Transitions are essential to our lives as individuals, families, and communities. As individuals we celebrate the ending of periods of our lives with ceremonies as we begin a new era of life. Graduations, birthdays, retirement, and many others are all ways that we value and encourage transitions as life changes. As families we celebrate transitions at weddings, anniversaries, births, and eventually graduations again. As communities we mark transitions at elections, ground breakings, and anniversaries of meaningful dates. All of these moments in life are formative transitions at which point we re-define our life with new parameters and even come to see ourselves differently. For this reason, it is essential that we handle moments of transition with intentionality, care, and significance so that we can better move ourselves from one stage of life to another.
Gateway is approaching a transitional moment. For 11 (going on 12) years Gateway has been wandering on the wilderness, so to speak, awaiting a more permanent home in the form of a building. Now that home is in sight and we are preparing to move to the corner of Greenfield and Queen Creek in Gilbert — thanks be to God! But just like we intentionally celebrate and mark transitions in our individual lives, we need to prepare ourselves for this transition into a new stage of life as a church. A celebration needs to be planned, decorations need to be hung, classrooms need to be furnished, but most importantly our identity needs to adapt as we prepare to enter a new stage of life. The move to a new location is an opportunity for us to update how we view ourselves, our purpose, and our goals – indeed it is almost imperative that we do. With the new building we will be equipped to serve our community differently, nourish one another more fully, and walk with God in a whole new way. This is not to say that the way we have existed and operated the past 11 years was inadequate, but it is an acknowledgment of impending change that comes with an opportunity to grow and improve.
As such, the leadership at Gateway has spent time listening and discerning as we approach this opportunity for growth and has decided to update our mission statement, which is so much more than words or a gimmicky slogan. In the past, Gateway has been guided by a mission to help others experience Jesus, to know him, follow him, and share him. Everything Gateway was or did was an attempt to live out that mission. There is nothing wrong with that mission, and it has served us well in our striving to live with and serve God. However, as we move forward the leadership has felt led by God to update that mission statement to better reflect the direction we think God is leading us. So we acknowledge that we are a people called to know God and make God known.
We are a people dedicated to growing closer to God, always striving to improve our relationship with God, and in so doing, we are dedicated to knowing God. Jeremiah 24:7 speaks of such a people dedicated to knowing God, “I will give them a heart to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (CEB). In the spirit of Jeremiah 24:7, then, Gateway is dedicated to turning our hearts to, and over to, God so that everything we do draws us closer to God. We desire to have a close intimate relationship with God, the fullness of God – God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
We are also a people dedicated to helping the world come to know our God. Through our words, actions, ad relationships with others we strive to exemplify the love, compassion, mercy, grace, and forgiveness of God to those we come in contact with everywhere we go. We are committed to living our lives in such a way that there is no doubt that those we interact with can see God living in us. And in this way we are not only committed to knowing God, but also to making God known.
This mission to know God and make God known is now our guiding principle, the lens through which we see the world. Our decisions, worship, events, service projects, and celebrations – everything we are and do – will be an attempt to know God and make God known. This is who Gateway Church of Christ is.