About Us

The roots for Gateway Baptist Church were planted on May 13, 1955 when Pastor Ben Evertt led Whalley Baptist Church to affiliate with a small group of Regular Baptist Churches that had aligned themselves with Southern Baptist missions passion. By 1960, under the ministry of Pastor Jim Geddes the little church was renamed First Baptist Church, North Surrey, and growth required them to expand with a large extension, to be for Sunday School space.  Under the ministry of Pastor Len Koster, membership grew to 100 members.  But in 1967, Pastor Koster left to pastor a new church in Terrace BC and a series of pastors followed him, including Bill Robertson, Lawrence Wilks and Dan Rorabaugh. By 1970, the little church was again dreaming of growth.  The old building at 108 Avenue and 131A Street was sold and the present property was purchased to allow for greater expansion.  In the summer of 1977, as the first unit of the new building was nearing completion, Pastor Dan and his wife Peggy, left to serve as missionaries in Tanzania, and on October 2nd, new pastor, Art Newsham led the first service and the newly named, West Whalley Baptist Church.  In the summer of 1984, a volunteer team came from First Baptist Church, Denton and framed the new worship centre for West Whalley.  As the auditorium was nearing completion, Pastor Newsham was involved in a serious motorcycle accident, and while he was in recovery, Associational missionary, Henry Blackaby served as interim pastor.  And on October 3, 1993, West Whalley church merged with Village Hills church, with Don Miller and Mike Richardson serving as co-pastors.  It was decided then to officially change the name to The Gateway Baptist Church. In January of 2013, after more than a decade filled with both progress and challenge, Mark McDonald began to “fill the pulpit” and today he remains our longest serving pastor.