HARDROCK is the name of the youth ministry at Occoquan Bible Church.

It stands for: Heavily Armed Ready Disciples Reaching Out for Christ’s Kingdom.

Our mission:

The youth ministry at Occoquan Bible Church exists to help transform the lives of youth into well equipped ministers who are able to lead in a reproducing faith community. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

We accomplish this by:

• Winning teens to Christ (salvation)

• Building teens in discipleship (sanctification)

• Sending teens into the harvest (service)

We target 7th to 12th graders in:

• The community (outside circle of unchurched students)

• The crowd (peripheral circle of non-Christian youth who attend on occasion)

• The congregation (churched circle of youth who consider themselves Christians)

• The committed (inner circle of Christian youth who are actively seeking to grow)

• The core (smallest circle of disciples that are involved in leadership and evangelism)

We labor in love to:

• Help develop meaningful spiritual disciplines in the lives of our youth. These include daily quiet times, prayer, Scripture memory, and ministry.

• Prepare our youth for present and future challenges by firmly grounding them in biblical truth.

• Cause the youth group to grow into a unified, diverse, caring, and cohesive faith community.

• Develop qualities that will enable youth to serve those outside the church, and assume positions of ministry and leadership within the local church.

• Build a healthy, open relationship with the youth so that they feel the freedom to approach any leader at any time about anything.

• Equip the youth to share their faith in a clear manner with unsaved friends and family.

• Restore the sense of intimacy between God and teen through worship.

• Support and embrace the parents of our youth as we emphasize a holistic “family ministry.”

We summarize our goals as:

• Edifying our youth and parents

• Equipping our youth and parents

• Evangelizing our unsaved friends

• Exchanging our lives in community

• Exalting our Triune God

We work from a philosophy of ministry that believes:

• The starting point for youth ministry is God, not human activity.

• The center of youth ministry is Christ, not any human leader.

• The strength for youth ministry is the Holy Spirit, not human ability.

• The guide for youth ministry is the Bible, not human wisdom.

• The focus of youth ministry is people, not programs.

• The goal of youth ministry is to mature Christians, not just to make converts.

• The environment for youth ministry is the family and corporate body, not isolation or individualism.

• The growth of youth ministry is spiritual reproduction, not spiritual addition.

• The process of youth ministry is progress, not perfection.

• The marketing of youth ministry is attraction, not just promotion.

• The satisfaction of youth ministry is God’s glory, not human pleasure.