In 2015, God gave us (Bee and Amanda Vang) a vision to reach the multi-ethnic community in Appleton. We began to pray and seek the Lord for clarity on how to pursue this calling. God led us in obvious ways to serve with The Christian & Missionary Alliance. We learned that multiple Alliance leaders in our district had been searching for someone to reach the next generations of Hmong in Appleton. After extensive assessments and interviews, I (Bee) was licensed as a pastor with the C&MA and began to plant Refuge Church to reach the multi-ethnic community on September 1, 2015.
We are blessed to be the parents of three adorable boys: Silas, Isaiah, and Abram. We love spending time together outdoors and are continually learning what it looks like to live on mission for God’s kingdom!
Our Vision
Refuge Church exists to ignite a movement of multi-ethnic Christ-followers to Reach, Develop and Send the next generations.
OUR STRATEGY
Gather
We are a church that gathers together for the worship and adoration of Jesus Christ! We were made to worship and join together to praise our awesome Savior, Jesus Christ!
Reach
We are a church that extends ourselves for the sake of the world so that they may hear the good news of Jesus Christ. This is about a prayer-saturated movement and action that puts ourselves out for the potential of others coming to Christ.
Develop
We are deeply and personally invested in the lives of those coming to Refuge and growing in their faith! Our hope is that they would know the fullness of God’s love for them by moving toward the character & priorities of Jesus, resulting in praise and adoration of Jesus.
Send
We are a church that equips and sends people to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ. We join God in sending and empowering His followers into the entire world so that the world may know the love of God, the sacrifice of His Son, and the power of His Spirit.
Our Values
God, seeing our condition and plight, was not content to leave us there, but instead was moved by His great love to thoroughly and effectively act. Sending His Son Jesus Christ to fulfill what we could not, He redeemed and reconciled not only the individual believer, but the whole of creation. God’s act of love empowers and enables us to act in like manner. Every other value we have is a derivative of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(Psalm 31:7; John 3:16-17; Romans 5:6-8; Romans 8:19-25 1 Cor. 2:2; Ephesians 2:4-10)
One of the first things that God did in drawing the nation of Israel to Himself was revealing His character and priorities. Why? Because God knows that the first step toward intimacy of relationship is authenticity. Jesus completed this work when He came and endured the same struggles we have, so that we may model and live His love towards one another.
(John 13:34-35; John 14:10-11; Acts 2:42-47; Acts 4:32-37; Romans 12:9-13; Romans 13:8-10; Philippians 2:4-8)
Our desire and prayer is that our gathering of believers in Christ will reflect this and speak of the reconciliation of a people to God regardless of the individual’s context, culture or ethnicity. We believe that when this happens it does not devalue or degrade the individual or their cultural context, but actually ascribes worth to it in being an expression of the manifold character and creativity of God.
(Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:13-22; Colossians 3:11; Revelation 7:9-10; )
In the same way that Jesus sent his disciples to the ends of the earth to make disciples as the primary means of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, we believe He calls us to the same work and means of spreading the Gospel. Every work that God does multiplies!
(Matt. 28:19-20; John 15:4-8; Acts 9:31; Acts 12:24; 2 Tim. 2:2; )
It is absolutely absurd how much generosity God showed us in sending His Son to take our place in paying the penalty for our sin. It is equally absurdly generous that Jesus did it. If the wisdom of God is foolishness to man, the cross is exhibit A. God’s love for this sinful world compelled this action and we believe that His love at work in us should produce a similar, even identical, effect.
(John 3:16; Acts 20:35; 2 Cor. 8:7; 1 Tim. 6:17-19; 1 John 3:16-17)
Our Mission
The mission of God is to make disciples who have the character and priorities of Jesus.
(Matt. 28:19-20)