Damascus Church Celebrates New Site
By Pamela Rigaux, News-Post Staff

Frederick News-Post; May 22, 2006

MOUNT AIRY -- The popular movie line, "If you build it, they will come," isn't true for one nondenominational church planning to move to Mount Airy.

The people determined the church's new location.

Church leaders of the Damascus Road Community Church decided it made sense to move where the majority of their congregation lived -- north of Damascus, across the Frederick-Montgomery county line, said the pastor's wife, Sallie Fredericks. Ms. Fredericks was at a gathering Sunday at the church's new $1 million, 70-acre property at the intersection of Bartholows Road and Md. 144.

The church started meeting in Damascus High School about eight years ago, Ms. Fredericks said. Word-of-mouth spread through the community and the church now draws 600 or more to its Sunday services at a shopping center space it rents in Damascus on Main Street.

Renovations at the mall have forced the church to look for a temporary home, she said. The church will remain there until construction on the permanent site is complete. Parishioners don't know exactly when the new building will go up. The land's paid for, but the building will cost millions, which is yet to be raised.

The site is on top of a hill. Pastor Richard Fredericks, in a speech Sunday from a stage flanked by 18-foot poles topped with flags, said the location is important.

"A church set on a hill cannot be hidden," the Rev. Fredericks said.

Motorists driving by wouldn't be able to miss the church, he said. Some of the roughly 700 parishioners sitting on lawn chairs and blankets in front of him shouted approvingly.

The pastor went on to declare war against an unseen enemy. The service's theme was, "Swords and Stones, Building Homes of Light."

Associate Pastor Bob Fournier explained that the congregation believes in good and evil.

"Whenever you do something great, like build a community, we believe the devil wants just the opposite," the Rev. Fournier said.

The sword represents truth, he said. Stones, which members placed at the base of a wooden cross, represent the community's foundation.

Though the congregation will eventually worship in Frederick County, the church's borders extend much farther.

According to the pastor's son, Luke Fredericks, 19, the church does outreach with communities in Honduras, India and South Africa.

"In Calcutta, India, we have a program in which we take prostitutes and give them training to help them get into a more legitimate business like seamstress work," he said.

He spent three summers, from 2001 to 2003, in Copan, Honduras, teaching residents new construction skills.

Much of the church's international work in developing countries focuses on teaching new skills and medical care, he said.