Gateway City Church

Pastor David his staff and the entire church body have such a wonderful impact on the lives of so many people! His teaching is so practical and lead by the spirit of God. Nicole has the voice of an angel, leading a very talented music ministry! Such a broad list of ministries from childhood to seniors, home and abroad! Looking for true love, please join us!

Very nice service the word of God is preached under the anointing. Powerful worship, friendly people, good way to spend a Sunday Morning.

Love this church. Fantastic Pastor. Dr Cannistraci is a gifted speaker and teacher. So many times he changed my mind about a topic or profoundly impacted how I feel about myself, God and community. He is sensitive yet strong, compassionate yet not afraid to call right from wrong. He is funny yet serious. I moved away from San Jose but still listen to his sermons. His intellect and heart make him the best pastor I have ever had. The community at Gateway is warm and welcoming. I participated in bible studies, prayer nights etc. I felt embraced. Wonderful place to grow your relationship with God and like minded people. Try this place out.

Gateway City Church, still hurts to say the name. For 5+ years I’ve wondered why life led me & my mother there back in 2004. I am grateful to have accepted Christ that year for the first time, however, the 5 years I grew up & served in that church ultimately felt in vain. As a new christian & teenager back then, I struggled to find myself in alot of areas, who was I in Christ, in school, in church? Boy, did I want fellowship, to fit in & have Christian friends to relate to. Unfortunately, making genuine friends was asking to much of people who already knew, grew up with each other, made there own group/​click, etc. at Gateway. The word religious, cold and shallow come to mind. The few friends I did make as a teenager were actually with married couples or teenagers from other churches. Maybe I just wasn’t christian enough. Maybe I had a sign on my forehead that said «Don’t be friends with Audre, she’s a weirdo and doesn’t really love Jesus.» I did love Jesus & I loved those people, past tense. When I went to Gateway, I served that church with everything I had. I helped, I volunteered, I lead an art group that drew both christians & non christians to just hang out at church & draw pictures, I tithed, I prayed for others, I read the bible, I graduated Impact when I was 16, I loved, I gave. I regret all those things, except the art group.
When I went to Gateway the majority of leadership operated in an authoritarian fashion, whatever Pastor David or the elders said was the final word which usually was religious, stuffy & cold. Whether it was the ridiculous politics of throwing an event, to Sunday’s messages, to the trivial style of counseling, it always felt like people just kept up with appearances. Selfish? Yes. Fake? Yes. And was the ball dropped on many hurting church members, yes. You might think I’m being harsh, but the real lack of fruit came from the way leadership handled issues afterward. Swept under the rug, forgotten, shunned, hush hush, ignored are phrases that come to mind.
Pastor Mike Brock. Still hurts to hear that name. In 2010 the art group that nobody cared about ended & I for a 3^rd or 4^th time tried distancing myself from Gateway & God altogether. A bizarre misunderstanding occurred between a friendship I had with another Gateway member, turned into an accused sexual relationship, which was false. Pastor Mike, called me into his office one day, believing the other church member & told me I need to leave & find another church. He also told me I tried to be an ‘abstract image’ at Gateway & I was ‘sinking into a hole’. He did not want to hear what I had to say, he clearly thought he knew me & the truth. There was no love, no God in his tone or reason. After I left that meeting I never walked into Gateway City Church again. Six months later I am pregnant, the church member who accused me of having an intimate relationship with them, called my home one night & said he wanted to kill me. That member was arrested that night at Gateway City Church & temporarily put into a mental institute. I filed & received a restraining order on this person, to which in court this person apologized & admitted the accusations were not true.
Pastor Mike apologized to my mother over the phone, but never to me. No one in leadership or at Gateway in general ever reached out to me or my family for years. No one cared. No one cared. No one cared.
To this day, I do not attend church or any religious cell group. I find it difficult as an adult to associate & converse with other christians. Most of all, I find it difficult to talk to God. It hurts to much still, 5 yrs later. This was my experience at Gateway. Pretty sure Pastor David, Pastor Gary, Pastor Mike are still in leadership there…

Love this place. They let the Holy Spirit move, but total order and good teaching by the pAstor week and after week

I’m actually very sad to do this, but I cannot in good conscience leave up my old review without clarifying where things are now. Who would have thought that so much could change in just 4 years? Sigh.
This is not a review about people: there are still awesome, amazing people who attend this church. This is a review about my experiences, and some of my friends’ experiences and based on those, I have reviewed this church as one which I, myself, simply cannot any longer refer. Many of my friends still attend here (some are planning to leave based on some of the same reasons I will write about here, but they have not as yet).
See, in my first review, I mentioned that there were no «control issues» here. That’s a really big deal to me when I attend a church, because I believe that Jesus came for freedom («It is for freedom that Christ has set us free», right?) and in my mind, when a church becomes excessively controlling, it is losing the view of helping people come to that same freedom. Of course, like any kind of freedom, there are limits, and the Bible is where we find those lined up. Anything else, above and beyond what the Bible speaks on, is (to my mind) excessive and bordering on manipulation and control. Details… I guess I have to get more detailed.
A friend of mine who found this church a few years back, also discovered the one they felt they were meant to marry there, too. Yay! So fun when that happens, and we all celebrate, right? But this friend happened to have signed up for a program that was covered by the church and one of the pastors there. Although this Godly young couple were living for Christ, (and celibately waiting for marriage) they were told by this pastor that if the young man did not complete the program (I guess it was of several year’s duration) then God would not bless their marriage. Obviously, this is not a Biblical principle. Alarm bells…
Another friend, — — –(this portion of review removed by request) — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –
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Hmm…so, following the Spirit’s leading is no longer as important as following the pastor’s? Yikes!
Another friend explained to me, how after leading in numerous functions and assisting with countless volunteer projects for the church, she found herself being led to go somewhere else. Yet this was such an apparently unacceptable act on her part, that she admitted, in order to get away, she felt she had almost had to «break up, as if I was in a controlling relationship» in order to finally break ties. She told me with great relief how happy she is now, in a different congregation. Not okay… if God moves someone on to somewhere different, and your pastor can’t celebrate His leading in your life and tell you «That’s awesome!», there’s something wrong.
Not all of these things happened at once. Although, from what I have been told, the young couple (who went ahead with their plans, and by so doing incurred the wrath of that particular pastor)…well, their story is not unique there. A very similar story has been shared with me from other couples also.
My husband and I have been out of San Jose for four years, so to hear this news was sobering and saddening. We also visited again since my last review. Recently, in fact, last month. I was surprised at one thing: a surprising number of old and elderly. That’s not always a bad thing – a church should have all generations. But I saw hardly any young people, and to me, that is another red light.
What happens that makes a good church become so… different? I don’t know. I just know we’re not going back.
The good news: they still preach the gospel and they still have at least two pastors there who are the salt of the earth and who I admire above anything. But can I recommend it any longer as a great place to attend? Sadly, no I cannot.

One of the worst things about moving around so much is finding new churches to go to. The last time we were in San Jose, we settled on one not far from where we were staying, but that is never a good reason to go to a church, and we suffered because of it.
This church was really nice. The people were friendly and it had a good mixture of old school value with modern implementation. I always look for a church that is worried more about following God than boosting their own status. The congregation was that good size — big enough to not be too much trouble with gossiping and cliques, but not so big that its just a big social gathering place to here a «bless me» kind of message after a «family friendly» concert.
The music was good, and the preaching was biblically based and practical. We don’t have kids, so I can’t speak for those areas of the ministry.
On a side note, the over enthusiastic «hallelujah» style of worship some people are afraid of kind of how we are supposed to do it… Christians would do good to actually read the book we carry around every once in a while to see what it says about things.
We may try other places before we settle (as we feel directed by God to do so) but it’s highly likely we will be back to Gateway.

Café lift is fun!

I love this church! I have been going here now for almost a year and I have to say that I am always refreshed and filled with the Holy Spirit when I leave. Everyone is kind and I love the kids program. There is nothing better than a great church family and a place to enjoy worshiping the Lord. Go Jesus Go!!!
BTW: They have a new skate park for kids too!!! Yeahhhh!

My husband and I visited Gateway this morning because we slept later than usual and wanted to try a church that is closer to the house. The 11:00am service at Gateway met that need.
The first thing I noticed when we drove up is that this is a church filled with older people with big hair! The higher the hair, the closer to heaven, right? Ha.
I’m pretty comfortable in most church scenarios and have attended and visited many different types of congregations in my time, so I’ll share some of the observations I myself found amusing or informational:
— fairly conservative worship, the usual «men sing a line then women repeat it» kind of thing I’d expect from an older school crowd. Repetitive choruses, one lyric line fading into the next line. This is the kind of place where people actually act out the songs, so if a chorus says I lift my hands to the Lord, people actually do it.
— Bring your own tambourine (optional)!
— Pretty hip looking band up front, I’m sure the cute female lead helps keep the young men interested in the music portion. One dude was playing piano with one hand and keyboard with the other hand simultaneously (!).
— Lots of enthusiasm! The fill-​in-​the-​blank sermon notes (guest preacher that week) had exclamation points to cap off every single sermon bullet point!
— There was nothing in the bulletin or in-​pew literature that gave information about the denomination, mission statement, or core beliefs of the church, and I would have liked to have some. There WAS some info about an interactive website you can go to to get more information but that doesn’t help a curious visitor who is passing through.
— The congregation was mostly hispanic and white, with ages 20 – 60. There were some active older folks in the crowd! We sat on the far left which seemed to be the place for 20 – 35 year olds.
— A lot of programming for different groups: jr. high, high schoolers, women, men, small groups. There seemed to be a pretty easy way to connect if you wanted to get to know others in a smaller, more intimate environment.
Overall, Gateway is filled with happy, pleasant people who seemed filled with joy. Although the style of worship is a lot more «halleluiaaaaa!!» than I thrive under, I can see how people who yearn for a place where their own freestyle worship/​prayer/​singing would be embraced.
Side note: there’s apparently a Vietnamese congregation called «Living Waters» that meets in the same place — they are holding free ESL classes on Wednesdays. For more info, call Joy at 408−568−6555.

The pastors are loving and very down to earth and are lead by the holy spirit. Sermons are great. Humor, honestly and most importantly Bible based. I have met some wonderful friends who know that god wants us to have good fellowship. The church is active in missionary work as well as local charity. The have remodeled ½ of the building to accommodate the youth. There is an awesome tween area and a cool lounge area for teens and young adults. The church really tries to meet everyone where they are at.
The only reason why I did not give 5 starts is because the worship is well… lifeless. I just thought it was me for so long then many people started opening up about it. Even some of my more conservative and older friends confessed that the worship is not free and most often without rythem or passion. I guess the best way to describe it is restrained. The church used to have a different worship leader we could actully dance like king david and give up praise for God. Now it is just contrived.
Just a heads up, even if you do not like the worship and desire to see god move in your life and experience his awsome love for you the service and fellowship is worth it. I have seen much change in my life. Gateway has been a real blessing to me and so many others.