Message from our Executive Director
March 2004
It's hard to believe City Gate is beginning its fifth year. As a new organization, we are indebted to many program participants (ESL, Urban Hands, after-school, and summer camps) as well as partner organizations, volunteers, donors, and a host of friends and encouragers. We thank you all!
I always find it hard to respond in a few words when people ask about City Gate. The short answer is "an urban ministry working primarily with children from under-served neighborhoods." But there's so much more. English classes and a ministry of friendship with internationals in Northwest DC. An expanded community ministry and a new management role at the Johenning Baptist Center in Southeast. Dozens of missions groups involving scores of teens and adults who come from all over the country to participate in our Urban Hands ministry program.
We're a new nonprofit, but have our roots in a century of community ministry by a historic downtown church. Our mission is inspired by a Biblical vision of love and justice which speaks powerfully to the needs of the 21st century. In the ancient world, the city gate was not simply a physical entrance but the center for community life — a place where the poor were to receive justice, where strangers were to be welcomed, and widows and orphans protected.
The city gate was the kind of grassroots community institution that has been lost in our world of giant corporations and expansive bureaucracies. Where today is the door of opportunity and empowerment that allows folks on the margins of society to participate more fully in the benefits others take for granted?
Of course, the gate also was a biblical metaphor for grace, the mysterious way God brings us out of difficulty and danger to find hope, strength, and meaning in life. It is a passageway from being alone to becoming community. It is the opening not primarily to an abundance of things but to an abundant life. All of these rich images help shape a contemporary vision for urban ministry.
So, what is City Gate? It is a way to reach out to internationals by offering friendship and English classes. It is giving children, regardless of their circumstances, a chance to discover and develop their God-given potential. It is swinging the gate both ways, for folks on society's margins to access the benefits of the mainstream, but also for volunteers and mission groups in the mainstream to step outside the gates of privilege and possibility to learn about life and love by serving others.
It's a great vision! We hope to learn and serve alongside of you in opening doors and hearts, and building communities of justice and compassion. This web site offers a few practical glimpses into how we've been trying to implement that vision. We invite your support!
Lynn Bergfalk