Christ the Rock Community Church, known around South Kitsap simply as "The Rock," sits on Old Clifton Road on the western edge of Port Orchard, Washington. The church's mission is short enough to memorize: to lead people to a saving, growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything from the Sunday services to a children's AWANA club that fills the building on Wednesdays, from the verse-by-verse preaching to a Christmas Dessert Theater that involves actors of all ages, is built around that single aim. People who drive in from Port Orchard, Bremerton, and the surrounding neighborhoods describe The Rock as a place to know Christ, grow in faith, and serve one another.
Two Sunday Mornings at the Old Clifton Campus
The Rock meets for worship twice on Sunday morning, at 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM, in the main sanctuary on the Old Clifton campus. Both services follow the same shape: congregational worship through music, prayer, and Bible teaching that walks through Scripture verse by verse. Greeters are posted to help first-time visitors find their way, and a welcome desk in the main lobby is set up after each service so newcomers can fill out a visitor card and learn more about the church.
The dress code is whatever a guest is comfortable wearing. Most regulars come in casual or business-casual attire, and visitors are told simply to come as they are. Both services are livestreamed on YouTube, and recordings of past messages are posted on the church's YouTube channel and on Rumble so anyone can catch up on a sermon they missed.
A Blended Style of Worship
The Rock's music team blends contemporary worship songs with traditional hymns. Some Sundays lean newer, others feature the older hymns that have been sung in evangelical churches for generations. The stated goal is not a particular style but heartfelt, Christ-centered worship. Worship teams practice on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 PM, with childcare provided, and the team is open to musicians and singers sixteen and older. Audio, video, lighting, and projection teams serve alongside the musicians, with training offered for those willing to learn.
Kids at The Rock: Two Tracks, One Gospel
Children are a serious part of life at The Rock. Parents check kids in at a desk in the lobby before each service, and children are picked up from the same classroom at the end. Kids are also welcome to sit with their parents in the main sanctuary during worship.
During the 9:00 AM service, children move into a traditional Sunday school format. They gather in their classrooms, hear a Bible lesson, and complete related activities. The current curriculum is My Answers by Answers in Genesis, a creation-based curriculum that ties closely to the church's commitment to biblical authority.
During the 10:30 AM service, the format shifts to a children's church model. Kids start in small groups in their classrooms, then come together for a combined lesson using Grow Curriculum. Pre-registration is available online so families can skip the paperwork on a first visit.
Baptism preparation for children is handled by Shannen Arndt, the children's ministry contact, who meets with interested kids (recommended age eight and up, able to read and write) for at least two sessions that walk through the gospel, the meaning of baptism, and Jesus' command to be baptized.
AWANA on Wednesday Nights
Wednesday evenings belong to AWANA, the international children's discipleship program that The Rock runs from Cubbies through Journey. AWANA meets from 6:30 to 8:10 PM and is structured around three classic components: council time (flag ceremonies, music, announcements, and a Bible lesson), handbook time (small-group Scripture memorization and awards), and game time (organized team play on the floor).
Each age group uses its own curriculum. Cubbies, ages three and four, work through the Honeycomb handbook. Sparks, kindergarten through second grade, start a fresh book each fall matching their grade level. Truth and Training (third through sixth) goes through Agents of Grace. Trek (seventh and eighth) studies His Story. Journey (ninth through twelfth) works through Advocates. Every AWANA year also points toward Puget Sound Camp, a summer experience for sixth graders through graduating seniors who have completed at least one AWANA handbook.
The Rock's AWANA ministry is led by Kim Nestorek and Shannen Arndt and supported by missionaries Joel and Baily Easling, who serve as regional Awana missionaries for SW Washington. Volunteers go through a background check before serving.
Verse-by-Verse Bible Teaching and Sunday School
Bible teaching is at the heart of The Rock. Sunday services walk through Scripture passage by passage, and a full slate of adult Sunday school classes meets between and after the worship hours. Current offerings include Proverbs and Disciple Training with Greg Johnson, a fifteen-week Bible Fly Through with Dr. D. Richard Kennedy that surveys the whole storyline of Scripture, a Precept study of Isaiah Part 1 led by Pastor Al, The Art of Marriage with Ben and Kelly Cooper, and Fundamentals of Faith with Randy Smitha, a class designed to lay out the core doctrines of the Christian faith. Classes meet in the Ministry Center rooms on the main campus.
On Saturdays, men gather in Pastor Al's office at 7:00 AM for a chapter-by-chapter study through the New Testament with coffee and conversation. The current study is Romans.
Life Groups Across South Kitsap
Life Groups are where the church's teaching makes its way into homes across Port Orchard, Olalla, Lakeland Village, Allyn, and Silverdale. The groups meet on every night of the week and are organized by neighborhood and study. Sunday afternoons include a kid-friendly fellowship on the church patio led by Jeremy Schooler and a sermon-questions study led by Joe and Trisha Wockenfuss. Pastor Al and Sue Ferguson host a weekly potluck at their home. Aaron and Shane Gray lead a family-friendly group on Sunday evenings.
Tuesday groups include D. Richard Kennedy's study at the home of John and Marie Shouldice and Steve Stuart's discussion of Christian responses to topics like AI, sexuality, the paranormal, and dinosaurs. Wednesday afternoons feature a Gospel of Mark study led by Pastor Doug Hepting at Bill Rollins' condo in Lakeland Village, plus a 6:30 PM group for the Lake Flora area. Thursdays include a potluck study of Revelation at the home of Dave and Terry Cooper. Saturdays round out the week with Rob Nessly's Genesis-to-Revelation group in Silverdale, with childcare available on request.
Men's Ministry at The Rock
Men at The Rock have several weekly touchpoints. Man Up! is a Tuesday morning Bible study that meets at 6:00 AM at Cutters Point Coffee in Gig Harbor and again at 9:00 AM at The Rock. Men of Integrity (MOI) meets Thursdays from 6:13 to 7:30 PM in Room 30 downstairs, with worship, mentorship, and an in-depth study of Scripture. Randy Smitha coordinates MOI. The Saturday morning study with Pastor Al draws men who want a quiet, conversational approach. A church golf league also runs Tuesday afternoons at McCormick Woods Golf Course from late April through early September, organized by Dean Fidecaro.
Women's Ministry and Mending Hearts
The women's ministry describes itself with four words: encourage, educate, equip, and evangelize. Studies meet throughout the week: a Monday evening study called 40 Minute: Knowing You Belong to God with Maranda Schooler, a Tuesday morning Precept study of Genesis Part 4 with Joyce Olmstead, a Wednesday night women's Bible study with Amanda Moser, and a Thursday night book club from September through December that reads biographies and classics like the Benge's Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer and Elisabeth Elliot's No Graven Image. Mom 2 Mom gathers on Friday mornings with Tiffany Ewing.
Mending Hearts, started in 2023, is a free one-on-one mentorship ministry for women who are sexual trauma survivors. Nancy Manassero, a survivor and author of Heartmending: God Can Heal Your Heartbreak From Sexual Abuse, offers confidential forty-five-minute sessions in person, by phone, by Zoom, or by email. Silver Friendships gathers widows and single women over fifty-five on the third Friday of each month in the main sanctuary for lunch, devotions, and prayer. Tabitha Baskets are anonymous Mother's Day gift baskets prepared by women of the church and delivered to women in shelters, each one containing a Bible, a devotional, a personal testimony, and personal-care items.
Seniors and Grandparents
The Seniors' Family Lunch Bunch meets on the second and fourth Fridays of each month at 11:30 AM, rotating among local restaurants such as That One Place in Port Orchard. Pastor Doug Hepting organizes the gatherings, which include fellowship, a short devotional, and prayer. Grandparenting Matters is a parallel ministry for older adults who want to invest in the spiritual lives of their grandchildren. The group hosts one-day events, quarterly meetings at the Blue Room on the church campus, and a six-week follow-up course called Grandparenting Influence.
Marriage Mentoring and the One Anothers
The marriage mentoring ministry pairs couples with trained mentor couples for a year of intentional, Christ-centered work on communication, conflict, finances, intimacy, and forgiveness. Couples can apply through Pastor Mike Thorley. A separate Art of Marriage Sunday school class with Ben and Kelly Cooper offers the same themes in a class setting.
Helping Hands is the practical-care arm of the church, built around the "one anothers" of Scripture. The ministry serves elderly attenders, widows, single moms, and military families inside the church. Volunteers help with transportation, basic home maintenance (plumbing, electrical, gutter cleaning, yard work), computer help, car maintenance, grocery shopping, meal preparation, medication reminders, and other hands-on tasks. A Need a Helping Hand form and a Want to Be a Helping Hand form are posted on the church's connect pages.
Theatre Ministry and the Creative Arts
The Solid Rock Theater Ministry uses storytelling, music, and live performance to share the gospel. The annual Christmas Dessert Theater is one of the church's biggest outreach events, and each spring the ministry produces a children's musical. Recent productions have included a Broadway-style Christmas musical titled All on a Christmas Day, with audition tracks for every age from young children to adult. The ministry welcomes actors, singers, narrators, costume and set designers, painters, lighting techs, backstage help, and stage managers. Penny Lukkasson coordinates new volunteers.
Missions: Local and Global
The Rock supports a wide network of missionaries and partner organizations. Locally, the church partners with Care Net, a network of pregnancy resource centers across western Washington that provides ultrasounds, counseling, and alternatives to abortion; Care Net is scheduled to open a Port Orchard office in 2026. The Rock also partners with The Mission House ministry on Bethel Burley Road SE.
Globally, the church supports Tiny Heartbeats Ministries (pro-life outreach at clinics and campuses), Cedarlandia (church planting in Oaxaca, Mexico with Nathan and Julissa), Joel and Baily Easling as Awana missionaries for SW Washington, Ethnos360 missionaries Stephen and Courtney Myers preparing for ministry in the Philippines, Children of the Nations working in Africa and the Caribbean, Great Harvest Bible College in Chennai, India, GGTP city transformation summits in South Asia, TEAM missionaries Eric and Melissa in Vienna, Austria, and RUN Ministries among unreached people groups in the 10/40 Window.
The Free Garage Sale
The Free Garage Sale is a donation-based outreach run by a church member from a separate location at 10345 Bethel Burley Rd SE in Port Orchard. Items are donated and resold on the third Saturday of May, June, July, August, and September, with each month's proceeds directed to a different partner: Children of the Nations in May, AWANA Puget Sound Camp in June, Children of the Nations in July, Care Net in August, and The Mission House in September.
What We Believe
The Rock's statement of faith describes the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, as inspired by God and trustworthy in its original writings, and treats Scripture as the church's final earthly authority. The church teaches the historic doctrines of the Christian faith: one true God who rules over history; the full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, and bodily resurrected; the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity, who indwells believers at conversion; salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; the necessity of repentance and a life of obedience; the eternal destiny of the saved in the presence of God and the lost separated from God; the personal return of Jesus Christ at a time known only to the Father; and the leadership of the local congregation by elders accountable to the Word of God. The church practices believer baptism by immersion and observes communion as acts of obedience.
Visit, Connect, Give
The Rock is located at 4100 SW Old Clifton Road in Port Orchard, with office hours Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (the office closes for lunch from 11:30 to 12:30). A "Rock Talk" form is the starting point for anyone who wants to get involved, ask a question, or submit a prayer request; a team member follows up on every submission. Background checks are required for all volunteers who work with children and students. Giving is available online through the church's secure giving portal, and a weekly email called The Connect keeps the congregation informed about upcoming events and opportunities.