Where you are welcomed, nurtured, and known
Each week, we pray that God would make us into the type of community where all are welcomed, nurtured, and known. As one member says about Refuge, “Church is an exercise in community building.”
The exercise metaphor seems fitting because it requires practice to become this kind of community. Community building fosters spaces and times for interaction between adults and children and breaks down the boundaries of the nuclear family. It looks like washing dishes, picking up toys, and bringing food to share as your abilities allow. It means asking for help when we need it and showing up when we can. It takes shape in sharing laughter and joy in times of celebration and sharing silence in times of grief. While this exercise begins on Sunday, it extends into other parts of our week as we cultivate space in our lives where all are welcomed, nurtured, and known.
Refuge Home Church is part of the United Church of Christ.
Meeting for Church in Homes, Houses and Parks
Choosing to worship in someone’s home is vulnerable. We’ve been doing church this way since our founding in 2007. While awkward at times, meeting in homes moves us past superficial conversations and relationships, and presents opportunities for deeper connection and community. Meeting in homes or at the park also means we are able to give more resources to our community without the overhead and maintenance that accompanies church buildings. Our gathering practices align with our commitment to simplicity and care for the earth.
What to Expect on a Sunday
On most Sundays, we offer two service options at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. On the second Sunday of every month, we provide an opportunity for the entire community to worship together in a single service at 10 a.m. During a typical service, we begin by sharing a meal. Then we gather in the living room or picnic shelter (adults and kids together) and sing, share announcements and updates, read Scripture, pray together, and tell a children’s story. After the story, the kids go outside to play with adult supervisors. One of our pastors reads our Scripture passage for the day and offers a conversational sermon that includes space for reflection and dialogue. When the children rejoin us, we share the peace of Christ and communion. The entire gathering, including the meal, takes about two hours.
Loving Our Neighbors
Refuge doesn’t exist only for ourselves. Our life together compels us outward, into the work the Spirit is already doing in the larger community. Each week, we pray that God would “not allow us to become comfortable, but give us the ears to hear the cries of the oppressed, the eyes to see the needs of the poor, and the voices to speak with the marginalized.” This prayer is a consistent call to participate in God’s reconciling work in Durham.
Our Pastors
Megan Pardue, Lead Pastor
Rev. Megan M. Pardue is the lead pastor at Refuge Home Church since 2013. A native of Portland, Oregon, she’s called Durham home since 2009. She is ordained in the United Church of Christ and a graduate of Southern Nazarene University and Duke Divinity School.
In addition to pastoring, she teaches preaching at Duke Divinity School and co-hosts the weekly preaching podcastThat’ll Preach. She’s one of the co-authors of Edison Churches: Experiments in Innovation and Breakthrough.
Megan cares deeply about environmental justice and climate change, and believes communities of faith must address these crises with urgency. She’s the winner of the 2021 C3 (Christians Caring for Creation) Sermon Challenge, a recent guest preacher at Duke Chapel, a featured preacher at the 2018 NTS Preacher’s Conference, and much of her guest preaching and speaking centers around these intersectional issues.
She enjoys growing a large vegetable and flower garden in the city, thrifting, and spending time on the American Tobacco Trail or at the Eno River with her husband Keith, and children, Iris and Jasper.
Mona Dowell, Associate for Children and Youth Ministry
Rev. Mona Dowell began serving as Associate for Children and Youth Ministry in October, 2023. Born and raised in the Philippines, she has called Durham home since 2013. She is a graduate of Kent State University and Duke Divinity School, and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in June 2024.
“Spiritual resiliency,” is the guiding phrase she brings to children and youth ministry in hopes of nurturing flexible, curious, and robust faith lives. Her own faith has been profoundly shaped by womanist theology, queer theology, Christian mysticism and decoloniality. Committed to a faith that is reformed and always reforming, she seeks accountability from inside and outside Christian religious structures as she continually engages with the question: What is the Gospel?
Mona is also a singer-songwriter who has written, performed and released both secular and sacred music. You can sometimes find her busking at the Durham Farmer’s Market, where she plays well-worn covers and the same six children’s songs, or playing original music at venues around the Triangle. Additionally, she loves jumping in rivers and lakes, soaking up time with family, falling down Wikipedia holes, engaging in mixed media art projects, and napping.
Support Team
Carla Arevalo - Support Team
Carla is a long-life learner that loves books, dogs, sharing meals with people, and hear stories about their life and experiences. She moved to Durham two years ago to start her PhD in religious studies. Some things that bring joy to her journey is music, pretending to be good at sports, refuge folks, eating her husband’s delicious food, and her family back home.
Sam Ferrell - Support Team
Sam moved to Durham in 2019 and now calls the Triangle home. He remains undefeated in “who likes coffee more” contests and would like to show you pictures of his pet rabbit. When not trapped at work you can find Sam wandering through nature, wandering through the wasteland of his favorite video game, or gathering around the table with his people.
Matt Gatner - Support Team
Matt is father to two rambunctious daughters that keep him learning and growing. He lives in Hillsborough, where he works from home or local coworking spaces doing web development for an online therapy company. When not at work he gets allergic to screens, spending time with friends and neighbors and family, foraging and curating plants, and losing at all manner of board games, cards, and RPGs.
Laura Maberry - Support Team
Laura is a founding member of Refuge who helped to launch it back in 2007. A psychotherapist with her own practice in Durham, she is allergic to surface level conversations. She has been happily married to the love of her life, Todd, since 2003. Together they parent two beautiful neurodivergent daughters, Monika and Julena. Their family is also raising four chickens in downtown Durham, and she is stunned how much she loves being a chicken momma. Her idea of a good time is walking to a restaurant blocks from her house, or playing Esther Perel’s board game with friends she considers family.
David Friedrich - Treasurer
David grew up outside of Charlotte, NC and went to UNC-Greensboro for both undergrad and grad school. He and his family moved to Durham in 2021 and were introduced to Refuge through a friend. David has been part of a number of churches over the years, but Refuge was the first home church and it has proven to be a supportive and purpose-driven community. A big believer in making time for play, David enjoys volleyball, Dungeons and Dragons, and playing video games.
Refuge Kids
Safety is a priority in all we do and we adhere to a set of policies and structures to help keep our kids emotionally and physically safe. Please reach out to either of our pastors or support team members with any further questions.
Children are a central part of our community, for parents and non-parents alike. They’re welcomed, included, and known. We listen to them. We learn from them. And on a given Sunday, there can be a lot of them. Our Sunday rhythm includes reading a children’s story, engaging Scripture through Godly Play, and kids’ time during the sermon portion. Children of all ages are welcomed to participate in all aspects of Refuge, from communion and baptism to making weekly announcements, we care deeply about making our church accessible and invitational to our children.
