Youth Ministries

When my dad died, I found myself walking around with all of these big feelings in my chest, pressing up against my ribcage and throat, wanting to burst out, but with nowhere I felt like I could allow them to go. I took up running, and with every deep inhale…

Lent is the liturgical season (church time of year) that we use for the 40 days from Ash Wednesday till Good Friday, and is a time of fasting in preparation for Holy Week.

I have to pray out loud a lot. It’s part of this job, and I’m fairly comfortable doing it. But for the first few months I worked here, I found myself stumbling over the beginning of the prayer. And no matter what I tried, it never quite felt right…

Have you ever felt out of your depth? Like that feeling you have when you’re a little kid and you jump into a pool, and for the first time, you realize your feet can’t touch the bottom.

This weekend, at the Refuge, we’re doing what we call an “Immersive Scripture Experience” – an interactive way of engaging with the stories of scripture, specifically, Jesus’s encounter with the Rich young ruler. Take the time to consider your story – what is your story of meeting Jesus, and how do you still meet him today?

The young woman is Taylor Swift, the pop superstar, and in the recently released documentary about her on Netflix, you watch her learn one of her albums received no major Grammy nominations and her immediate spiral into shame, self-loathing, and a clear sense of inadequacy.