Concert lights and haze on the stage will soon provide a backdrop for a full band at the Refuge services offered at First Christian Church. There’s also a new sound system and a big screen that’s 10 feet tall and 16 feet wide. Pastor Josh Leu said members will be the first ones to experience the new worship area at a dedication service on Sept. 3. The public is invited to the grand opening at 11 a.m. on Sept. 7.

First Christian Church, located at 5230 Broadway Ave., offers four Sunday morning worship services: Essential, at 8:15 a.m., is a shortened, laid-back version of the more formal Traditional service with choir, at 10 a.m. Refuge is the modern service, which is currently offered at 9 a.m. and repeated at 11 a.m. That’s because it outgrew a single service, but after the new annex opens, there will only be an 11 a.m. service. 

“It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done or how you prefer to worship; we believe you belong here,” Leu said.

Leu has been at the Protestant church in Great Bend for 11 years, and has seen average weekly attendance grow from 150 to 350. The Refuge services started about eight years ago in what was once the youth room. That holds about 100 people, but within two years they outgrew their 11 a.m. service and added another at 9 a.m. That area is now the lobby for the Refuge service. The Essential and Traditional services are still held in the main sanctuary.

Everyone comes together as one congregation on Wednesdays, which are family nights. Weekly dinners are followed by FCC Kids and FCC Youth activities and the FCC adult ministries host small groups.

The church had hoped to open the new Refuge area earlier but was stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic. They did, however, acquire a building during the pandemic that was previously occupied by Sunflower Diversified Services and it was renovated to become the new Youth Building. It also houses a recording studio. Sunday sermons are prerecorded and posted on YouTube.

“We’re not just trying to be the cool kids on the block,” Leu said. “Our mission is to reach out to the over 8,000 people in the area who don’t know Christ or belong to a church. We take great pride in being a church that meets people where they are, as they are, in a way that works for them.”