Church On the Rock

Let me say first off I’ve been a member here for over five years now. Church on the Rock is a very large church, but it never feels that way; people there are friendly and welcoming, as is Pastor Blunt and the entire staff. As far as what they offer for the children and teens, its world class, too. The praise band is professional musicians who play at each service and do a great job.
COTR is a Full Gospel, Charismatic church that believes in the gifts of the Holy Spirit; part of that is teaching the promises in the Bible God makes to prosper and give a more abundant life to those who believe and abide in him. Pastor David Blunt is a wonderful and eloquent Bible teacher who is well renowned around the country, yet has a gift to explain things to where a layman can understand; he grew up and was trained in the Assemblies of God Pentecostal denomination, yet COTR is a non-​denominational church that is ran at the local level, and while many of the same principles are taught, this is a contemporary, relatively normal church where people clap and raise hands in worship.
Yes, prosperity is part of what is taught, but no, he’s not like Benny Hinn or Creflo Dollar or someone of that ilk, far from it; prosperity is taught so people can prosper to be able to live the kind of lives God wants us to live and be able to build his kingdom; its a small part of the teaching there, and maybe comes up once or twice a year in a series.
The church is multi-​cultural; you will find people of all different races and ages worshiping together, and from the moment you step out of your car, to the moment you leave, you will always feel welcome. This is not a «clique» church, everyone loves and respects everyone else… There are many opportunities to grow in Sunday classes, Celebrate Recovery, and a multitude of outreaches and volunteer ministries.
I welcome you to join us Saturday at 5PM, Wednesday at 7PM, or Sunday at 9 or 11AM, or even check out a service live online on Sunday, or a past sermon at COTR​.ORG and check it out for yourself. This church and its staff are first class in every sense of the word.

Before reading please note I attended this church only once so everything below should be read with that understanding. We will probably visit at least once more before deciding if we want to stay.
My wife and I attended services last Sunday (11am.) We are both from NYC and recently moved to STL. This was the 7^th different church we have visited since we moved and despite the 3 stars this was our second best church experience so far (which gives you an idea how bad the other 5 were.)
The praise and worship here is great, especially coming from a church with professional musicians, it was great to experience good singing, good music and talented people. There wasn’t a lot of true worship songs as the focus seemed to be mostly on praise music, but it was good.
It was also refreshing to find a church with so much diversity. Coming from NYC that is something we miss living here in the Midwest. People were also very friendly which was nice and not always consistent so far in our church shopping experience.
My concerns about this church include the fact it seems to be a firm proponent of the prosperity gospel which I think is a scam and only hurts people who really can’t afford to give away their money. I could be wrong but having attended a similar church 10 years ago they said a lot of the same things.
Most troublesome was how much «Christian-​ease» the pastor used during his message. If you are trying to reach the lost you can’t consistently use a style of speaking that makes no sense. Included in that is three pre-​designated «praise breaks» where the Pastor stops in his message to allow (and encourages) the congregation to applaud. If people want to applaud and encourage the pastor they should be free to do so whenever they want. Seemed disingenuous to actually create these breaks in the middle of a teaching.
I am hoping that the things I didn’t like aren’t always present at the church and I will update my review when I go back.
I would have only given this church 2 stars but my wife liked it so much I went with 3.