On Easter Sunday in the spring of 2019, a group of friends were camping in south Arkansas, and they decided to have a small and simple Easter service at the campground for anyone that might want to attend. Some call that the true start of Refuge church, but it wasn’t until later that year that things really started to take shape.

In September of 2019, we booked a pavilion at Burns Park in North Little Rock for a Sunday afternoon church service just to see who all might show up, and the turnout was both encouraging and a little bit scary. It was immediately clear that there was a sizable community of people that were interested in starting something new. We took the month of October off to think and pray about what God might have in store for us.

As fall turned to winter we knew that this small community of believers would need somewhere to celebrate the season of Advent and Christmas, so we asked our friends at the Innovation Hub if we could use their space for Sunday morning services, and they were happy to oblige. The holidays that year were filled with eager hope as we started to consider what the future might look like for this new church family.

In the spring of 2020, as the weather started to warm and our family continued to grow, we met a few more times at Burns Park pavilions, until the pandemic forced us to cancel all in-person gatherings until further notice. The momentum continued over Sunday morning zoom meetings, where friends and family joined us from all over the country each week.

Once it became evident that the pandemic would last longer than expected, we made plans for masked outdoor gatherings at Flyway Brewery in the fall of 2020, and we were encouraged to see that interest in our little church had only grown during quarantine.

In the meantime, talks continued about finding a more permanent location that would offer childcare spaces, restrooms, a proper sound system, and perhaps most importantly, a roof over our heads. As it turns out, we didn’t need to look any farther than across the parking lot from our temporary home at Flyway Brewery.

In the spring of 2021, we had our first meeting at the former home of First Presbyterian Church in Argenta, in a beautiful historic building with classic wooden pews, stained glass windows, and everything we needed to grow as a church. At the same time, we began putting together a leadership team and started filing all the necessary paperwork to make ourselves “official” as Refuge Church.

Once we got settled into our new home in Argenta, our founding Pastor Scott Eaton felt that it was time to step down and see what the next phase of Refuge might look like. Andrew Whitley stepped in to take his place as our directional leader, and for the next few years, he helped establish much of what gives Refuge it’s unique personality today.

As Andrew felt that his time as leader was coming to an end, he helped lead the search for our new pastor and directional leader. His first call was to our good friend Stephen Ray, and in September of 2024, just a few days shy of our five year anniversary, Stephen arrived to take our little church of Ragamuffins into the next chapter of our story.

The most important part of this whole story is that from the day one, the unofficial Refuge motto has been “Let’s see what happens…” Which is our way of saying “Let’s see what God does…” and God has done a lot as we have made space for Him to move.

We are excited for the future as our church continues to grow, and we are so thankful for this beautiful community of believers, doubters, and searchers.

We would love for you to come and join us at Refuge any time. We meet (most) every Sunday at 10am at 201 W. 4th Street in North Little Rock. To find our more and stay up to date on all our events and meetings, just scroll to the bottom of the page and sign up for our weekly newsletter, or click the contact link to reach out.