Gateway: From a Sunday school to a 50-year-old church
Pastor Sean Wells said Gateway is blessed with enough ground to expand as they continue to transition from a largely white ageing congregation to a more youthful and multicultural fellowship.
Gateway Presbyterian Church, or God’s Five Acres as it is affectionately called by members, is celebrating 50 years of ministry since its humble establishment as a Bonaero Park Sunday School in 1969.
The congregation has been under the faithful guidance of Past Sean Wells, his wife Carina and two sons Ryan and Jason for the past 20 years.
Wells, with the help of many devoted church members, has seen the ministry grow, not only in its service of the community, but also in extensions to the church, including a new stage, kitchen and entrance porch
After having moved to Dann Road in Glen Marais 1979, the church also founded Gateway Nursery School on the property 14 years ago. Over the years, the school have had 80 to 100 children in its care.
Shangri-La Academy, now both a primary and high school on adjacent Veld Street, started in a prefab building on ground leased from the church.
More recently, the church also welcomed the community to drop off recyclable items at their recycling hub behind the church building.
As the church aspired to expand the congregation’s age range to include more young adults, a big step of faith was taken in 2018 to again fill the position of youth pastor, which was vacant from 2017.
Funds became available to do so when the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) negotiated moving its head office to the existing manse on the Dann Road property in 2018. Thanks to the UPCSA’S compensation for the manse, Gateway had enough funds to purchase a new manse, as well as appoint a new youth pastor, Jean Pierre Momberg, in September 2018.
“Gateway is blessed with enough land to expand as we continue the transition from a largely white ageing congregation to a more youthful and multicultural fellowship,” said Wells.
During a guided tour of the facility, Wells told Express about how the church came into existence as a Sunday School in prefabricated classrooms in Bonaero Park in 1969.
At that time, the then minister at St Andrew’s Presbyterian church in Benoni, Rev Sid Smuts, was the guiding force in a decision to build a church on a three-stand site in Bonaero Park.
It was called the Church for all Nations, established to create a centre of worship for the rapidly expanding community concentrated around Atlas Aircraft Factory.
As money was a scarce commodity, construction work stopped at the foundation phase when the contractor bailed, leaving Smuts, two workers, two elders and their wives to finish the job.
After many trials and tribulations (and thousands of floor tiles later), the church and adjoining halls were finished. The total cost, including furnishings, was just short of R15 000.
“During the work, Smuts incurred the wrath of the then apartheid municipal authorities for employing black labour without the necessary permits. He made a defiant appearance in court and was fined R15 and carried on regardless,” said Wells.
“Rev Normand Cliff was appointed to oversee the new preaching station while his wife Lilian paved the foundation of the thriving Sunday school.”
The church experienced difficult years in the early 1970s as the congregation counted single figures and on several occasions came close to extinction .For this reason, in September 1975, it was decided to move the minister who had been appointed to oversee the fledgling ministry, Noel Adamson, to Kempton Park in anticipation of moving the church there.”
A year later, the Bonaero Park property was sold for R46 500 and the search for a new home in Kempton Park ensued. In the meantime, Sunday services were allowed to be held at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Rietfontein Road, since they meet on Saturdays. Under the guidance of Rev Theunis van den Berg, the Dann Road property was bought in 1979.
Since the property only had a house and garage workshop, church services were held in the latter. It was later converted to Smuts Hall.
In 1982 the congregation achieved full status, meaning it was able to fully sustain itself and call its own minister, and Van den Berg happily obliged.
Rev George Anderson succeeded van den Berg and under his leadership a decision was made to erect the current church building on the property.
When Anderson left for Port Elizabeth in 1985, Rev Malcolm de Kock took over and ministered for 14 years before accepting a call to Hillcrest Natal in 1999, when Wells became the resident pastor until now.
