Our History

Urban Refuge was planted out of Hometown Church (formerly Evergreen Community Church) in Bloomington, MN, which embraced a “one church, many locations” strategy for reaching the Twin Cities and beyond with the love of Christ.

In 1999, Pastor Andy Gray led a team of volunteers on a “Mission to the City,” a new outreach committed to demonstrating Christ-like kindness to the people of Minneapolis. God used that time and stirred members’ hearts to plant a church in the city, and in January of 2003, The Urban Refuge was born in the Uptown Area of Minneapolis at Jefferson School.

In the spring of 2005, Urban Refuge moved to 55th and Chicago and stabilized as a church. Since that time, our church has grown, with most new attendees coming from nearby neighborhoods. Relationships have been formed and deepened in the community and with each other. Pastor Chad Oltman was ordained during this time. We became owners of the facility in 2009 and paid the building off in 2012. We remain debt-free.

In 2019, Hometown and the Urban Refuge churches went through an evaluation and discernment process regarding the multi-site model. At that time, through much prayer and Spirit’s leading, it was concluded that Urban Refuge should launch as an autonomous church, independent of Hometown Church. Through much hard work and a great team effort, we successfully launched as an autonomous congregation in January of 2020.

In November of 2021, Urban Refuge welcomed Jason Meyer as Lead Pastor. He is an experienced leader, communicator, and author: understanding and articulating clearly in this broken world. We're humbled and honored to see God's hand as he continues to lead us forward.

The heart of Urban Refuge Church is to cultivate a community of Jesus followers to build a compassion-filled urban church with and for future generations. We strive toward this by being a people that do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). Our hope is to reflect the diversity of our city while embracing oneness in Christ. Our congregation is composed of servant-hearted believers in Jesus, eager to grow and make an impact with their lives.