The season of advent is not the same as cultural Christmastime. The hope of the advent season and the anticipation of the Christ child’s arrival gives us wonderful gifts of love, joy, and peace. But instead of a world full of love we often encounter relational conflict and strife. There’s “us” and “them”, and even “us” is far from unified. Wouldn’t it be great to have a Christmas that is marked by love instead of division? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year are what we wish for others but what if we could have real, enduring joy? And amidst the chaos at the end of the school year, the rush to get gifts, and preparing for travel, our holiday can easily become filled with anxiety instead of peace. Join Damascus Road for the Core of Christmas and learn to live hopeful lives overflowing with love, joy, and peace.Week 3 of The Core of Christmas

Teacher: Megan MillerWe sing “Silent Night” at Christmastime, but our world feels increasingly loud, fast, and disoriented. The constant noise - news cycles, digital distractions, relational tensions - pulls at our attention. These nights before Christmas are anything but silent, and instead we are bombarded by anxiety and conflict, both globally and personally. In the chaos and noise, peace feels out of reach. But chaos doesn’t just surround us, it seeps into us. It disrupts our sleep, erodes our relationships, shortens our tempers, and feeds our fears. Over time, we begin to carry the pace and pressure of the world within our souls. The night of Jesus’ birth wasn’t much more peaceful either. Not only were there groans of labor and a crying infant, but the world was full of the chaos of an oppressive empire, jealous kings, and a people looking for the promised savior who would free them. Hard to imagine a silent night - hard to picture peace - in such a world. This week we’ll explore just how a fussy baby brings peace into a chaotic world, and how the Spirit cultivates this peace within us, not just for our own well-being, but as a gift to the world around us. In a culture full of noise, the Spirit’s peace is a healing witness to the God who offers peaceful silence into every chaotic night.

The season of advent is not the same as cultural Christmastime. The hope of the advent season and the anticipation of the Christ child’s arrival gives us wonderful gifts of love, joy, and peace. But instead of a world full of love we often encounter relational conflict and strife. There’s “us” and “them”, and even “us” is far from unified. Wouldn’t it be great to have a Christmas that is marked by love instead of division? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year are what we wish for others but what if we could have real, enduring joy? And amidst the chaos at the end of the school year, the rush to get gifts, and preparing for travel, our holiday can easily become filled with anxiety instead of peace. Join Damascus Road for the Core of Christmas and learn to live hopeful lives overflowing with love, joy, and peace.Week 2 of The Core of Christmas

Teacher: Ryan MillerHopelessness doesn’t always come suddenly. Often, it creeps in slowly, through a steady stream of bad news, personal disappointments, relational breakdowns, and the quiet pain of deferred dreams. This kind of despair doesn’t just impact our emotions; it shapes our worldview. It convinces us that brokenness will have the final word, that nothing will change, and that hope is naïve. We begin to lower our expectations, protect ourselves from disappointment, and quietly let go of the belief that true joy is even possible. But God does not leave us in our despair. Good news is coming, in the form of a tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The birth of Jesus teaches us how to navigate the complexities of true joy, where joy in the Spirit is not an escape from pain - it’s a defiant presence within it. It’s the kind of joy that lives alongside tears, that sings in the dark, and that stubbornly believes in a King born in a stable even when surrounded by loss. This joy is not manufactured by positive thinking or good circumstances. It’s rooted in the unshakable reality of God’s love, a love that meets us in the birth of a Savior.

The season of advent is not the same as cultural Christmastime. The hope of the advent season and the anticipation of the Christ child’s arrival gives us wonderful gifts of love, joy, and peace. But instead of a world full of love we often encounter relational conflict and strife. There’s “us” and “them”, and even “us” is far from unified. Wouldn’t it be great to have a Christmas that is marked by love instead of division? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year are what we wish for others but what if we could have real, enduring joy? And amidst the chaos at the end of the school year, the rush to get gifts, and preparing for travel, our holiday can easily become filled with anxiety instead of peace. Join Damascus Road for the Core of Christmas and learn to live hopeful lives overflowing with love, joy, and peace.Week 1 of The Core of Christmas

Teacher: Derrick LyonsWe live in a world increasingly defined by division – political lines, cultural clashes, social media echo chambers. It's easy to slip into an “us vs. them” mindset, where love is reserved for those who agree with us, look like us, or make life easy. But Christmas should be a time of unity around what really matters: love. The love of God made tangible in Jesus' birth transcends all boundaries. It's not passive, soft, or sentimental - it’s bold, sacrificial, and unifying. This week, we’ll explore what it means to live the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated when he came to earth as a baby boy, transcending all boundaries of divine and human, defying expectations of who is worth it and why, and revealing the truth that God is for the whole world. This love reaches across enemy lines, lays down pride, and refuses to treat people as categories or threats. In a fractured world, God is calling His people to be known, not by what we’re against, but by how we love.