Greater Refuge Church
Greater
Since the Greater Refuge Church did not have a church building, the congregation met and conducted services in various locations throughout
Bishop Bonner served as pastor of this church from 1969 to 1974 and then sought a successor. He appointed Elder Peters to pastor this church after listening to twenty ministers preach during a service. Following Pastor Peters’ appointment church membership fell from 125 to 33. Bishop Bonner advised Pastor Peters to become a fulltime pastor. Because of the small church size, this was difficult to achieve, but he did assume a fulltime role in November, 1974. During the mid- 1980s church membership increased from 33 to 150 members. Some members who had left in the early years now returned, and Peters attempted to facilitate the return of members who had experienced a difficult transition as a result of the church split. In 1983 the church was able to retire the mortgage.
After renovating the old Masonic Lodge several times, Pastor Peters started looking for a new church building in 1990. Greater Refuge moved to a former
Sunday morning services consist of a morning worship service and sometimes an afternoon service. A typical order of service begins with prayer, scripture reading, selections from praise leaders and a choir, offering, and the morning message. After the morning message there is an altar call so that members of the congregation can come forward in order for a minister to prayer for them for healing or to accept Jesus into their life. Typically a minister places oil on a person’s head during the prayer. During the week Bible class is conducted each Wednesday.
Greater
(804) 321-1454
Sources:
Interview with Pastor Peters
http://www.grcministries.org/greaterrefugechurch
http://www.cooljc.org/index
Profile prepared by Hope Ireland
April, 2007