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Jesus is gracious when others would be gruff. He is selfless in every way. He also needs to be serious at times. As He makes disciples who would make disciples, He sometimes needs to be stern and direct.

As we continue our study in the Gospel of Mark, we’ll notice that the closer Jesus gets to the cross, the more serious He will be about making the apostles into disciples. He needed to stretch them to make them into disciples and challenge their capacity to be servants.

We read of one of these times in Mark 6:30-44. Watch or listen to our study from this past Sunday and learn how we can be thankful for those times when Jesus is stern and serious.

Join us this Sunday as we continue our study in the Gospel of Mark (and read ahead)! Our worship service starts at 10am. We meet in-person; online at live.refuge.mn; and on 96.1 FM (https://refuge.fm)

Read Ahead!

Our ministry is very simple ministry. Every Sunday morning, we go through the Bible chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. We pick up where we left off from the week before (Lord willing).

We work though the word this way so that you can study ahead. It gives you an opportunity to read and study the portion during the week that we’ll be going though on a Sunday. Then on Sundays, you’ll get that much more out of our time together.

We encourage everyone to have some sort of intentional effort to read through the entirety of the scriptures on your own (Three and One is a great way to do this). Read through the Bible. Talk to Jesus before (and after) you study. Look at what the text says, consider what it means, and find ways to apply what you’ve read to your life. Then ask God to help you walk it out by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then join us on Sundays to study a small portion of the Scriptures.

Check out our Bible study resource page with links to some wonderful Bible teachers, free online resources to help study, and a short & simple break-down of the inductive Bible study method.

Serving at Refuge

As a fellowship, we are called to love and serve one another by the grace God has given to us.

There are many opportunities to serve at Refuge. Are you interested?

To get started, please fill out our online volunteer sign-up form and we'll connect with you.

K-5th Proverbs 3 Study

We've been working our way though Proverbs 3 with the K-5th graders at Refuge. It's a wonderful chapter full of applications and insights into the character of God!

Part of our time with the kids is working on memorizing the chapter. It's a venture of faith, but one that we hope will bless the kids and their walk with the Lord. To help with memorizing, two awesome ladies have set the scripture (NLT version) to a tune and created actions that we've been reviewing with the kids during our time together Sundays. This video is our first take and it only covers the first 8 verses—we hope to make another version available soon with better quality and more verses but wanted to share what we have.

Even if your K-5th child accompanies you during Sunday services, we hope this video will be a blessing to you and your family as you work with your child to hide God's word in their heart. If you have any questions, feel free to connect with Pastor Nate at nate@refuge.mn.

Connect with us on our website and on other social media platforms.

We’ve updated our Instagram account to match our name change. We are now @refuge.mn

Jesus calls us to Himself and receives us just the way we are. But He loves us enough to not leave us the way that we are. In order to grow us and increase our capacity to serve Him, there are times where He needs to challenge us and rebuke us. There are times where He needs to be stern and serious with us—even when it seems impossible, or when we’re complaining, or when we are tired.

When you experience these moments, realize that Jesus is graciously, mercifully, sternly, and seriously making you into His disciple. In a just a couple of chapters in Mark, Jesus will tell His disciples and the multitude, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35)

So when Jesus sternly and seriously challenges you, let go of your life for Him. Then you will find and experience and receive the life that is truly life! To be someone sent by Jesus at the command of Jesus, you must learn to deny yourself and serve others…even when it seems impossible.