COR | CYE

Church of Refuge

Church of Refuge (COR) is a resource offered by the Center for Youth Evangelism that assists local churches in providing meaningful, Christ-centered ministry that will attract and involve young adults.

For more information, or to find out how your church can become a COR congregation, please contact Vern Byrd.

COR Value: Acceptance

COR congregations accept people for who they are. We embrace all humanity regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, personal history, appearance, or any other characteristic. We worship a God of variety, and we embrace those who are dissimilar to us. We acknowledge that our role is to love and to show respect. We do not believe that sinlessness is a precondition for friendship.

It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity.

The Faith I Live By, p.38

We are counseled that, "If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful, there would be 100 conversions to the truth where now there is only one."

Testimonies to the Church, vol. 9, p.189

These souls whom you despise, said Jesus, are the property of God. By creation and by redemption they are His, and they are of value in His sight. As the shepherd loves his sheep, and cannot rest if even one is missing, so, in an infinitely higher degree, does God love every outcast soul.

Christ's Object Lessons, p.187

COR Value: Service

COR congregations actively engage the community in practical and relevant ways. Taking care of "the least of these" is helping Jesus as He asked. These opportunities exist at three levels: giving fish, teaching people how to fish, and advocating for all to have equal access to the pond.

And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.

Titus 3:14

He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

Seize upon every opportunity for contributing to the happiness of those around you. Remember that true joy can be found only in unselfish service.

Ministry of Healing, p.362

The world will be convinced, not by what the pulpit teaches, but by what the church lives.

Testimonies to the Church, vol. 7, p.16

Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Savior mingled with men as One who desired their good. He showed sympathy for them ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, Follow Me.

Ministry of Healing, p.143

COR Value: Discipleship

COR congregations foster a deep experience with our Creator by helping youth members grow in their relationship with Jesus and by training them to live for others as Jesus did. Leaders model authentic spirituality and members are led to grow in the Spirit as they follow Jesus. Ministry opportunities match members' spiritual gifts, passions, and abilities.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with your always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20

And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful people who will be able to teach others also.

2 Timothy 2:2

As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of this friend.

Proverbs 27:17

A true disciple of Christ will seek to imitate the Pattern. His love will lead to perfect obedience. He will study to do the will of God on earth, as it is done in Heaven.

The Faith I Live By, p.19

Youth should have a chance to give expression to their feelings. It would be well to have a judicious leader chosen at first, one who will talk little and encourage a great deal, by dropping a word now and then to help and strengthen the youth in the beginning of their religious experiences. After they have had a little experience, let one of their number take the leadership, and in this way let workers be educated that will meet the approval of God.

Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p.69

COR Value: Community

COR congregations incubate healthy, active relationships. A friendly atmosphere is created where people can connect. Steps are taken to ensure that visitors and new members are included in formal and informal social activities.

Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

Acts 4:32

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Matthew 18:20

Christian sociability is altogether too little cultivated by God's people. By social intercourse acquaintances are formed and friendships contracted which result in a unity of heart and an atmosphere of love which is pleasing in the sight of heaven.

My Life Today, p.204

As a people we lose much by lack of sympathy and sociability with one another. He who talks of independence and shuts himself up to himself, is not filling the position that God designed he should.

Christian Service, p.233

COR Value: Sabbath

COR congregations observe the Sabbath by offering time and space for collective study, worship, and socializing. Young leaders actively shape the activities and meeting for the youth and young adults in the congregation.

Great blessings are enfolded in the observance of the Sabbath and God desires that the Sabbath day shall be to us a day of joy.

Counsels for the Church, p.261

The social meetings and all other religious services should be so planned and managed that they will be not only profitable, but so pleasant as to be positively attractive. Praying together will bind hearts to God in bonds that will endure; confessing Christ openly and bravely, exhibiting in our characters His meekness, humility, and love, will charm others with the beauty of holiness.

Testimonies to the Church, vol. 6, p.174

COR Value: Support

COR congregations provide a physically and emotionally safe environment for people to deal with life's stresses and their deepest questions. We also acknowledge that meeting people's material needs is a spiritual act emphasized by Scripture.

Many have fainted and become discouraged in the great struggle of life, whom one word of kindly cheer and courage would have strengthened to overcome. Never, never become heartless, cold, unsympathetic, and censorious. Never lose an opportunity to say a kind would to encourage and inspire hope. We cannot tell how far-reaching may be our tender words of kindness, our Christlike effort to lighten some burden.

Counsels for the Church, p.255

Christ came to this world to reveal the love of God. His followers are to continue the work which He began. Let us strive to help and strengthen one another. Seeking the good of others is the way in which true happiness can be found.

The Review & Herald, June 25, 1908,

COR Value: Leadership

COR congregations develop leaders by involving individuals with leadership potential in ministry and administration. The pastoral staff mentor and encourage young leaders and involve them in ministry planning and implantation.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Philippians 2:3

For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Luke 12:48

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-12

The Lord is calling for the youth, for He would make them His helpers to do good service under His banner.

Adventist Home, p.358

The church is languishing for the help of young men and women who will bear a courageous testimony, who will with their ardent zeal stir up the sluggish energies of God's people, and so increase the power of the church in the world.

Messages to Young People, p.25

Preachers, or laymen advanced in years, cannot have one half the influence upon the young that the youth, devoted to God, can have upon their associates.

Testimonies for the Church, vol.7, p.204

COR Value: Budget

COR congregations financially support senior youth and young adult ministry by budgeting a set amount per person in this age group. This amount should reflect the size of this group relative to the rest of the church.

COR Value: Change

COR congregations recognize that new programs, methods, styles, and services will always be needed. What was effective yesterday may not meet the needs of people tomorrow. We value feedback from our youth, and will work with them to implement fresh ideas.

We are to study the field carefully and are not to think that we must follow the same methods in every place. Whatever may have been your former practice, it is not necessary to repeat it again and again in the same way. God would have new and untried methods followed.

Evangelism p.125

As you work, devise, and plan, new methods will continually present themselves to your mind, and by use the powers of your intellect will be increased. A lukewarm, slack performance of duty is an injury to the soul for whom Christ has died.

Ministry to the Cities, p.96

As field after field is entered, new methods and new plans will spring from new circumstances. New thoughts will come with the new workers who gives themselves to the work. As they seek the Lord for help, He will communicate with them. They will receive plans devised by the Lord Himself.

Testimonies for the Church, vol.6, p.476

Church of Refuge

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