Hi and thanks for stopping by and checking out our website. By now, hopefully you’ve scanned through several of the pages and have some feel about who we are.
Everybody needs a place for you and I were created for fellowship. In a day and age where a lot of emphasis is placed on the individual – (think of the U.S. Army’s slogan just a few years ago, “An Army of One”) – we would point out that membership in a local fellowship is not optional equipment but a necessary ingredient to developing a healthy and whole life. It’s only in the local church that we discover our giftings and find love, acceptance, forgiveness, mutual encouragement and healing.
Left alone we cut ourselves off from the gifts that are found in the body which God has dispersed therein.
Left alone we become vulnerable to error and yield easier to temptation.
Left alone, the gifts God has placed within us are not maximized or fully utilized.
In fact, most of the New Testament letters are addressed to groups of believers meeting in locales in particular cities– Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Galatia, Rome. The assumption always was that believers would be congregating in groups for worship, teaching, prayer and nurture. Why would we think 21st Century Christians, with all our access to television, satellite radio and the internet would somehow be exempt from what has always been the Church of Jesus’ bread and butter?
The writer of Hebrews put it this way: “Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25, Msg).
At Refuge, we want to encourage and spur one another on. Life is challenging enough to take it on alone. We may not be the place for you. No church is “just right” for everyone. But if you desire to “grow up in Christ”, you’re going to need to find a community with whom you can share the gifts God has placed in you and receive what gifts have been given to them. The Bible has nothing good to say of those who choose for whatever reason to go it alone.
-- Pastor Jeff Martin
Pastor JeffMy Blog
