DTW readily admits that Christ-loving men and women may differ from some of our positions in the following list.

However, although the following topics are mostly secondary to things dealing with the person of Christ and the way to salvation, they are, nonetheless, important and how a Christian leader decides on these issues will carry far-reaching ramifications in his local church, home, and even in his own walk with Jesus.

• We passionately believe in and teach a duo commitment to being in the word and in the world. The church exists to exalt Christ through edifying believers and evangelizing the lost. An under emphasis on either creates a deadly imbalance. Put the two together and that’s what it means to make disciples.

• We passionately believe in and teach humble, service-based male leadership in the home and church (Gen 2:18-24; 1 Cor 11:3; 1 Cor 14:34-35; 1 Tim 2:9-15). We believe that men and women are entirely equal in their worth before God, but have been given different positions, just as Jesus and the Father are equal, but carry on different roles. We seek to let God’s design as laid out in Scripture determine the roles of the sexes instead of the ever-fluctuating opinions of society. For a far more detailed breakdown on this topic, see The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood which we endorse.

• We passionately believe in and teach a six day creation, in 24 hour literal days, created by Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Gen 1-2; Col 1:16). We find it neither unscientific nor intellectually presumptuous to believe that God created the world in six 24 hour periods. For more details see Answers in Genesis Statement of Faith which we endorse.

• We passionately believe in and teach being literally true to the text of Scripture while being relevant to the ever-changing “whatever” culture of today’s world. To plagiarize the words of Mark Driscoll, DTW is theologically conservative and culturally liberal. We believe that God’s primary agent of changing the world is not through political movements, lobbying, or anti-homosexual campaigns, but rather one at a time as Christians embrace the culture, influencing it right where God has placed them, loving people, sharing the gospel, and trusting God’s Spirit to bring true conversion.

• We passionately believe in and teach a sovereign God, a sinful man, and the power of the Spirit alone to bring someone to true conversion. We are not full blooded Calvinists, although we believe that some of the greatest writings, sermons, and churches were started by those of a reformed mindset. For example, we fully believe in the utter depravity of man, God’s unconditional election of some for salvation, the irresisitible drawing of the Holy Spirit, and that true believers will persevere to the end. We find the position of particular (limited) atonement logical but not defensible by Scripture.

• We passionately believe in and teach evangelism that presents law before grace (see The Way of the Master, with an added local church emphasis in two areas: 1) Equipping believers to not only share the gospel with strangers, but right where God has placed them: with their family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and roommates. 2) Equipping believers in the next step of edifying new converts and in turn training them, so they too can share the gospel.

• We passionately believe in and teach a distinction between Israel and the church, a historical-grammatical-literal interpretation of Scripture, and a pre-trib, premillennial position on end times. Although the end times view of DTW is premillennial, we recognize that godly theologians vary on their end times positions and we believe that every local church needs to determine what they believe on this topic (for the sake of unity and continuity) without looking down on others with different views. We hold to premilleniallism because it seems to be the position with the fewest difficulties, not because it is a leak free eschatology. Though dispensational, we do not support dogmatic segmenting of the Bible into an exact number of dispensations, nor do we ignore the golden theme of Christ and redemption running through every page of Scripture.

• We passionately believe in and teach hell as an place of eternal torment, not a temporary place where unbelievers are annihilated or a purgatorial locale of cleansing.

• We passionately believe in and teach a worship style that is both excellent and culturally relevant, adjusting to the culture of a one’s own community (jazz, rock, classical, traditional, etc.) yet strong in theology, God-centered, and centering on the person of Jesus Christ, not the performance of the worship leader or band.