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.

Deep relationships are critical to life that is truly life. But to develop deep relationships we need to move from making friends to keeping them. If we want to have relationships that stand the test of time and avoid just remembering people that you used to know, wishing things could have been different, that you could have acted differently, the Holy In-between will help us connect across our differences and discover God’s presence and love in our lives and in lasting friendships. Join Damascus Road as we explore the sacred space to be found in covenant friendship.Week 3 of The Holy In-Between

Teacher: Dave ChojnackiPromising in friendship is a terribly dangerous business. Life is an ocean of uncertainty. Friendship over the long haul is the same. We have no idea what pain and suffering will come. We have no idea what pettiness or conflict might consume us. Most modern friendships last only until the first conflict anyways. So we may fairly wonder, why do it? Why make promises if they’re just going to be broken? Why risk friendship if we’re going to get hurt. Because friendship is an act of faith. We need promises because commitment is the foundation we build our friendships on, and we need forgiveness because grace makes repair possible when promises are broken.

Deep relationships are critical to life that is truly life. But to develop deep relationships we need to move from making friends to keeping them. If we want to have relationships that stand the test of time and avoid just remembering people that you used to know, wishing things could have been different, that you could have acted differently, the Holy In-between will help us connect across our differences and discover God’s presence and love in our lives and in lasting friendships. Join Damascus Road as we explore the sacred space to be found in covenant friendship.Week 2 of The Holy In-Between

Teacher: Devynn BrankelIt is hard to just say what we mean. We want to encourage our friends, but when we tell them something nice when it is not really true, that is not encouragement, but a lie. On the other hand, it is easy to see the danger of criticism without love. But when practiced rightly, encouragement and rebuke have the twin power to push back the fallenness in our lives and build up righteousness. Jesus is the master of words in friendship. Jesus uses the honest words of encouragement and rebuke to call his friends forward. Both take honest words; one to name the good, the other to name the danger.

Deep relationships are critical to life that is truly life. But to develop deep relationships we need to move from making friends to keeping them. If we want to have relationships that stand the test of time and avoid just remembering people that you used to know, wishing things could have been different, that you could have acted differently, the Holy In-between will help us connect across our differences and discover God’s presence and love in our lives and in lasting friendships. Join Damascus Road as we explore the sacred space to be found in covenant friendship.Week 3 of The Holy In-Between

Teacher: Tyler StibrichSin wants you alone, hiding from others because of your shame over your mistakes. It isolates you. It drives you into the desert. Sin hurts people, so we want to hide those parts of our lives. This is a mistake. What hiding actually shields us from is love. When we learn to live without secrets, we discover that by confessing them we become closer to one another and God than ever before. Honesty about our sins becomes the path, not the barrier, to relationship. Grace means that your hidden failures are not the end of your story. They can be the beginning of friendship.

In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes through six case studies of living life God’s way. For each case, he begins with “You have heard it said …” and then responds with “But I say …” The common wisdom that we often hear about how to do life helps us get by, but in these case studies, Jesus introduces a radical approach to living that frees us from the shortcomings and pitfalls of “the normal way.” How can we learn to live radically and to totally transform our approach to others?Week 6 of You've Heard It Said

Teacher: Brad MillerIn Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus shares his sixth and final case study based on the wisdom of the Torah, and it may be the most challenging one yet. The first three case studies focused on treating others as sacred image-bearers of God. The fourth and fifth case studies offered guidance on how to handle conflict. And in the final case study, Jesus concludes with wisdom on how to respond to people who not only dislike us but even desire our harm. In this message, we discuss one of Jesus’ most famous teachings: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes through six case studies of living life God’s way. For each case, he begins with “You have heard it said …” and then responds with “But I say …” The common wisdom that we often hear about how to do life helps us get by, but in these case studies, Jesus introduces a radical approach to living that frees us from the shortcomings and pitfalls of “the normal way.” How can we learn to live radically and to totally transform our approach to others?Week 5 of You've Heard It Said

Teacher: Megan StibrichIn Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus offers wisdom from the Torah about retaliation, justice, and nonviolent resistance to injustice. He references a series of laws in Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Deuteronomy 19, all of which contain the familiar language of “eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” Jesus reveals the surprising wisdom within these laws, using real-life scenarios that would have been familiar to oppressed Israelites living under Roman occupation: turning the other cheek, giving your cloak, and going the extra mile. In this message, we discuss how these actions can open up our imaginations for boldly standing against injustice in creative, nonviolent ways.