Refuge Church marked a significant milestone on May 6 when they were officially recognized as a church entity within the Washington Conference territory.
Refuge started five years ago as a church plant focusing on Hispanic students and young professionals. As Refuge has grown, their ministry context has grown as well.
“Now we focus on multicultural young professionals and young families,” said Kenneth Martinez, church planting pastor. “We are investing in relationship-building events, children’s ministries and premium worship. Being in Northern Seattle, we have direct interaction with young families and professionals working in tech companies.”
This technology connection is important to Martinez because he started off his career as a software engineer. God called him to plant a church in Seattle, and then transformed his life and career into full-time ministry.
Most Refuge members are young adults between 18–38 years old. They come from diverse cultural backgrounds and represent 10 countries. The church profile includes 50 baptized members, 15 recent baptisms and professions of faith and 70 people regularly in attendance. The church is led by a highly passionate and committed young adult leadership team who believe and live out the core values of the church: gospel centrality, unconditional friendship and sacrificial service.
“Following the latest church plant examples and ACTS church plant training, the Refuge leadership team is developing a new approach to evangelism and discipleship,” Martinez said. “The idea is to take Refuge’s strengths — worship, kids, friendship and service — to find and connect with people from the community. We want to help newcomers gain the habit of weekly service engagement and continue to grow into baptism, service and leading.”
The Refuge church family regularly participates in community friendship-building activities such as Art in the Park, community service projects, nights of worship and partnering with World Relief Seattle to serve immigrant and refugee families.
“We want to help everyone find a refuge in Jesus,” Martinez said. “We want people in Seattle to know they have a friend in us and a friend in Jesus. Everything we do revolves around the Good News that Jesus loves us and cares for us.”
If you’d like to connect and worship with Refuge, you are welcome to join in person or online each Saturday morning for Bible study at 10:15 a.m. and worship service at 11 a.m. at 14054 Wallingford Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98133.
“We are a small and growing community of people from all around the world united by the same desire to know Jesus,” Martinez said. “We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in this new chapter for our church.”
