First Christian Church stands on SW Hovde Road in Port Orchard, Washington, in the South Kitsap community the church names as its mission area. The non-denominational congregation is known by three words that also describe its ministry: Christ, Community, Connection. Its central aim is to connect people to Christ through intentional relationships, form disciples who can make disciples, and extend the love of Jesus into local homes, neighborhoods, and the wider world.
Sunday Worship at 9:30 on Hovde Road
Sunday worship begins at 9:30 a.m. at Sidney Commons, 4885 SW Hovde Rd, Port Orchard, and typically lasts about one hour. The gathering pairs live worship music with thought-provoking, practical, Bible-based teaching. The aim is for people who have attended church for years and those exploring faith for the first time to experience the love of Jesus and find a community where they can grow in faith.
Coffee and conversation are part of the Sunday rhythm. The hospitality team serves coffee, tea, and craft hot cocoa, while greeters make a point of helping every person feel seen, heard, and loved through a hello, a handshake, a hug, or a conversation. The atmosphere is intentionally relaxed, with room for families and for newcomers to be shown where to go.
Coffee, Kids, and a Relaxed First Visit
The guidance for what to wear is simply to come as you are and relax. That spirit extends to the whole gathering, which is designed to help a first-time visitor feel comfortable rather than out of place.
A typical gathering includes:
- Live worship music led by the worship team.
- Practical Bible-based teaching that is both thoughtful and applicable to daily life.
- Free coffee, tea, and snacks for relaxed conversation before and around the service.
- Friendly people who greet visitors and help them find their way.
- Ways to serve that connect worship with local and wider outreach.
Families with children from pre-K through fifth grade will find dedicated classes with engaging lessons and good snacks. Every volunteer and leader is trained and background checked, and the children's ministry seeks to help children know Jesus Christ, become like him, and serve him while equipping parents to be closely involved in their spiritual growth. A short family visit form lets guests share their name, contact information, expected arrival, and whether they are bringing anyone.
Christ, Community, Connection: The Heart of FCC
The mission of First Christian Church is to connect each other and the surrounding community to Christ. Its vision is to love the community for Jesus, make disciples through intentional relationships, and prepare those disciples to make disciples of others. Relationship is central to that vision. The church describes itself as a community changed by the love of God and committed to changing the community in response, meeting needs, sharing lives, and offering the grace of the Christian faith.
That relational, mission-minded identity is reflected in the teaching archive. A message archive organized by speaker, topic, series, and biblical book includes messages on Romans, unity, grace, faith, miracles, heaven, the names of God, marriage, love, and finding community. Questions about difficult subjects and everyday Christian life sit alongside Bible teaching, giving visitors a sense of a congregation willing to explore faith with both conviction and curiosity.
Jesus, Scripture, and the Shape of Ministry
Ministry at FCC is described through connected values. They begin with Jesus and Scripture, extend into unity and relationship, and end with practical service, responsible stewardship, and a family-oriented atmosphere.
Jesus at the Center
Jesus Christ is identified as God's Son and the path to God for eternal life, so Christ is central to what the church does, what people are becoming, and how they live. The church's refrain is that the gospel of Christ truly changes people, and those changed people are the ones who change the world. Jesus is not only the focus of Sunday preaching but the organizing principle for relationships, discipleship, and service.
Scripture, Prayer, and Spiritual Growth
The Bible is treated as the inspired Word of God and the final authority for faith and life. The church holds that people should know it, obey it, and continue learning it as lifelong students of Scripture. An active prayer life is paired with that study, along with worship, confession, and spiritual disciplines such as Scripture memory and meditation. The goal is not information alone but a life committed to Christ and His church.
Unity in the Body of Christ
People are described as equal in Christ and bonded by the Spirit into one fellowship with God and one another. The church emphasizes serving and being served without partiality, cooperating as one body, speaking truth in love, and growing into maturity. Practical habits of humility, kindness, patience, forgiveness, and love shape the way this unity is meant to be lived.
Relational Discipleship
The church teaches that people are designed first for relationship with God and then with others. The purpose of the church is to make disciples of Jesus who can make disciples of Jesus, and relationship is the key vehicle for that work. Every believer is called to ministry regardless of vocation, with spiritual gifts to be developed and used for the good of the whole body. This helps explain the prominence of groups, leaders, shared meals, study, and personal support.
Meeting Felt Needs and Handling Money Well
Felt needs are needs people consciously experience, such as parenting teenagers, marital concerns, financial stewardship, or becoming a better friend. FCC uses the example of Jesus feeding people because hunger is a felt need, then applies that model to local ministry through Backpacks for Kids. The church also teaches that tithes and offerings support outreach, discipleship, and meeting needs. Its financial practice is deliberately debt-free: the ministry has maintained that posture for decades because it considers debt a poor model of Christian stewardship and believes ministry should not create debt.
Elders and Pastoral Leadership
The pastoral team includes Mike James as lead pastor and Joel Morris as pastor. The church is led by elders who seek to follow Jesus, matching its conviction that the church should organize under qualified leadership. Guest speakers and additional teachers have also delivered messages, while the pastoral team carries primary responsibility for the church's teaching and worship.
Whole-Family Ministry Across the Week
Family focus is not an add-on for FCC; it is one of the church's stated values. The congregation seeks the involvement of all ages, provides classes and training with care over curriculum, and works to support stronger families with God's guidance. The stated goal is for every age to have a place in the life of the church, not only a children's program on Sunday but opportunities to worship, learn, serve, and belong throughout the week.
Kids Through Fifth Grade
For pre-K through fifth grade, Sunday classes use fun, safe settings, age-appropriate Bible teaching, and snacks. Trained, background-checked volunteers create an environment where children can experience God in new ways and grow deeper in relationship with him. The children's team also cares for ministry at events and summer activities, while families are encouraged to participate closely in what happens at each age.
Middle and High School Students
Middle and high school students are described as world changers in the making, with particular attention to their need for kindness, community, and adults who walk alongside them. The youth group meets weekly on Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. for live worship, teaching, and small groups. The youth ministry team exists to help young people encounter Jesus, strengthen their faith, and build relationships with peers and leaders.
Women and Men
Women's ministry is designed to make the large Sunday gathering feel smaller by creating close-knit groups around shared seasons of life. Its small groups offer connection while helping women grow closer to Christ. Men's ministry centers on shared meals, curriculum, studying the Word, and doing life together. For men at any stage, these gatherings are intended to provide resources, support, and friendships that help them live more fully in Christ.
Seven Ministry Teams for Everyday Service
Serving is a normal expression of church life rather than a separate program. Seven teams give congregants specific ways to use their gifts:
- Worship Team: singers and instrumentalists lead Sunday worship, events, and team nights while building fellowship and support among musicians.
- Youth Team: adults who love teenagers help students encounter Jesus, strengthen their faith, and experience care for their whole lives.
- Kids Team: trained leaders create safe, fun environments where children learn about Jesus on Sundays, at events, and during summer activities.
- Greeting Team: greeters help people feel loved, seen, and heard through conversation and a warm welcome each week.
- Look and Feel Team: this team shapes the worship environment through decor, lighting, and other sensory details that influence how a gathering feels.
- Hospitality Team: volunteers provide coffee, tea, and craft hot cocoa, help people find the information center, and point newcomers in the right direction.
- Missions and Outreach Team: this team raises support for mission partners, helps direct missions, plans local outreach, and prays for work around the world.
Backpacks for Kids and South Kitsap Outreach
The clearest local expression of the church's commitment to meeting felt needs is Backpacks for Kids. FCC points to Jesus' example of feeding those who are hungry and applies that same care to school-aged children in its area. The program addresses hunger by helping provide food to children, connecting biblical teaching with a concrete need in the community.
The Missions and Outreach Team also helps set the direction of missions, raise money for mission partners, plan local outreach, and keep a global mission in prayer. The church describes itself as mission-minded and committed to the Great Commission, with outreach across its local community, the country, and the world. Its aim is both to share the gospel and to meet felt needs through the lives and generosity of its people.
What First Christian Church Believes
The gospel of Christ is the hope of the world and the heart of the church's mission. Its beliefs can be summarized in brief.
The Bible and God. The Bible is believed to be God's inspired Word, trustworthy, and the final authority for faith and life. God is affirmed as the holy and righteous creator and ruler who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three coequal persons who are one God. God's compassion, grace, forgiveness, love, and faithfulness are set alongside his justice and his willingness to leave sin unpunished.
Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is affirmed as the coequal, coeternal Son of God who became human, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and was born of a virgin. He lived without ceasing to be God, died on the cross for sin, rose again on the third day, ascended to heaven, and will return to judge the living and the dead. The Holy Spirit is coequal with the Father and Son, convicts the world of the need for Christ, indwells every Christian from salvation, and gives power, understanding, and guidance.
Salvation and baptism. Salvation is described as God's free gift, received only through personal faith in Jesus Christ and evidenced by repentance, confession, baptism, and a life committed to his service. Baptism is a believer's public declaration of commitment to Jesus and a celebration of union with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. The church teaches that people are created in the image of God, that sin damages relationships with God and others, and that only God's saving grace restores those relationships.
The church and its practices. The church is the community of people redeemed by Christ and confessing him as Lord. It is commissioned to make disciples, reach out in love, nurture and baptize believers, teach obedience to Christ, and remain led by the Holy Spirit. Under Scripture, it gathers for preaching and worship, observes baptism and communion, develops spiritual maturity, and sends people outward in mission. First Christian Church is non-denominational and led by elders who seek to follow Jesus. The church also affirms the biblical practice of spiritual gifts, understanding every believer as responsible to develop and use their gifts for service.
Personal spiritual practice is also central. Every believer has direct access to God through Bible reading and study, prayer, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. The church calls each believer into a disciple-developing relational environment where faith is shared by word and action.
Marriage, eternity, and Christ's return. Christian marriage is taught as a covenant between a man and woman with God at its center, marked by mutual love, respect, selflessness, humility, and spiritual disciplines. The church holds that people will either remain eternally separated from God through sin or be with God through faith in Jesus, and that heaven and hell are real places of eternal existence. It also expects a literal return of Christ and a day of judgment, while acknowledging debate about how and when that will happen and calling believers to continual preparation.
Giving, Prayer, and Connection
Giving is presented as an expression of obedience to what Jesus has done and of love for the people around the church. Offerings support ministry, outreach, discipleship, and the work of addressing needs both locally and globally. Online giving makes it possible to participate in that work.
A connection card offers several straightforward ways to begin a relationship with the church: request general information, learn more about Jesus, ask for contact from a staff member, ask questions, or express interest in serving. Giving and prayer are also presented together, reflecting the church's belief that generosity and a life of prayer belong within the same walk of discipleship.
First Christian Church's identity is ultimately expressed in action: Christ at the center, community formed through relationships, and connection extending from Port Orchard into South Kitsap and beyond. With live worship, family ministry, discipleship, practical care for needs, and service opportunities throughout the week, the church presents a faith community built around loving people, sharing life, and helping them serve in the name of Jesus.