About City Gate

Pastor Lynn Bergfalk, founder and Executive Director of City Gate, served for 13 years as Senior Minister of Calvery Baptist Church in downtown Washington. City Gate was established in 2000 to expand and extend community programs — primarily with children and youth — that had been conducted for many years by Calvary Baptist Church in downtown DC. As a new organization rooted in over a century of urban mission work, City Gate combines a spirit of innovation with a wealth of experience, resources, and network of relationships. It continues to work in partnership with other community and faith-based entities, including the DC Baptist Convention.

His mission is to embody a practical vision of community based upon justice, compassion, and spirituality that values every individual; help those on the margins of urban society to access and participate more fully in life and benefit from the larger community; implement strategies of partnership, including specific programs to address the needs of urban youth; and to provide bridges of friendship and opportunities of service for volunteers and mission groups.

Current programs and activities

Utilizing a model of collaboration, grass-roots involvement, varied community resources, funding sources, and facilities, City Gate has developed a multi-faceted program of education, life skills development, friendship, ministry, and community-building.

Board, staff, and volunteers

Our Board of Directors has eight members with varied backgrounds (ministry, information technology, accounting, and nonprofit management) who are directly engaged in general oversight, policy, and volunteer projects.

Employees include Theodra Washington (Program Manager), Kristin Wiener (Associate Director), and Michelle Newby (Site Manager). Theodra Washington was recently hired to oversee daily operations and expand organizational capacity. Kristin Wiener oversees the after-school program, which include homework assistance (by volunteers), computer skills, field trips, recreational activities, snacks, and daily hot meals. Michelle Newby serves as administrative assistant, and coordinates facility use and neighborhood outreach projects at our various sites in SE.

Approximately 20 full-time summer staff members are recruited to work in our summer day camps. Many are college students, high school graduates and teachers in private and local public schools (DC and Maryland). Our summer staff has a strong commitment to children, community service.

The American Baptist Churches USA commissioned two Volunteers-in-Mission to work with City Gate. Marilyn Norris, a retired social worker from Illinois, started and directed our ESL program for many years, which offers four levels of instruction (twice weekly) with a volunteer-led staff. At present, Pat Dueholm and Jeannine Piacenza are the volunteer directors of our ESL program at the NW location at Wisconsin Aenue Baptist Church. The second commissioned denominational volunteer was Lucas Shivers, a schoolteacher from Kansas who also worked in our out-of-school time programs through August 2004.

We developed an Urban Hands program to employ volunteer church mission groups from across the country, primarily in our summer program. Individual volunteers are also utilized.