About us

Our Mission

Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, gave the Church a singular mandate: Go and make disciples. Refuge Church (Previously known as Northwest Christian Church) has been seeking to make disciples of Jesus for over 30 years in northwest Wichita. The church has walked through multiple seasons of transition, and is now in a phase of rebuilding for the next 30 years. In many ways, the Lord is "replanting" this local body with fresh vision, and a renewed sense of passion for reaching as many as possible with the good news of Jesus. We would love to have you come and be a part of what He is doing!

Our Vision

Know Jesus

There are countless questions we have to answer in our lives, but none is as important as this: "Who is Jesus?" We were created to know Him and walk in a relationship with Him. (John 17:3)

Make Him Known

The mandate Jesus has given His followers (Matt. 28) is to see all of life as mission. We are called to continually grow in our knowledge of Him, to grow to become more like Him, and to help others do the same. We never "arrive". We pursue Him together and grow more and more into His image.

Make Disciples

Knowing Jesus changes everything for us. When we come to know Him, we are invited in to the greatest​ story ever told, and we are invited to share that story with everyone we come into contact with. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Our Values

We are committed to knowing Jesus according to the Scriptures' definition of Knowledge (John 17:1-3). We want to know Him in reality based on the truth of His Word, and we want to know Him as friend in a deep intimate relationship.

We won't pick and choose between the authority of the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:14-17) and the necessity of walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Jesus came from the Father full of complete grace and total truth (John 1:14). We want to emulate Him as best we can: meaning we will welcome all with grace, but stand firm on the reality of truth of the Gospel that calls all to repentance and faith.

As Jesus walked the earth, He went about proclaiming the Gospel in Word and demonstrating the realities of the Kingdom of God in deed (Matthew 9:35-38). We will be dedicated to the same thing: sharing the Gospel in Word and demonstrating Jesus' Kingdom in acts of love and service.

In the early church, we see a deep familial love for one another, and also a complete openness and welcoming attitude to any and all who desired to come and learn about who Jesus is and what He had done (Acts 2:42-47).

There is a tension in sharing the Gospel: We are absolutely and completely dependent upon the Spirit of God to bring a heart to life, but we are also totally responsible to go and share the Gospel. We will operate in this tension, obeying the command to go, and praying for God to do a work in bringing life to dead hearts. (Romans 10:14-15, Ephesians 2:4-5)

There is a debate raging nearly constantly in the church about what the right size of a gathering is and what is most effective in ministry: large corporate gatherings or small groups in a home. We will live like the early church: we will be faithful to gather together corporately for worship, and to develop deep community in small groups (Acts 2:46)

Does the Church need to seek to grow in maturity and in number in a specific location - or should the Church seek to be about multiplying and planting in order to see Gospel fruit borne? We believe the answer is simply Yes. We want to be faithful and steward everything God has given us to reach as many as possible in West Wichita, and we want to seek to multiply and plant disciples and churches to see the nations reached with the Good News of Jesus. (Acts 14:21-23)

Jesus has called us to be a "come and see" and "go and tell" church. We want to be open to inviting friends and family to come and encounter Him in the gathering of the local church, but we also want to be faithful to obey the Great Commission that calls us to go into our spheres of influence and take the Gospel with us. (Matthew 28:18-20, John 1:46)

Our Core Beliefs

Full Doctrinal Statement

I. There is only one God, who created all things, and He has revealed himself to mankind. 

II. The Scriptures, comprised of the 66 canonical books of the Christian Bible, are our ultimate authority. They are God-given, true, and through them we can know and obey God. 

III. One God eternally exists in three persons. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. There is one God. 

IV. God the Father is the everlasting infinite perfect, personal, divine being who is the sovereign and rightful ruler of all that exists. He carries out all things in their proper time and order that they would consummate in Jesus Christ to reveal the supremacy of his name and purposes, and especially the greatness of His love. 

V. God the Holy Spirit is the divine agent by whom believers are born into the Kingdom of God. He empowers all believers to live a faithful and fruitful life on mission for the glory of God. He enables believers to live in union with God the Son and God the Father. 

VI. We, along with all of humanity (Jesus Christ excluded), are sinners by nature and choice.

VII. The deserved penalty for sin is death, both physical and spiritual. 

VIII. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who took on flesh and was born of a virgin, is both fully God and fully human. 

IX. Jesus Christ died as our substitute to pay the penalty for our sin. 

X. Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return. 

XI. Jesus Christ reigns and rules over his Church, which consists of all who have trusted in him for their salvation. 

XII. In a future physical resurrection of the dead, those who trust in Jesus Christ will be raised to an eternal life; those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ will be raised to eternal death. 

XIII. Only by trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone can we be reconciled to God, forgiven of our sins, and experience true life and joy.