refuge okc

The Church 2012

Thrive — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:39:13 +0000

One City ~ One Body ~ One Vision

The Church 2012 is a gathering of the generation that believes Jesus will transform Oklahoma City forever. We are made up of various people from Oklahoma City and surrounding area unified through Jesus all desiring to recenter on Jesus and what He wants to do in on our city together as one. Throughout Scripture we see where ordinary people of God coming together doing extraordinary things. We are not excited about events or programs, but we are excited about gatherings where people of God come together to engage in the things of God.

Dates: March 18 -21, 2012

To find out more about the gathering and find out how you can engage this Spring Break go to the web site click on the icon below:

Genesis to Revolution

Thrive — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:56:40 +0000

Come join us for Genesis to Revolution 2011.

We will be reading the Bible straight through starting on October 18th @ 7:30pm at The Refuge. We are going to read 24/7 starting in Genesis and finishing in Revelation. This will take us approximately 4 days to complete. We are inviting you to come and be apart of just reading scripture over the city. So bring your Bible, a lawn chair (if you want to hang too), and just come join us, our neighbors, and our city in the reading the Word of God downtown Oklahoma City.

The First words of God: In the Beginning God
The Final word: Amen

Street Transformation 2009

Thrive — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:39:05 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcJ_bkONAGA

City Transformation: An Old Video the Old Days Revisited

Thrive — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:34:33 +0000

This is Discipleship

Thrive — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:05:21 +0000

kingdom values

Thrive — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:46:44 +0000

ok…we read in matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness…so here is what we have been thinking through…

Jesus is the Judge and King of His Kingdom
Justice/Righteousness is His value system in the Kingdom (Amos 5:24)

So over the next couple of week, i am going to sharing on how we might shift our values to the value system of the gospel of the Kingdom of God to:

execute true justice
minister to the widow and the fatherless
the alien
the poor
the brothers and sisters for that matter

Zechariah 7:8-10

8 Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 ”Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Execute true justice, Show mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.’

new neighborhood within sight

Thrive — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 17:34:42 +0000

the below post was typed out june 5th, 2010 and i found it in the drafts file of the web site:

“ok, as many of you have been tracking with us, you all know that we are focusing a ton of attention on our “new edge”. The new edge is about 6 blocks away. that are is notorious within our city as being a heavy drug and prostitution area. the cool thing is that we have tons of…”

now the rest of the story…

the below was all i had typed, but here is what has happened in almost a year. we have been given a very big opportunity to possibly buy some houses in that area and move into them. we have been able and been blessed to develop some amazing relationships with some of the neighbors down there…

please contend with us for prayer for this neighborhood…here is some of the vision that we are seeing down there…

connect in relationship with the main drug dealers and prostitutes
begin discipleship with them
seek ways to serve them without enabling them
look for ways for them to give away what is in them rather then take away from others

Hey Email Subscribers

Thrive — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:11:31 +0000

ok…i haven’t been posting anything for probably months or even years…i am thinking of starting up again since recently people have been subscribing to this thing for some reason…

updates on where we stand as of date:

about 40 of us (32 adults/8 kids) live here in the refuge together
we are praying about expanding into our first neighborhood (this neighborhood is about 6 – 8 blocks away (many of you have been there with us as we have been focused on that neighborhood for about 2 years now). what i mean by expand into the neighborhood is to move some of us who have been doing life together as a missional group of believers actually move down into that neighborhood. we have seen God open doors there and we are excited to see what He leads us through. so please be in prayer and supplication for this neighborhood
we are seeing God open doors with the local businesses in the area.
we have watched OKC go through a restoration of streets of recent. along with that is a new skyscraper lighting up downtown and a new urban park/garden area
we saw about 500 people or so come through our doors throughout the month of march for a spring break like urban missions. click here for some of the photos. people came from oklahoma city, oklahoma, and out of the state like colorado, new mexico, kansas,
this summer we will be planning through the possibility of interns (a cheezy word for people who just want to join life with us during their summer break) living with us.
we are preping to see groups from all over the US join us in the work for the urban part of city transformation
we are expanding our scope of focus into urban gardening and farming. we will be putting in an aquaponics system downstairs in order to grow food and fish (ok, i know that fish is food, but that sounds cool).

ok…this is a short summary, so i will try to jot more down more often…thx for reading and listening to what Jesus is doing through His Church in OKC and beyond

blessings

tim

Being Missional May Kill Your Church

Thrive — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:42:56 +0000

by Mark Driscoll on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 1:00pm

Being missional may kill your church.

You may be thinking, “Seriously? I thought being missional was cool?” or “I thought being missional was going to grow my church?” Well, I have good news and bad news for you.

Missional Shift

The good news is there is a healthy mission shift happening in the church. Missional is the new sexy. The shift that is taking place in the church is called by some the “Missional Church Shift.” Churches are becoming missionaries in their communities that do not focus on strategies and formulas that have worked among people who live in other areas. Instead they find strategies that help them connect with the people in their context.

In Breaking the Missional Code, Ed Stetzer explains how the church has shifted to missional thinking in the following way:

From programs to processes
From demographics to discernment
From models to missions
From attractional to incarnational
From uniformity to diversity
From professional to passionate
From seating to sending
From decisions to disciples
From additional to exponential
From monuments to movements

Before you get too stoked, not everyone is going to like this. Before you and your church become missional you may want to count the cost first.

Everyone wants to blog about being missional, but few people actually want to live on mission. Why? Being missional will cost you something. Look at Jesus in John 6. When Jesus told the people what it really meant to follow him, many of his followers bailed on him. And I have news for you; people will bail on you too.

What If It Means Killing Your Church?

Warning: Being missional may actually kill your church. Notice I said, “Your church.” Being missional will not kill Jesus’ church, but it just might kill your church. In many circumstances, this is exactly what needs to happen.

Too many of our churches are built on personalities, buildings, and programs instead of Jesus and his mission. We are addicted to our church subcultures, numbers, and personal agendas. If we are honest, we all want our churches to be successful. But what if being successful meant focusing on a few instead of the multitude? What if being successful meant losing a lot of our church crowd who don’t really want to follow Jesus or live on mission anyway?

Before you try to transition your church from programs to processes, from models to missions, from attractional to incarnational, from uniformity to diversity, from professional to passionate, from seating to sending, from decisions to disciples, and from monuments to movements, ask yourself—am I ready for a throwdown? But when the dust settles, you will see Jesus’ church emerges.

Advice For Becoming Missional

If this sounds like I am discouraging you from leading your church to live on mission, I am not. In fact, I challenge you to begin to lead your church on mission today. Go for it!

Here are a few ways to begin a missional shift in your local church:

Take baby steps. Don’t blow your church up all at once. Your church will never be missional if you don’t have anyone left.
Personally live and lead on mission. It all begins with you. As the pastor or lead church planter, you are the example that others will follow.
Recognize the needs of your community and pray about how you can meet their needs.
Begin to preach and teach on mission. Remember, baby steps.
Just do it. Get people to leave the four walls of the church and get out into the community.

Mulch Day

Thrive — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:10:16 +0000

Thank you for the bountiful blessings Father.