New York, London, Dubai, Toronto, Berlin, and Beijing.
These large, global cities are familiar to us all and well-known as business and tourist destinations. In the midst of skyscrapers, restaurants, and shops, did you know that church planting is happening?
Global Gates is a missionary network focused primarily on reaching the diaspora in global gateway cities and assisting them in taking the gospel back into the most difficult-to-reach places on Earth. The beginnings of Global Gates can be traced back to 2010, when Brad Wall, Associate Executive Director of Global Gates, transitioned from overseas ministry to living in New York City. To his surprise, he discovered that about 20% of the city’s population was from Unreached People Groups (UPGs), totaling about 4.5 million people.
Global Gates is a growing ministry that adapts the best practices of church planting movement methodology and applies them to an urban context. Currently, the network has 50 full-time missionaries in 29 cities in North America, South Asia, and North Africa.
One amazing revelation for Global Gates has been the impact of women in reaching the UPGs of these cities:
“We're finding that women from traditionally patriarchal cultures have more options to make decisions for themselves in the West. The woman who in Afghanistan could never consider Jesus unless her husband said it was okay, in New York City or Houston or San Francisco can decide to follow Christ,” shares Wall.
They are finding women responding, especially from Muslim backgrounds, and becoming highly effective evangelists and church planters.
Global Gates has also discovered the extent to which global cities are connected to each other. For example, New York City is strongly connected to London, which is connected to Dubai, which is connected to Atlanta. When someone trusts Christ in New York, this often influences family members back home in London.
Just last year, Global Gates partnered with Jesus Film Project and Media to Movements, both GACX members, to allow teams engaging with UPGs to utilize Jesus Film clips. Global Gates missionaries were provided with “media in a box” — resources they can use as they work with UPGs online and in person.
With e3 Partners, another GACX member, Global Gates is partnering on training in Bangladesh. Their vision is to see 10% of Bengali-speaking people around the world identify as Christians in the next 20 years. They are working together to create an online library of resources for everyone to use, partnering again with Media to Movements to run the advertising.
Global Gates is looking to partner with one or more GACX member organizations that can assist Global Gates’ missionaries develop their long-term fundraising strategies. Many of these missionaries are relocating to global cities, which are some of the most expensive places on earth.
Are you interested in collaborating with Global Gates? Please visit globalgates.info.