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What is GateKeepers?
GateKeepers is designed to create healthy habits for Christian men that will create a closer walk with Christ, and in doing so, impact our entire congregation, our community, and our world. We believe that GateKeepers could be an impetus for revival among the men of our church as we dedicate ourselves to guarding the gates of our hearts, our minds, our families, our church and our nation against the satanic forces that are out to destroy us. Please join us in becoming a GateKeeper for Christ!
»Become a GateKeeper now…
Mission:
Our mission is very simple. We work to win, grow, and send out men as committed followers of Jesus Christ to change the world.
Vision:
So, that’s what we do at Thomas Road. We win men to Christ, we grow them up in Christ, and send them out for Christ. And you can join this exciting adventure by committing to these four activities every week:
• Attend a Sunday service
• Connect with a smaller group, such as an ABC or Men's weekly study
• Teamup to serve on a ministry team
• Share your faith with your family, neighbors, and whomever God leads you to.
GateKeepers Values
- Every man is important in our church.
- Every man needs to be prayed for
- Every man needs to be discipled & developed
- Every man needs to have a brother inside the church
- Every man needs to be challenged and guided to growth
- Every man needs to have a personal mission statement
- Every man needs to have a personal growth plan
- Every man needs to be held accountable.
- Every man needs to be a servantleader in every area of their lives, especially if they have a wife/ family.
- Every man needs to be aggressively pushing for the kingdom of God.
Why Call It GateKeepers?
A GateKeeper has the job of a shepherd in biblical times. At night when all of his sheep were inside the Shepherd would lay himself in front of the opening in the Fold. This would mean that anything coming in or going out would have to pass over him.
In this way a GateKeeper at Thomas Road Baptist Church is any man who accepts the challenge to stand watch and guard his own heart, the heart of his wife, kids, and grandkids. He will watch what comes into his home, and guard against what tries to harm him as well as those whom God has entrusted to him. In his capacity as patriarch he is the primary protector of his home and family.
This is a calling of men to be who they are called by God to be. The submissive and loving leader He has been commissioned every man to be in the home. Nothing more, nothing less.
BIBLICAL BASIS FOR A MEN’S MINISTRY:
- Acts 2: 17-18 “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
- Acts 6: 2 “And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. "But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. "But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”
- Acts 15: 22 “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas, who was also called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.”
- Acts 17: 30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
- Romans 11:4 “What was God's answer to him? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’”
- 1 Cor. 16: 13 “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”
- 2 Cor. 5: 10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.”
- Phil. 2: 28 “Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly in order that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. Therefore receive him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.”
- 1 Tim. 2: 2:1 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time. And for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.”
- 2 Tim. 2:1 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
- Titus 2:2 and 6:2 “Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.” “Likewise urge the young men to be sensible;”
- 1 Peter 2: 13 “Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.”
- 1 Peter 5:5 “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
- 1 John 2: 13 “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.”
- 2 Cor. 5: 17 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
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