On an average Tuesday night, Grinnellians can be found doing any number of things — heading to the dining hall after finishing up practice, settling into a long night of studying in Burling Library, procrastinating in the atrium or, in the case of some students, kicking off Gateway’s Bible study meeting.
Gateway is a nondenominational student organization at Grinnell College that focuses on discussing Christianity and the Bible. You can usually find its leadership board — a term they use very loosely, according to the organization’s treasurer Alyvia Bunkowski `26 — in N2110, trickling in between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays. They use this time to chat about the week’s meeting, which will start at 8 p.m., and make sure the doors are open to anyone interested in showing up early to hang out.
Before Gateway became a Registered Student Organization (RSO), it was an off-campus Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) group started by Grinnell students interested in doing a Bible study together. It was informal — meetings were hosted in one of the members’ off-campus house.
“That was in `22 and `23,” said Kelton Watts `25, a Gateway founder and member of the leadership board. “Then all the sudden we got a bunch of non-athlete interest.”
This interest was a primary motivator in the decision to move the group on campus as an RSO. The decision was met with pushback from the school, who had questions about the group and its intentions.
“We had to meet specifically with Rabbi Sarah from the CRSSJ [Center for Religion, Spirituality and Social Justice], and we had two meetings with two people in student affairs,” said James Snyder `26.
Part of this pushback had to do with the proposed name for the group, Gateway, which has associations with a white power group, a fact that was unknown to the students attempting to register Gateway as a student organization.
“There hasn’t been just a non-denominational Bible study group in a long time, like a few decades,” said Watts, offering another potential explanation for the pushback.
Gateway became an RSO in the fall of 2023 and has been meeting regularly since then. In addition to their weekly Tuesday meeting, Gateway hosts other gatherings as well, sometimes collaborating with churches in town.
“We’ve had several community events at the park downtown,” said James Marsh `27, another member of the leadership board. “We’ll get churches in the area and we’ll all just get together, have food and enjoy each other’s company.”
Italy Perez `28 joined Gateway within the first few weeks of starting at the College, finding, in the kindness of fellow group members, the sort of community she was looking for in Grinnell.
“The people there are so kind, so willing to talk with you,” Perez said. “Most of the people that I’ve been friends with are the leaders and they like to hang out … I find it really nice that they’re really thoughtful.”
Quinby Rainey `27 enjoys many aspects of participating in Gateway, including the cookies that Debbie, an FM worker, brings to the group every Tuesday.
“She bakes two or three batches of homemade cookies. And she always bakes them fresh just for us,” Rainey said.
Debbie’s cookies are not the only constant at Gateway meetings, whose structure remains consistent Tuesday to Tuesday.
“First, we get in, we all pray together, then we split up into groups,” said Kevin Fitzgerald `26, a regular member. “We usually go over a certain part, like a certain chapter — we’re going through a series in the book of Romans right now. So we go through each chapter, usually every week, and just have conversations, read about it, and learn the context in which it was written.” Additionally, according to the leadership board, the meetings end with another round of prayers directed at specific requests from group members.
“Our core identity is we study the Bible; that’s the main thing that brings everything we are together, and we enjoy a community around that, and people from all kinds of belief systems, opinions and backgrounds and perspectives just can come together,” said Elliot Swaim `25.
