our mission
The members of Damascus Road Church believe we are sent into the world...to proclaim the gospel...and to teach people to live like Jesus.
Sent Into the World:
The word "Sent" reminds us that building a community of believers has a purpose-it is a means to an end, not the end in itself. Sometimes, however, we confuse church for the mission. The church does not have a mission, the mission has a church. God's mission has been the redemption of His people since time began. We do not separate ourselves from the world to avoid living worldly--which is disobedience to God. We discern what is redeemable in culture and reclaim it, renew it, and through it point people back to Jesus. We do not ATTRAC. Like Jesus, we INCARNATE into the world, find where He is already at work, and join forces with Him.
To proclaim the Gospel: Our engagement of the world has a purpose. It has been said that "everything preaches." The truth of the gospel should permeate all that we do, from our advertising to our preaching. Jesus is the beginning and end of all things, the hero of every story, the aim of all of our efforts and praise. We are not saved by the gospel and then changed by obedience, but the gospel itself transforms us (II Cor. 5.17 A NEW CREATION), is the way we grow (Gal. 3:1-3 PERFECTED by THE SPIRIT) and are renewed (Col. 1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier (Rom. 1:16-17 THE POWER OF GOD)."
To teach people to live like Jesus: God's objective in this life is to make us look more like Jesus. We aim to live like Jesus as he lived in and among the people. Specifically, we live NO MORE than Jesus and NO LESS than Jesus. By no more, we mean that we do not build self-righteous rules that are simply attempts to work our way back to Jesus and minimize the need for the atonement. We also recognize God will not accept less than Jesus and requires perfection. In our dependence upon the cross alone and Jesus living in us (Galatians 2.20), avoid both self-righteousness and self-indulgence.
How can you stay in culture, not separate in church, and still hold to the truth?
In order to reach the world, we must live and act as missionaries to the unique community we find ourselves in. Just as missionaries in foreign countries work hard to understand and learn the culture; we must become missiologists—people who study the values and shared beliefs of those we minister to.
All too often churches can develop and promote our own “culture” distinct and separated from the culture in which they minister. Like some sort of “Christian club” this separated culture possesses its own language, symbols, and institutionalized traditions. Anyone wanting to participate in their Christian community is expected to abandon the culture they know and learn a new language, identify with a new set of symbols, and adopt more “Christian” social traditions. If they agree to leave their own culture, they’re “accepted”, but they experience a loss of identity as they try to “fit in”.
Those who abandon their culture, though may still grow to love Jesus, often experience a growing apathy and hostility toward the institution of church. For believers, new and old, it is important to realize that biblically, the "culture" is not the "world". Communicating culturally is not necessarily living worldly--which is disobedience to God. If, however, we are going to gain a hearing we must learn to discern between that which is truly sinful and that which is cultural. At first, this can appear scary and, sadly, many Christians have proven how dangerous it can be as they fall victim to compromising God's truth--all in the name of relevance. We can avoid placing ourselves in an either/or fallacy by effectively balancing the three elements of gospel, culture, and church: 
First, there is the gospel of Jesus Christ that is the heart of the Scriptures and revelation of God; this must be kept in the forefront of every Christian’s life.
Second, there are the cultures in which people live their lives. These lives both shape and are shaped by those cultures and the gospel must be fitted (not altered) to particular people, times and circumstances so that evangelism can effectively occur.
Third, there is the church, or the gathering of God’s people -- which does include people who are not Christians (Matthew 13:24-30) – where people are built up in their faith and knitted together in loving community so that they can faithfully engage people in the culture with the gospel.
Emphasizing or ignoring any one of these three elements at the expense of another weakens our witness.
If we compromise the gospel, we embrace liberal theologies that deny the truth of God. We’re not biblical.
If we disregard the church, we end up evangelizing much like many para-church organizations who fail to provide any real root in a community. We’re not loving.
If we ignore culture, we’ll maintain sound doctrine and church, but die from self-righteousness. We’re not relevant.
We must commit ourselves to cultural relevance and biblical authority. We believe, in fact, that a commitment to biblical authority will naturally produce a culturally relevant community. If this process ever fails to continually occur, the focus moves from the gospel to either cultural agendas or church agendas that are often different than God’s agenda, which is the Gospel. Missiology is simply an unwavering commitment among God’s people to the gospel in the culture as the church.
I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings. - The Apostle Paul
gospel truth
gospel community
gospel living