The Porter's Gate

The Porter's Gate is a sacred ecumenical arts collective reimagining and recreating worship that welcomes, reflects and impacts both the community and the church. It was founded with a mission to be a "porter" for the Christian Church - one who looks beyond church doors for guests to welcome.

The Porter's Gate started as a group of songwriters, musicians, scholars, pastors and music industry professionals from a variety of backgrounds who gathered for meaningful conversation about worship and vocation.The result was the release of Work Songs, the first album of The Porter's Gate.

In 2019, the collective gathered again for a series of discussions about the challenges of worshipping across lines of difference. This group consisted of Christians from all religious backgrounds, as well as cultural and racial difference. As they discussed challenges, they composed new worship songs and hymns with the hope of providing the church with more songs that specifically celebrate God's call to love our neighbors as ourselves. This gathering birthed their second album, Neighbor Songs.

Their third and fourth records, Justice Songs and Lament Songs, feature contributions from musicians, theologians, and pastors from a wide range of church traditions and worship styles. "We have been writing these songs for almost a year, at first as in-person songwriting retreats, and then remotely through email and zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic," says co-founder Isaac Wardell, who also produced the albums. "Listeners will notice if you look at the songwriting credits that some of these songs have five or six authors. It was our intention to get a variety of people in the room, people from different backgrounds, at churches that worship very differently, interacting on these themes and scriptures of justice and lament."

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