Some of the Gateway Centre's users with, inset top right, Kevin and Teresa Pickup.,,,
By following the Holy Spirit’s lead, Gateway 2 New Life Church in Launceston has developed a thriving community hub. Its pastor Kevin Pickup told Direction the full story.
Driving back from the south coast in 2010, Kevin and Teresa Pickup each had the same mental picture: a large building filled with community projects, groups and activities.
The couple assumed it was linked to the church plant they were exploring, but over the past ten years their vision has been realised as Gateway Church’s thriving Gateway Centre community hub in Launceston has become a reality.
The story began in 2012, shortly after Kevin joined the church as an Minister In Training. His pastor John Berriman took him to visit a large three-storey building which was a former tax office with a view to starting a community project. They felt it was the right building, but faced a big challenge.
“We weren’t really part of the community except for our Sunday services,” says Kevin, who is now lead pastor of the church.
Undeterred, they took on a lease in 2013 and began to repurpose the building with the help of offenders on community service who spent 10,000 hours painting it from top to bottom.
This link paved the way to work with other community groups and the church sought the Holy Spirit’s leading as they forged a path through the difficult first few months.
“We do everything in partnership with the Holy Spirit and we’ve always found that when we take time to pray and allow him to guide us the breakthroughs happen,” says Kevin.
The team saw God break down barriers with the local authority as they began setting up the project.
“There was a lot of resistance from the town councillors and authorities – we would be in meetings trying to explain who we were but they didn’t believe we would be able to provide the solutions the town needed, even though we knew that was what God was calling us to do.
“But then the doors began to open. Firstly the Job Centre wanted to work with us because they realised they could have a bigger impact if people could come to a neutral place like our building to complete their training.
“We ran a job club with them and the Launceston Money Advice Programme to develop a place where we can help people get job-ready.
“Working with the Job Centre opened the door for us with the town council and the mayor and now they’re our biggest advocates – we’ve become a signpost, and if anyone has a problem they come to us.”
VITAL HUB
From these small beginnings, the Gateway Centre has become an indispensable self-funded community hub which Kevin estimates reaches around 8% of people in Launceston each month.
The 10,000 sq m building is split over three floors, with the top floor for the church and the others for the community. The church now employs six members of staff to run the project.
On the ground floor, Café Avodah welcomes locals, with a free community table permanently available for booking with everything from Knit & Natter and men’s conversation groups to mental health and game groups.
Likewise, a community room is home to various groups such as Army Cadets, mother and toddlers and health & fitness and sports groups and training providers.
The first floor is then hired out to charities and Christian organisations.
The Gateway Centre has not just allowed the church to provide practical help, however.
“It gives us an opportunity to build relationships with people and share our faith,” says Kevin.
“People like to see who we are and understand what we’re about and can ask questions in safe environments like the community café. There, we have good conversations and pray with people who are a million miles away from coming to church.”
As these bridges have been built, Kevin has seen the congregation at Gateway Church grow from 20 people in 2019 to around 70 today, with younger people and those who have used the community projects among those who have joined recently.
While Kevin is enjoying seeing numbers grow through the Gateway Centre’s community links, he is also focused on developing the church spiritually.
REVIVAL
Last autumn, Gateway Church hosted town revival meetings for 40 nights over three months to help Christians in the area to refocus after COVID restrictions eased, and they saw people come to faith, healed, delivered and baptised.
“We get stories every week from people who were at those meetings telling us how God transformed and restored situations,” says Kevin.
The church is also building multicultural links with European and Asian groups in the area and has just welcomed into the fellowship four Filipino families who were part of a Filipino church in the town which recently closed.
“Teresa and I worked as missionaries in France for three years and learned the importance of helping the international community feel welcome, listening to their cultural needs and understanding how faith works in their environment.”
Whether it’s growing the church or developing community work, following the Holy Spirit’s lead has led to favour and acceptance within Launceston and an ability to meet needs and share faith, says Kevin.
“We’ve seen the Lord’s hand over everything we do and he’s taken us into a place we could never have imagined being able to get to ourselves.
“We’re more than a church now, we’re an integral part of the community.”
From Direction Magazine issue 238
