You Are Welcome at the Door.

Ninety minutes. Ancient liturgy. No fog machines. Here is exactly what to expect.

Sunday mornings · 10:00 AM · 308 W. Milham Ave, Portage, MI

This Is a Family Service. There Are No Children's Programs.

That is not an oversight. It is a conviction.

For the last generation, evangelical churches have separated children from corporate worship — putting them in age-segmented programs while adults attend the service. The results are in.

We believe this is not a youth group problem. It is a worship problem. When children are separated from the body of Christ week after week, the implicit message is clear: this is not for you yet.

For most of church history — and in most of the world today — families have worshipped together. Age-segregated church is the historical anomaly, not the norm.

At City Gate, children sit with their families. They hear the Word read aloud. They witness confession and absolution. They watch their parents kneel and receive. They learn, over time, that this is their inheritance too.

If our children are to be faithful in this place for a thousand generations, we must do things differently than what has become normal.

Before You Arrive

No preparation required. A liturgy guide is on the table in the foyer outside the sanctuary. Every adult and every child who can read should take one. It contains every congregational response — you can follow along without knowing anything in advance.

Restrooms are just outside the sanctuary and downstairs. Nursing mother's room through the double lobby doors. Changing tables on both levels.

The Order of Service

A Covenant Renewal Liturgy. Each movement has a purpose.

This May Feel Catholic, Anglican, or Lutheran. Good.

If the liturgy feels familiar from one of those traditions, that is not a coincidence. City Gate is theologically at home in the Reformed Anglican stream — a tradition that takes seriously both the catholicity of the ancient Church and the convictions of the Reformation.

We are not formally Anglican, and we are not Roman Catholic. But we are not embarrassed to worship the way Christians have worshipped for two thousand years. The pattern of confession, absolution, Word, and Table did not originate with Rome or Canterbury. It is simply the shape of Christian worship — ancient, tested, and deliberately preserved here.

We hold the Scriptures as the final authority. We preach justification by grace through faith. We baptize. We commune. We confess. If you have been looking for a church that takes the whole tradition seriously without being owned by any one branch of it — this may be what you have been looking for.

If the robes, the responses, or the weekly Table are new to you, that is fine too. Stick around. It becomes familiar — and then formative.

Practical Details