Before we launched Gateway and were dreaming about the type of faith community that it would become, one word was continually on my mind. Sustainability.
We not only wanted to build a church in the city that would reach people and help them find their way back to God - we wanted to build a community that would bring lasting change to the needs in our city, that would become a part of the fabric of the emerging culture downtown, and would help pass on the faith to the next generation.
While the inner city church model is perpetually reliant on outside support and most suburban churches are far removed from the needs in the city, our goal has always been to become a fully self-sustaining urban church community.
While this has not been an easy task, and we are very much still in process, I know this: In order to achieve our goal we will need a gospel that is big enough to embrace the pain and brokenness in our world, a mission large enough to meet the needs of our city, and a community that will love and serve and sacrifice with one another in our commitments to both. And in this, we are well on our way.
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