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Building Refuge is an $800,000 generosity campaign in two phases to purchase and prepare our new church home on Sonoma Avenue.

  • Phase 1: $150,000 by March, 2026

  • Phase 2: $650,000 (launched after move-in)

God has opened an extraordinary door: Refuge Christian Fellowship has the opportunity to purchase a permanent church home on Sonoma Avenue—a place where gospel ministry has taken place for years and where it will continue through Refuge. Through years of faithful giving, we are already prepared to bring a $500,000 down payment at closing. Phase 1 raises an additional $150,000, enabling Refuge to put 50% down and enter our first year with healthy, sustainable monthly expenses.

Why Phase 1 Matters

Phase 1 funds will go directly toward:

  • Strengthening our down payment to 50%

  • Keeping monthly expenses manageable in our first year

  • Entering ownership with margin, stability, and confidence

  • Positioning Refuge for a healthy refinance next year

Financial Snapshot

  • Purchase Price: $1,300,000

  • Initial Down Payment: $500,000 (committed)

  • Phase 1 Goal: $150,000 (brings the down payment to 50%)

  • Remaining Balance: $650,000


Reaching $150,000 by March 5 allows Refuge to close escrow with strength, step into our new home wisely, and begin this next season from a place of health—not strain.

Our New Church Home — A Place of Refuge for Santa Rosa

For the first time in twenty years, Refuge has the opportunity to put down permanent roots. This church home on Sonoma Avenue will become a place for worship, discipleship, kids and youth ministry, hospitality, prayer, and mission—a long-term gospel presence in the heart of Sonoma County.

Ministry Impact — What This Home Makes Possible

This building is more than a gathering place. It is a long-term home base for discipleship, mission, and formation. Here are the three primary areas this new space strengthens:

1. Discipleship & Spiritual Formation

A permanent home gives us space to teach, train, pray, worship, host classes, and deepen the rhythms that shape us into Christlikeness. Midweek gatherings, men’s and women’s ministry, prayer and formation rhythms can all flourish with consistency and space.


2. Kids & Youth Ministry Capacity

With classrooms, flexible gathering spaces, and room for growth, this building allows us to serve families with excellence. Refuge Kids and Refuge Youth will have space to thrive, disciple, mentor, and welcome more students into a healthy spiritual community.

3. Mission, Hospitality & Vulnerable Families

This becomes a central place for community meals, foster care support through Foster the City and Help One Child, outreach to neighbors, pastoral care and benevolence, weekday mission and mercy initiatives.

A permanent home allows us to serve Santa Rosa with open doors and open hands.

How To Give

Give Here

Church Center App:

Choose ““Building Refuge – Phase 1 Fund” in Church Center Giving.

Checks and cash:

Write “Building Refuge – Phase 1” in the memo.

Please make checks payable to Refuge Christian Fellowship. By contributing via check, you authorize the church to use information from your check to process your payment. These checks may be dropped off in the offering box at the exit of the Sanctuary or during the offertory time in the Sunday service.

They may also be mailed to the address below:
Refuge Christian Fellowship c/o Giving
P.O. Box 3476
Santa Rosa, CA 95402

Make a Giving Commitment:

Pledge Form

If you prefer to give over time, you can submit a commitment telling us what you plan to give toward Phase 1. This form is not a payment—just a giving plan.

 

PHASE 2 — Pay It Off

After we move into the building and close escrow in March 2026, we will begin preparing for Phase 2—a long-term campaign to eliminate the remaining $650,000 and position Refuge for a strong, debt-free future.

Phase 2 will:

  • Reduce long-term interest costs

  • Free additional monthly resources for ministry and mission

  • Strengthen long-term financial sustainability

  • Build a foundation for the next generation

  • Establish a permanent gospel presence that will outlast us

More details will be shared in Spring/Summer 2026 as we prepare to launch Phase 2 together.

FAQ’s

  • For twenty years Refuge has been faithful and mobile—but evening services and shared spaces have created real limits for families, kids, youth, outreach, and discipleship rhythms. God has opened a door to step into a permanent home where long-term ministry can flourish.

  • It’s centrally located, ministry-ready, well-maintained, and already set up for worship, kids, and midweek ministry. It gives Refuge both Sunday morning space and full weekly access.

  • We can still move forward, but we will enter our first year with higher monthly costs and less ministry margin. Reaching the full goal enables a 50% down payment, keeps monthly expenses manageable, and sets us up for a healthy refinance.

  • Our regular church ministries continue as normal. Phase 1 is a special offering above regular giving and is focused solely on strengthening our down payment and ensuring sustainable first-year expenses.

    • Online giving (one-time or recurring)

    • Checks (with “Building Refuge — Phase 1” in the memo)

    • Pledge commitments for gifts before March 5

    See the giving section below for details.

 

Timeline

Fall 2025— Sandals approaches Refuge

Nov 2025 — Announcement

Dec 2025 — First worship event

Jan 2026 — Sunday services begin

March 2026 — Phase 1 deadline

Summer 2026 — Refinance

Fall 2026 — Phase 2 begins

  • THE STORY — 20 Years of Faithfulness, and a New Chapter Ahead

    For twenty years, Refuge Christian Fellowship has served Santa Rosa—always as tenants, never as owners. We’ve gathered in schools, storefronts, rented facilities, and shared church buildings. We’ve moved when needed, adapted to new seasons, and continued ministry through transitions, wildfires, floods, and COVID displacement. And through every season, God has sustained us.

    Since 2021, Santa Rosa Bible Church has graciously hosted us for our 4pm Sunday services. Their hospitality has been a tremendous gift and we are deeply grateful for their partnership. But evening services come with limitations—for families, for kids and youth rhythms, for accessibility, and for our ability to serve the broader community throughout the week. We’ve long sensed a need for a permanent space and a Sunday morning gathering that would allow Refuge to grow, welcome, and disciple more effectively.

    Now, God has opened the door for Refuge to reclaim what was lost: Sunday morning services and full facility access to expand our ministry. This time, we secure it permanently—rooting Refuge in Santa Rosa for generations to come.

    Our vision for this space is clear: a home where God’s people gather and a base from which we’re sent.

    • A home where disciples are formed, equipped, and sent.

    • A home where ministries can flourish.

    • A home flexible enough for expanding kids and youth discipleship.

    • A home where foster care support and community outreach can deepen.

    • A home where hospitality and prayer become a regular rhythm.

    • A home where the name of Jesus is lifted high for generations.

    A permanent place for worship, discipleship, kids and youth ministry, and mission in the heart of Sonoma County.

    A permanent place for worship, discipleship, kids and youth ministry and mission in the heart of Sonoma County.

    This is not simply about acquiring a building.

    This is about putting down roots that cannot be pulled up.

    It is about establishing a long-term gospel presence in our city—one that will outlast us and serve the generations who come after us. A place where neighbors are welcomed, families are strengthened, students are discipled, the vulnerable are cared for, and people far from Jesus encounter His grace.

    How God Opened the Door

    Over the past year, we have sensed the Lord stirring Refuge toward a new chapter—one where we could return to Sunday mornings and establish deeper roots. We explored buildings, ran numbers, prayed, and waited, trusting that God would open the right door in His timing.

    And He has.

    This fall, Sandals Church approached us about transitioning their Sonoma Avenue building to Refuge as they enter their next season. They wanted it to remain a place of gospel ministry in Santa Rosa—and they entrusted it to us. What began as a simple inquiry quickly became a series of unmistakable confirmations. Every step forward seemed to echo God’s steady word: “This is the door I am opening. Walk through it.”

    And now, with gratitude and awe, we get to say:

    This building is not just a space—it is the next chapter in our calling.

    This home is not just for us—it is for our city. A place where neighbors are welcomed, families are supported, youth find mentors, the vulnerable receive care, and people far from Jesus encounter His glory and His grace.

    Building Refuge is about creating a ministry home that forms disciples and blesses Santa Rosa for decades to come.

    It is a place of refuge for our city.

    And together, we now step into the work of Building Refuge—preparing a permanent home for worship, formation, and mission.

 

QUESTIONS

Have any questions? CONTACT US