Chris Renfrow

Chris Renfrow

Favorite Food:                         

Tri Tip

Favorite Place:             

Santa Cruz

Favorite Color:            

Blue

What we love about Chris:       

We LOVE Chris’s “sunny disposition.” When Chris is around, you have to try REALLY hard to stay in a bad mood. He always has a smile on his face that we know is a reflection of the joy he feels in his heart. :)

Chris serving one of his friends from the "old days" at an outreach event.

            Chris Renfrow, presently enrolled in our CIA, or “Core In Action”* program of Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship, is a guy who incredibly easy to love. The way that he conducts himself, and the way that he has chosen to live his life brings inspiration to those around him, in fact—he leads many without even realizing it. His style of leadership is that of love and of humility. Chris is a leader by example, and many will attest to this! When he walks into a room, you hear adoring hoots of “RENFROW!” being shouted in his direction, and when he hears people greet him in this manner, you could light a room with the sheer joy that beams off of his face.

            Chris’ “before and after” Jesus testimony is so incredibly life changing, we HAD to share it!

            Growing up, Chris told us, life wasn’t too great. The first few years of his life, Chris resided in Riverside, California with his mother and father. At a mere five years old, Chris’ mother and father split up, and Chris and his mother moved to Alabama. While in Alabama, Chris’ mom remarried a man that wreaked havoc and abuse onto herself and Chris for years.

            At around eight years, Chris’ mother took Chris and returned to California. Upon her return, she remarried Chris’ father. It was at this point that Chris and his mother and father moved to the Concow, California.

“I was in about 7^th grade when we moved from the city to the country,” Chris remembered, “That’s when I started drinking.”

            With little to no exposure of right and wrong, and hardly any understanding of what living a hope filled life could look like, Chris began associating himself with the “wrong crowd.” He started partying every weekend, and began to smoke marijuana. By the time Chris got to High School, he had begun to use methamphetamine, and was drinking heavily before and after classes.

            Chris’ behavior continued to tailspin, which eventually got him in trouble with the law, and it was at this point his mother had no choice but to place Chris into a group home in Quincy.

“That group home wasn’t equipped to change me.” Chris told us “I was still going out and partying with my friends [the whole time I was there.]”

            When he had reached eighteen years of age, the group home told him it was time to move on, and Chris moved back in with his mother. He continued drinking and using heavily. Just a year or two later, Chris’ parents again divorced and Chris moved to the bay area with his father and brother. 

“My Father was a heavy drinker,” Chris recounted, “so we would party together… and that continued for years.”

            Some time later, Chris moved back to the Oroville area, not far from the “Concow” of his adolescence. He spent his time there at first living with his friends, taking whatever work he could find—the wages of which went entirely to supporting his addictions. Not long after his move back, Chris met a girl named Kim.

“It was not really a good relationship,” Chris told us. “We basically met through drinking and through using.”

            Chris and Kim spent some time together, and in that time had two children together. Because of their continued addiction, CPS eventually got involved in the affairs of their children, and their children were lost into the system. As hard as they tried to get themselves cleaned up and to get their kids back, Chris and Kim were unable to stop their addictions. They were given chance after chance to gain their children back, but Kim and Chris continued to test positive for their court ordered drug tests.

            Much to the dismay of Kim and Chris, their children were eventually adopted out. Kim coped with this reality by joining Life Recovery Ministries, here at The Father’s House Church—resigned to get her life straight. Chris dealt with his pain the only way he knew how, through drinking and using. This continued, until Chris was charged with a charge of driving under the influence—which was the last allowable charge before he would have to serve prison time.

“I was facing six years,” Chris confessed.

            It was at this point, the desperation to change his life started to set into Chris. Seeing the effect that Life Recovery Ministries had had on Kim, Chris came straight into the program after receiving his DUI before he even spoke to his probation officer.

“I wanted to change, but I was still very iffy about the program—I’d been to plenty of programs,” Chris told us. But he continued, “I just wanted to give up everything and how I tried to control my life—which was completely out of control.”

            Regardless of his reservations, Chris joined Life Recovery Ministries anyways, and began to humble himself and allow himself to be led by men that had come through similar situations to him.

            He remembered, “I just kind of gave my life to the Lord and went with it. I followed my leaders, and dug into God’s word, because I literally knew NOTHING about Jesus.” And since Chris’ commitment to Life Recovery Ministries, and beginning to fall in love with Jesus, literally everything has changed.

Chris told us, “When I first came in, I was looking forward to getting in and going out and getting a drink. People here have had the same problems—got to the point when I was out on pass and people were drinking, I remembered the hangover and the crap that I went through. Having enough time in a good atmosphere helped get me past the whole addiction part of it. It was pretty miraculous. I just felt safe here.”

            When his year was up in Life Recovery Ministries, he clearly heard God say he needed to stay around The Father’s House Church. The opportunity of Kingdom Awakening Apprenticeship’s Core School came up, and Chris felt God’s tugging on his heart to want to enroll in the program, so he did! And the rest was history!

            When asked about what he’s gained in his time in the apprenticeship, Chris’ response was,

“The biggest thing I’ve learned in my time here is how to love and be selfless. The whole ‘giving your life away’ thing seemed like some kind of scam or something… I was very selfish… I just cared about me, me—but the opportunity to love on people and to receive love (I always felt like there was something attached) is just amazing!”

            And no doubt about it-- Chris loves people. Pure and simple. This is undeniably obvious in all areas of his life. Jesus tells us in John 15 that we will know a tree by its fruit, and the fruit of Chris Renfrow’s life today speaks volumes of the incredible, integral man of God that He is today.

            Chris Renfrow, you are positively invaluable to us! We love you heaps!