The Gate Church International
History
A Brief History of The Gate
In the early 1970’s, Stewart and Mairi Brunton were working with the Christian Literature Crusade (CLC) in London where they came into a new experience of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Shortly after that, they moved to Scotland to work in the CLC shop in Dundee. Through sharing their experience of being baptised in the Holy Spirit, they found that others were being similarly blessed. God began to speak, not only to Stewart and Mairi but also to a small group of other people about starting a church and, following His leading, in April 1976 they began meeting in the CLC basement. Six people attended. By and by, the numbers grew and so the church moved into the Tent Mission Hall and then in the YMCA Hall until the church bought the present premises on the Perth Road in 1984. However, before the church could use this new facility, a huge restoration task had to be undertaken. The beautiful wooden facings, pillars and pews that give the building so much of its character all needed to be stripped, the whole place needed to be rewired and plumbed and then decorated by church members in their spare time.
Why was the church called ‘The Gate’?
When Stewart and Mairi were thinking about what to call the church, they were studying Ezra and Nehemiah, where the city walls and gates were being rebuilt. They were looking for a name that would give an attachment to Dundee but which wouldn’t be too restrictive. If you take any time to travel around Dundee, you will notice that many of the street names are ‘…gait’s’ and so the name ‘The Gate’ was decided upon.
The Gate was, and indeed is, different in many respects to its contemporaries. Not part of the established church, it was an independent church, with a statement of faith that could evolve as its members grew in Christian maturity. Key to its functioning was a desire to see God move as He had done in the early New Testament church, where the Holy Spirit was continually being outpoured into God’s people and where healings and miracles were a regular occurrence.
In 1993 our present church leader, Gordon Stewart became the full-time youth pastor and later joined the Leadership Team working with his father-in-law Stewart and the rest of the eldership. In 2002, Stewart handed the leadership baton onto Gordon and later that year, went to be with the Lord, leaving behind him a church that had grown from 6 people in 1976 to around 400 adults regularly joining together to worship on a Sunday morning. For many Christians in Dundee, Stewart was a man of great faith whose investment in them and in their lives caused them to grow in their faith and understanding. He left behind him a thriving church that was bucking the trend of declining church attendance and which believes, as he did, that God will pour out His Spirit and bring revival again to Dundee.
“When Pastor Gordon put forward the idea of taking a year out I was delighted as it is something I have always desired. I was then told that the course was going to be called Refine....”
Rachel Thomson