Life @ Gateway

Carnival 2008

Carnival is a title given to a multi-church summer mission which has been running in various parts of Leeds since 2004. Gateway has supported Carnival activities in previous years. 2008 was our first attempt in running events under this label ourselves.

The community we were reaching into is the one around St Mark's Woodhouse (which we have bought and will be renovating). We ran a Saturday afternoon fun day in which our various community groups each set up a stall or some other activity to which local people were welcome free of charge. Since pictures speak louder than words on this sort of event, I've just inserted some pictures.

Comments were favourable. One person asked what the catch was, whilst another wanted me to know that this was just the sort of event that local people were crying out for, and we should expect help from people in the community should we want to do it again. Seems there is a lot of good will to build on. This all reinforces our sense of responsibility as we consider how best to serve the various communities in Leeds with the Gospel of Jesus.

On the move

I once heard someone say that the reason the ark of the covenant had poles to carry it, was to remind the people of God that their destiny was to be a people on the move. Well that’s certainly our story in Gateway.

This week we met for the first time at Abbey Grange school. It seems to be something of a  magnet for churches, with two other Leeds churches having met there on Sundays.

John Payne, one of our elders (read about him in a previous post) addressed the question that many in Gateway were asking : “Why here?”

“I’ve been a part of this church for seven years now and it’s been fascinating to see God build it. We can be sure it’s been God building it because I think some of the routes that he’s taken us down at first didn’t make much sense. But now when you take a step back, you can really start to glimpse the big picture of what God’s doing. That God is positioning us to be in the limelight - to be a light that’s visible to the whole of Leeds!”

John reminded us of our vision to be a city-wide church.

“Everywhere we have met has exposed us to another part of the city. From day one when this church was first planted the vision has always been that Gateway would be a church that affects every area of the city. That we’re not to remain hidden from some parts of Leeds but rather we’re to be on display to the whole lot and I’m convinced that what we’re doing here at Abbey Grange is the next step in fulfilling this vision.”

John went on to remind us of our desire to be a church made up of ‘all sorts’ of people, and how we have evolved from being a mainly white, mainly student-age community, to one that includes more families, young children, people over 40, and people from other nations of the world.

And changing Sunday venue doesn’t alter the fact that we are touching many parts of the city in other ways. Our regional community groups are located in Beeston, Chapel Allerton, Halton, Harehills, Crossgates, Hyde Park, Horsforth, West park, Burley and now we’re about to launch a new group into Armley. And we have recently run two successful events in and around the redundant church we are renovating - St Mark’s.

So we now have an opportunity to bring the message and mission of Jesus into what is for us a new part of the city.

“These are exciting times for as a church, there’s a lot happening, it does make you wonder what’s going to happen next but as God positions us, as God opens up new opportunities for us like this, we need to be ready and willing to step out in the Holy Spirit’s power.”

 

 

 

 

 

Behnind the scenes

Whilst Sunday mornings are not the whole focus of Gateway, they do provide an important weekly focus for worship, teaching, news, and encouragement.

There's a variety of people who give up sleep on Sunday mornings to make these meetings a success. Coming in you are likely to be met by our welcome team. We are getting a lot of people through the door at the moment, so don't be offended if you have been coming for a while and they ask if it's your first visit (!). 

Your eye is likely to be drawn to the bright green shirts of our children's workers. If you have children they will be signed in and out in the best traditions of child protection guidelines. If you spot a red shirt, that will be a steward. These people make sure the physical stuff gets done - screens, tables, projectors etc are in place, and ensure that you don't get lost in the building.

In the main auditorium you will see the PA team working to get the best sound out of whatever band is serving that week. And when you need a drink at the end of the meeting, hot and cold refreshments are served in the foyer.

Why do they do it? "It's a great way to serve and contribute to something bigger than your own job." "I don't have children, but when I do, this is how I would like them looked after." "It's an easy way to start a conversation with all kinds of interesting people without wondering how to break the ice."

All these people serve on a rota to balance out the workload. And there's always space for more people to get involved.....

                                        

A new elder

John Payne has recently been recognised and appointed as an elder in Gateway. I met up with John over lunch to talk about the role, work, and family.

So what's an elder?

First thing to be clear about is that eldership is about role not status. I've not changed. I'm not more important or any less approachable, but I do have more responsibility. That involves offering direction and guidance. It means providing security - an anchor if you like - and ensuring the direction of the church is scripturally founded. Personally - I reckon I strengthen the pastoral side of the eldership.

I once heard your Dad describe you as a "walking miracle". What's that about?

I've got two older sisters, and before I came my Mum had a miscarriage and didn't expect to have another child. But she believed that God had showed her she would have a boy, and that he would be a church leader. And here I am!

What are you most looking forward to in the role?

I'm looking to get fringe people more involved and help people discover their place and gifting. Church is more than a meeting. It's a place of encouragement, discipleship and a family to be involved with. I'm also looking forward to learning from more senior leaders in the church.

So what really happens in elder's meetings?

There's a lot of practical issues to sort through in running a church. I didn't realise how much there was to think about! But we also look at what's going on in the church, thrash out what we need to address and decide on how to keep moving forward.

What's your day job?

I'm a project manager developing websites for clients. I need to make sure there's a match between what the client wants and what the developers can deliver. It's demanding, and very rewarding.

And what does your wife Kate make of it all? 

She had a while to get used to idea. She realised that me being an elder would be costly in terms of time. She's a doctor and has a high pressure job of her own. But the more we prayed about it the more she grew in faith and excitement. We were really encouraged by a visiting speaker last year who didn't know Kate. He reassured her that God hadn't called her to be a frumpy elder's wife, but had a  God-given personality he wanted her to express. Since he knew nothing about her when we met, we think that must have been God! It was a great encouragement.

Thinking very long-term, what would like as your epitaph?

How about, "A faithful servant of God who ran after what God had for him in life and was faithful to it." Can you fit all that on a head-stone?

Easter Wedding

Easter is a great time for a wedding. Nick Bird and Lizzy Twigger took the opportunity to use the holiday weekend to invite numerous relatives and friends to their celebration. Nick (doctor of medicine) and Lizzy (who works for Kidz Klub Leeds) enjoyed the company of probably over 300 guests at their service, drawn from work, church, other churches in Leeds, relatives from various parts of the country, and friends from the UK and abroad.

Weddings are great opportunities to remind ourselves that Jesus will have one bride in heaven - his church. Such was the vibrancy of the worship you would probably not have known how many church traditions were present. The address reminded us that the heart of marriage is mutual sacrifice - each partner finding the joy of giving themselves for the benefit of the other. And whilst all believers enjoy a taste of heaven on earth through worship, service, and prayer, there are some unique flavours that can only be experienced in the context of marriage.

And the despite the odd shower - yes it really did snow - it was a great day. And South Parade Baptist Church, who kindly shared their building with us for the day, is a great venue.

Purchased!

News from Dave Mullen...

It’s been a long time coming, but I can officially announce that we have now bought St Marks! Last Thursday 13^th March, I received a call from our solicitors, saying that the purchase was complete and the building, built in 1823 by the Church of England, is ours.




What an amazing thing God has done! The magnitude of this moment really hit home when a surveyor casually remarked to me that “it’ll still be standing here in three hundred years time.” The building’s certainly not the be-all-and-end-all, it’s a means to an end, but that doesn’t detract from what an amazing space it is: the architecture generates a real sense of awe and stillness for pretty much everyone who steps inside.

Almost unanimously, local people are really happy to hear that the building will be used by a church again. I’m thoroughly enjoying getting to meet more of the community around St Marks as part of our Hope 08 initiative and I’m very encouraged by their reaction to our plans.

We’ve got a long way to go and I’ll write some other time about our next steps, but for now, let’s not miss this moment: It’s exciting!

Front Edge 2008 - more stories

Here's another story from Front Edge. Adam Price is another of our guys with a passion for Jesus and a gift for explaining, and demonstrating, what Christianity is all about.

At the start of February I drove the seventy or so miles up the A65 to Kendal as part of the FrontEdge North weekend. I went praying that people would respond Jesus’ command to “follow me’ for the first time and that God would heal people.

Towards the end of the time of worshipping God I told stories of healings I had seen take place, and pointed to some of God’s promises in the Bible about healing before praying for everyone who was sick and commanding pain to leave in the name of Jesus. Three people told me that pain had left them; including one woman who had been lying down at the back her headache was so severe!

After speaking I gave an opportunity for people to respond and used the picture of our lives as a car where the driving seat is for Jesus and not us. A man visiting the church for the first time came to the front and told me that he had asked the church leader several questions during the break and that I subsequently got up and answered every one in the talk. He said it was as if God was talking straight to him, and he wanted to re-commit his life to Jesus as he had been walking away from his faith.

It was brilliant to be used by God to speak in to that man’s life and see him turn back to God, and it was literally awesome to see God’s power heal people that morning! Now I want to see more!

Front Edge 2008

We regularly put on meetings to explain what the Christian faith is all about, and to demonstrate the tangible differences it makes to people. Once a year we have mornings like this in all our related churches in the north of England, and in Scotland. Chris Frost explains what this is all about.

The idea of Front Edge is to put on Sunday morning church meetings that are aimed specifically at people who wouldn’t describe themselves as a “follower of Jesus” or “Christian”. In these meetings people who have a passion and God given gift to share the message of Christianity, pray for people to receive healing (whether that be physical, spiritual or emotional) and then give a presentation about Jesus, with the opportunity at the end for people to decide to follow Jesus and become a Christian if they want to. All this is done in an informal, fun, yet dynamic atmosphere.

Being one of these people that pray for those attending the meeting to be healed, I have felt a little deflated in the past after seeing little evidence that anyone was actually healed when I prayed for them. It is often heart wrenching to see hope in peoples eyes that they may be healed and then see no effect from the prayers I offered. Approaching the recent Front Edge event it was tempting not to pray for healing and just tell people the message. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt people’s feelings and I was still reeling from the death of my father who had died from cancer just a few weeks previously.

Knowing deep down that God could heal I decided to stick with it and offer prayer for anyone who wanted it. I was very glad I did. On the morning, four distinct healings took place (these accounts are from my memory of the people who shared with everyone present on the morning what had happened to them):

-          A lady that had a sinus problem found that she could suddenly smell after prayer. This was a sense that had been lost for a few weeks. It was great to hear how she was enjoying the smell of coffee again!

-          A lady could twist her arm round like a windmill after prayer. Before, she was unable to move it beyond her shoulder without incredible pain.

-          A man that wobbled in to the meeting on a cane could walk freely after prayer.

-          A man that limped with the use of a crutch following a sporting injury, after prayer received feeling back in his ankle which he hadn’t experienced in four years and could walk freely without the crutch.

Seeing such clear healings was a great privilege and really raised interest in the message that was presented afterwards. To see four people decide to become a Christian that morning also greatly encouraged me. It was a great morning and the image of a guy walking out of the building carrying a folded crutch he no longer needed and shaking his head in shock will stay with me for a long time. Praise God!

Exciting developments among our young people

Something good's happening in the youth...

Youth Alpha Started about 4 weeks ago in quite a quick flurry of activity. Some of our Youth had been on at me about running one for a couple of months and, if I'm honest, I didn't really see it happening for at least 6 months. I just didn't know who would come, so I just said...'soon, we'll run one soon'. Any way, God had other plans... We were struggling for material for our single sex discipleship groups and someone suggested Youth Alpha. Along with that, we were struggling with some younger youth who wanted to come to our Friday Youth program but didn't like the late finish - so we were split, with location difficulties, time difficulties, material difficulties, commitment issues...my faith issue. Any way, the resolution came when we committed to running the Youth Alpha course. Everything fell into place after that and we started running two parallel courses at either end of the city. We had 12 guests from all over the city on the first night across the two venues...which blew my mind! Our youth group is 8 strong - 12 guests!!! We've just had our second night and we had three more guests and it's going brilliantly. There's a tremendous atmosphere and we've had young people saying things like...'I've really been wondering how I can know God and now I've realised that the only way that's going to happen is through Jesus.'

I'm very excited!

Matt

Clusters

We group our community groups into clusters - two or more relate to each other more closely than to other groups, and are overseen by a 'cluster leader'. They're a great idea. As community groups grow and multiply, they can keep existing relationships within the cluster framework. They also provide a natural means of additional support if a community group wants to put on an event for which it needs more people than a single group can provide. Clusters have helped put on themed social evenings involving food, (I missed the Medieval banquet - perhaps next year) or music (open mike nights), to which friends outside the church can come.

A key challenge in a goring church, is that we always need more leaders...