by Holy Spirit's power.  It is a joyful, uplifting, hope-filled, mind changing, bad-habit-delivering church.  You don't just attend this church.  You don't just pay your dues, fulfill your social obligation and then retire to real life unchanged and untouched.  No! That's imposssible when you attend The Gate Church!  It's not the institution called "church" that draws the twenty first-century person--it's the gate.  It's the possiblity of entering into something new, life changing and powerful.  

From: The Gate Church                                                                                                                                                                                           Author: Frank Damazio                                                                                                                                                                                               Copyrighted: 2000 by City Bible Publishing                                                                                                                                                                 and used by permission.

Front page photo used by permission of Bartow Creative Images ~ www.bartowimages.com