Editor’s Note: This interview is the third installment of Evangelical Action’s series “How Does Your Church Grow?” and is your opportunity to meet the pastors of the local church plants, hear their stories, and understand why in a city filled with empty churches, theirs is flourishing. To learn more about the goal of this interview journey, please click here.
Fast-growing in the D.C.’s outskirts is DC Metro Church, a non-denominational multi- campus church. Refreshing to the ears of any young professional struggling to find community in this city, DC Metro Church’s mission is to “to provide a place where people can encounter God in a real, relevant, and enjoyable environment.”
Pastor Jeremy Burroughs, DC Metro’s Executive Pastor of Ministries, and Dr. Julie Reams, Director of Spiritual Formation, took time to talk with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) about their church’s focus and future.
CV: Seems like DC Metro Church suddenly appeared overnight. Of course, for church plants, there is much prayer and toil that goes on behind the sceens. So can you give us background into the church’s creation?
Dr. Reams: There was a group of us that actually met at Virginia Beach (at Regent) that ended up moving up here along with some others from a church down in Florida. Celebration Church, that was the church Pastor David [Stine] and his wife, Karen, had worked on. So there, seventeen of us moved here the summer of 2007 and in the beginning. We just reached out to different people in the area. We went to lots of different outreaches and just passed out invitations as kind of reaching out and telling them what we were going to be doing.
Then in September of 2007, we had our first Sunday. On September 9, at the Regal Theater right down the road from us and we were really surprised because over 200 people showed up that first Sunday and we just began to build from there and then the Potomac Theater to Lafayette before we moved into our current location, Alexandria campus.
CV: DC Metro church has grown exponentially since its inception. Since that start date, what have been some of the blessings and challenges that church planters faced?
Dr. Reams: Sure! I’d say one of the challenges was just the transitory nature of this area and people being here for sometimes six months at a time and then moving. Trying to build a church in that type of environment where people were moving a lot, I would say, is a also a tremendous blessings that also has its challenges. That’s how we’ve grown and just trying to find space that will fit well.
As I am sure you’re aware, spaces here are really expensive. In the beginning of the church, many well intentioned leaders have told Pastor David (our lead Pastor) that we would never own a building here or have a building here; that we should just not even set our hopes on that. But one of the things I appreciate about him is that he is a visionary that really believes that he God would open up different campuses for us to meet.. According to the particular study that we found, there was 15,000 seats available in the Christian churches in the area, but then when you contrast that to the number of people that live in the area (according to the study at that time) there were 5.26 million. We just believe that God desires for a home church for each and every person in this area to come and hear about His love, come and hear about who He is, and that He has a plan for their lives. So just trying to find capacity and space so people can come and meet is definitely one of our challenges since the beginning of the church.
CV: Thank you for sharing. IRD has been doing a lot of research regarding milliners and what types of churches they are drawn to. Something we’ve noticed, is D.C.’s big beautiful cathedrals and sanctuaries that have these rainbow-colored banners outside that say “we welcome everyone” —talking about tolerance and affirmation—are largely empty on Sunday mornings. Yet churches that aren’t afraid to take a Biblical stand on hot button issues are thriving.
What is your take on the reason behind this disconnecting? And does Metro DC talk about hot button issues, like same-sex marriage and abortion?
Pastor Burroughs: Absolutely! I think as we address hot button topics. What we do as DC Metro Church is we preach the Gospel. So we do take a Biblical stance on all issues. I would say above all else is that we preach Jesus and God’s love for us. As far as addressing, now do we [initiate] issues, we don’t do that necessarily. I would say what we preach the totality of the Gospel as the word of God.
Our focus is upon the Word of God, not necessarily what society or culture has deemed the hot button topic at the time. So we focus really on, when you look at Scripture, what does God highlight throughout Scripture as opposed to what culture is necessarily focusing on.
Dr. Reams: Yeah, one of the things that Pastor Jeremy preached before was really powerful. He preached that we don’t just focus on behavior modification, rather heart change reformation.
And just as [Pastor Jeremy] was saying, typically, what we do is actually just tell people to come because we want people no matter where they are, no matter what they are walking in, to experience the heart of God, His love, and His acceptance. And as they get around the revelation of His heart and His love for them, then people are more receptive and open to hearing about ways that God is calling us to walk in something higher or something different. But before they have that revelation, it can come across as judgment or just taking a stance on an issue.
Whenever anybody asks about those issues, typically what I do is actually try to find out why they are asking. Because sometimes people are asking because they wrestle with those issues and they want to know if God still loves them and accepts them and has a plan for them. Then you’re able to answer from that place of speaking hope and destiny into them. But some people are asking just because they want to know where we stand and if we agree with God’s Word will stand with that. But again, just really getting to know the heart of the matter rather than again singling out a behavior or speaking in lines that people can take out of context.
CV: In DC, I know from first-hand experience, that there is a swarm of young people like me who are in their mid-early 20s struggling to “change the world.” So there’s such a big focus on youth culture here. So I was just wondering, when you do teach the totality of the Gospel, how do you balance youth culture with traditional Christian teaching that may seem out dated to Millennials?
Dr. Reams: We found one of the ways that one of our focus or one on the things that we teach for describing DC Metro services we are Real, Relevant, and Enjoyable. And whenever we teach on the word relevant, how we talk about how God’s word is just as relevant today as it was over 2000 years ago. So when we are looking at being relevant to culture, we realize that there are some things that we may need to change in the packaging in order to appeal to people that are not currently working to know God. We may change the packaging, but we never change the content because the content is where the power comes from. And if you try to water down the Gospel or change it too much in order to appeal to the people you are trying to attract; you’re actually missing where the real power is.
I believe one of the keys is authenticity. Actually, when I was writing my dissertation at Regent, one of the areas that I was studying was post-modern and also women in their 20s. Authenticity, transparency, realness were part of their highest values and I think that as people see that, it differentiates from what they believe in their mind as religion or you know whoever is speaking from the stage or the pulpit as they sit there and we tell Pastor Jeremy (he does a good job with this), but as they share real things that they walked through in their lives, transparent, past struggles, current struggles. We build a bridge and reach to people hearts that they are able to see there are people walking through things just like I am trying to love God in that way. Then they can see the authenticity even in the love of God in the mist of their struggle.
As I was just thinking recently [about] what are some of the things that helps draw the young adult culture. I would say that authenticity is one of the things that we try to be really intentional about something that I believe that gets high values from Millennials.
CV: Certainly, I am going to add that that relational aspect is what drew me to the church I currently attend. Because when you are 20-something and you move here with no family and no friends in this city, you certainly are reminded first-hand of why community in the church is so important.
Pastor Burroughs: I think I would just add that even as Jesus was teaching, He was an incredibly relevant teacher and he often used agrarian illustrations because at the time he was in an agrarian culture. Even here at the DC Metropolitan area, we can make the Gospel relevant.
We might change the way it’s presented, but the message remains the same and I think too that the authenticity, the relational aspect, the focus of the church, if I could add anything, I would say we very much invite people into ministry. Meaning that we would not only communicate that everyone has a particular purpose that God has for them. But we also invite them into the meeting. One of the things is the high value within our local church on serving. So we have many opportunities to serve, not only within the church, but also outside of the four walls and outreach and we readily encourage upon the value of serving. I think what that does is it invites people into a higher purpose or calling, which all of us on the inside desire. And when you have that mixed with a community of people who are coming together around the Gospel to serve and love other people in calling them to that higher purpose and the higher calling. I think that is attractive particularly, I believe to the 20s and 30 year old. I know as a 31 year old male myself, I am very attracted to that. I think that has been appealing and has been a sticking point for a lot of people who’ve come through our doors.
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