What's in a Name?

I was recently asked why we chose the name "The Gateway Church" which is a great question and not something I've ever really articulated before. 

Basically we chose the name for three major reasons...

• First, our church is located in the Western Gateway Neighborhood downtown Des Moines. We are near the Gateway Park, Gateway Market and the Gateway Lofts. Along with all of the restored buildings, new restaurants and cultural festivals we want to be part of the fabric of this emerging neighborhood. 

• Second, Jesus refers to himself as a "Gate" or the "Gateway" to life (Matthew 7:14; John 10). We want to be a place where people who are far from God can come and meet the risen Christ and enter into His abundant, eternal life. 

• Finally, we want to be a "Gateway" bringing people together from all over the city. A mosaic of people with different racial, religious, economic, generational and political backgrounds coming together to make a positive difference in Des Moines and around the world. We believe "The Gateway" can and will be a place where people with a lot of differences can come to learn from the ancient scriptures as well as from one another. 

So the next question might be why "The" Gateway Church. That's easy, because gatewaychurch.com was already taken by a terrific church in Austin, TX (We are still in negotiations over the twitter name).