letter from our pastors

We believe God has called us to be a thriving church in the heart of our nation’s capital that unapologetically proclaims the gospel and boldly makes disciples who are being transformed to love, think, and act like Jesus.

We also believe God is calling us into a new season as a church - a season of trusting that He can multiply our influence as we better disciple the hearts of our people and more boldly advance our mission as a church.

We long to see God do supernatural things in our lives and our city as He multiplies the number and quality of disciples in DC and beyond, all for His glory!

This guidebook is meant to lead you on a journey with us in this season. In the following pages you will learn about the key milestones in the history of our church, our impact over the years, our vision to multiply, sermon notes, discussion questions, and a prayer guide.

Our desire is for you to grow in your relationship with God and in your discipleship as we also grow as a church into this next season!

PASTORS
AARON & AMY GRAHAM

Primary Goal

100% Engagement

Our primary goal is discipleship engagement in generosity. It is about our hearts. We invite everyone who calls The District Church home to engage in asking God how we can honor Him with 100% of what we have each been given.

We want to truly live out the truth that God is truly first in all things. We believe God is taking us to the next level of discipleship depth. We invite you to honestly and prayerfully reflect on these three questions in this season with us:

NEXT LEVEL SURRENDER

What steps do I need to take to move away from the pursuit of my own comfort and to move toward deeper dependence upon Jesus?

Next Level Faith

How can I joyfully and gratefully honor God with 100% of what He has given to me?

Next Level Generosity

What new level of generosity can begin to express my gratitude for what He has done for each of us?

Multiply Our Mission

We want to go deeper in the ministry we are already doing. We are including two yearsof our annual operating budget as part of Multiply. This will fuel our ongoing discipleship ministries including our worship gatherings, newcomers dinners, small groups, classes, and ministry teams which include kids’ city and youth city, worship arts, hospitality, prayer, counseling, addiction recovery, and others. It also includes the work we are doing on becoming a multicultural church. We are including and celebrating what is already given to The District Church in a normal year as part of Multiply.

Two men with lots of joy during an event

People forming a circle by taking their hands

MULTIPLY OUR LOCATIONS

Multiplying has always been one of our 3 anchors as a church - to multiply churches and leaders in DC and beyond. We have always been intentional to raise up leaders to start new groups and new ministries. We believe the time has come for a couple things:

A map showing the Multiply Locations in NV, DC and Maryland

A. Begin saving and searching for a permanent Sunday home in NW DC.
CHEC has been awesome to us, but the pandemic and DCPS rules and regulations are making it increasingly difficult for it to be our long-term home. We believe God is asking us to begin laying the groundwork for having a permanent home in this season. That includes savingand praying. Saving because real estate in DC is so expensive and we need to have a down payment ready when the right property becomes available. Praying, because this is not possible in our own strength. This is going to require a miracle of Biblical proportions. And yet we believe that God is able!

B. Begin laying the groundwork to multiply District Church locations in Northern Virginia and in Maryland.
‍We have had this desire since our founding, and we believe that now is the time to begin to more proactively pursue this and build up a launch team. We believe we will be able to better disciple and reach families in our area if we can help people gather together closer to where they live.We have many great small groups meeting in Maryland and Virginia that we believe can serve as the foundation for helping us become more rooted in the neighborhoods of Northern Virginia and Maryland. We still want very much to be one church, but with different locations closer to where people live. The population of DC proper is just 11% of the population of the DMV area, and a significant portion of our church now lives in VA or MD.

MULTIPLY OUR GENEROSITY

We believe God is calling us to greatly expand our generosity to others. We currently give about $500,000 a year to outreach causes - which includes our signature ministries DC127 and Just Homes, to benevolence, but also to all of our local and global partners through our Advent Offering. We sense God is calling us to expand this dramatically, because the pandemic has shown us that the need is so great. Over the next two years we are trusting God with the resources to be able to give away a record amount to the cause of Christ in order to:

PLANT CHURCHES · ALLEVIATE POVERTY · PURSUE JUSTICEIN THE NAME OF JESUS

We want to expand our giving to our existing local and global partners that are positioned to be able to effectively do more ministry with more resources. We also want to be able to take on new opportunities.