Life Groups

Call them what you will.   Most churches have some form of small group that meets together. In a more traditional setting, you are likely to call them Sunday School classes, often meeting on Sunday morning at the church campus.  Others refer to them as small groups, community groups, core groups, or something similar that meet together throughout the week in homes.

At Refuge Church we call our small groups Life Groups. They meet in homes throughout the week as a crucial part of who we are at Refuge.  In fact, church growth experts indicate that individuals who do not build 7 meaningful relationships in their first year at a church will likely not remain.

Our Life Groups enable meaningful relationships to form as individuals live the gospel together.  This is the beauty, power, and purpose behind Life Groups.

Those who have connected with God through faith in Jesus Christ are now able to belong in biblical community with other believers as God made us to live. This is not to say that those who have not begun a relationship with Jesus Christ cannot be part of a Life Group. To the contrary, the display of the gospel as believers in the Life Group live the gospel together can be as powerful a testimony to lead a person to faith as hearing the gospel declared alone.

The gospel is lived together in Life Groups in four ways.

Belonging ::

All people, Christian or not, are made to live in community with other people.  Tragically, our rebellion against God not only severed the relationship we were made to have with God, but also the relationship we were created to enjoy with one another in community. The gospel makes community possible by bringing individuals to belong together in Christ.  Brad House writes, “Community is for us a declaration of the overwhelming love of God, a tangible proclamation of the reconciling work of the cross.” We are reconciled to Christ and to one another by Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Discipleship ::

Those reconciled to Christ and one another take the word of God to apply it in living life together, individuals learn and teach the gospel. Life Groups move out of the arena of seeing one teacher with many disciples to the arena of a community of disciples who disciple one another.

Care ::

The church is responsible to love one another and care for one another as we live out the gospel. Christ is the Great Samaritan who came to care for the great needs of humanity. As we care for one another, not just in the crisis moments but in every moment, we display the gospel with our lives. We will be known as Christ-followers by our love for one another.

Mission ::

God’s greatest resource in accomplishing His mission is people.  Living the gospel together means growing in compassion for those without Christ who have yet to be transformed by the gospel as our lives have been. Life Groups engage in missional service to see the good news of Christ’s kingdom displayed and declared.


Life Groups are about belonging in community to live the gospel.  All four of these are, for believers, an outflow of good news received. Everyone was made for community, to belong and be accepted, to love and be loved.  Even more do those reconciled to the Creator through Christ have a desire to belong in community with other believers who are the family of God.