Our Church

In 1999, God released a dream to plant a church near the University at Buffalo. One night, in prayer, Jon was led to the scripture of Ezekiel 44:4 from which we received the name "NorthGate." For the next 10 years, Jon served as the Senior Associate Pastor under Pastor Tommy Reid at The Tabernacle in Orchard Park. This proved to be an essential time of training and preparation for the launch of Northgate which occurred in 2008.

A key part of the vision was to plant NorthGate in partnership with a number of different churches across denominational lines. Jon began to share our vision with others and the Lord opened door after door for churches to work together to fulfill this vision. We met with over 14 churches from our region who expressed a strong willingness and excitement regarding partnering with NorthGate to reach the University at Buffalo and the surrounding community. Jon also began to meet with a number of campus ministries who were already doing great work reaching out to students at the University at Buffalo. NorthGate has a strong desire to partner with congregations and ministries throughout the Western New York region. As a result, we have seen a number of Senior Pastors develop relationships and cross denominational lines. Our desire is to see The Church of Buffalo partner together in a way that will reach every man, woman, and child with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Sunday, October 19, 2008 the vision for NorthGate was released at The Tabernacle in Orchard Park. Pastor Tommy Reid endorsed NorthGate publicly, followed by a video message from Pastor Jerry Gillis of The Chapel. These two leaders have had a tremendous influence on the development of NorthGate.

Our first gathering took place in a home located in Amherst with about a dozen people. Over the next 11 months, we developed a core team of people. This group met on Saturday nights to develop a sense of community, vision, and purpose. Over time, the core team grew to approximately 60 people and we launched public services in the AMC 8 Movie Theater located at the corner of Sweet Home and Maple Rd.(pictured here) In February 2011 we moved to our current location at 5225 Harris Hill Rd. Clarence, NY.

In November of 2015, NorthGate completed a building project titled "Making A Place For You." This expanded the physical space of the church to accommodate the rapidly growing congregation which includes new space for our Children and Youth Ministry.

NorthGate is a Christian community of all ages mentoring students to change the world. Today, NorthGate welcomes students, young families, and people of all ages and walks of life. We would love to have you join this community. The Lord is making a place for you at NorthGate.

In 2020, Pastor Jon initiated a conversation with Pastor Bob Tice. Pastor Bob was the founding pastor of RiverRock church. These two pastors agreed that NorthGate was being called to give leadership to RiverRock Church in the westside of Buffalo. RiverRock Church was shut down for the summer largely due to COVID-19. Out of this, the NorthGate team felt it was time to plant a new campus; NorthGate @ RiverRock. The vision was given to see One Church with Two Locations. At the RiverRock campus, there was a massive undertaking to renovate the original sanctuary that had not been used for 20 years. As the year went on, many volunteers spent countless hours on the renovation project for the opening and launch of NorthGate @ RiverRock. On November 1st, 2020, NorthGate held its first service in the newly renovated west side campus!

Today, God has given NorthGate the vision “Love Builds Bridges”. We believe that this new campus was a shift in the season of the church to intentionally become a multicultural community. God has built a bridge from the city to the suburbs to see both communities learn from one another."