Church Check: The Rock Church in Draper, Utah
Updated: Aug 16, 2020
Church Name: http://www.experiencetherock.com/
Senior/Lead Pastor: Unknown; See the church's Pastor Directory here
Address: 11630 S 700 E Draper, UT 84020
Phone: 801-900-4545
Email: hello@trc.life
Website: http://www.experiencetherock.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therockchurchut
Denomination: Non-Denominational/M28 Alliance
Preaching Style: Topical
Membership Requirements: Unknown
Tithes/Compelled Giving: Yes
Financial Transparency: No
Answered Questionnaire: No
Online Services: https://subsplash.com/experiencetherock/lb/mi/+mbxjmhd
Affiliations: M28 Alliance
The Questionnaire
1. What is your church's official position on tithing?
On their FAQ’s Page, I found this answer to the question, “How much should I give?”
“Whatever you decide to give, it’s important that you give from your heart. A gift given begrudgingly is not a desirable gift in God’s eyes. In the Old Testament, people gave ten percent of their income to support the ministry of God. This was called the “tithe.” In addition to the tithe, people gave offerings for special projects and to help the needy. Our belief is that God would desire us to follow similar principles of giving today. When people give to the church in accordance to the amount with which God has blessed them, the needs of our church are easily met. This is God’s design for providing the financial resources for the church’s current and future needs.”
2. Does your church have a particular set of rules or requirements that members must follow or abide by in order to retain their membership status with the church?
The FAQ Page on their website doesn't mention any kind of membership requirements or contracts for churchgoers. I take this to mean they don't have any. However, the ordained elders of the Rock Church must agree to the M28 Alliance's standards in order to retain affiliation with them. See the Articles of Association for M28 here.
3. Is your church transparent with the church's financial information? How much does your church bring in through donations and tithing, and how is that money distributed?
They do have an answer to this, sort of, on their FAQ’s Page:
“Although we’d really like you to think in terms of giving to God rather than to the church, we know that you want to give to an organization that is faithful with how it spends its money. About 70-75 percent of our contributions get spent in three relatively fixed areas of expense — personnel, missions, and facilities. Other expenses include children’s ministry, men’s ministry, women’s ministry, youth ministry, outreach, benevolence, recordings, storefront, hospitality, etc. A full annual financial report is available upon request.”
I’ve emailed three of the pastors at The Rock Church. It’s been well over a year since my initial email to one of the head pastors there and I’ve gotten no response. If a full financial report is available, I’m hoping to eventually get it from one of them to show in the Check. So far, however, this seems to be untrue.
4. Which denomination does your church align with the most, if any?
Once again their FAQ’s page proves to be extremely helpful:
"The Rock Church is part of a larger association of churches known as the M28 Alliance (M28). M28 stands for the “Great Commission” Bible verses found in Matthew 28, which form the foundation of our Alliance. M28 is a U.S. based alliance of autonomous churches and ministries called to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ and to help each other disciple the nations...For more information on the M28 Alliance, please visit their website."
5. Is your church's pastor available for other questions or comments regarding the church, its doctrines, etc.?
It appears based on our experiences with this church so far, the answer is 'No.'
6. How is your church's doctrinal flexibility and tolerance? If a member has a disagreement with the pastor or leadership on a certain doctrine, how is it handled? Does the church change its position on doctrines fairly often, if at all?
We don't see any information answering this question on the church's website.
7. Does your church require that its members be baptized? What is your church's official position on baptism?
Unlike Calvary Chapel and a few other churches we’ve checked, The Rock doesn’t appear to have a class that you are required to take before they will baptize you. They simply make their case for getting baptized on their Baptism page on the site and allow you to sign up if you’d like to do it. They also make it clear that baptism is not necessary for salvation. Read their position on their website here: http://www.experiencetherock.com/resources/baptism/.
8. Please describe what a typical service and/or meeting looks like in your church.
We find this answer on their Who We Are Page:
"When you walk inside the doors of The Rock Church, you’ll find a relaxed, casual environment, meaningful teachings, and spectacular music. You’ll find a place where spiritual exploration and growth is nonthreatening and exciting, a place to celebrate God’s existence, and to engage in the new life that is available through His Son, Jesus Christ."
9. How many people do you have on staff at your church, both paid and volunteer?
According to the website, The Rock Church has 8 pastors, 17 deacons, and 7 additional staff members. Since they won’t answer my email, however, I have no idea how many are paid or volunteer, or if they have more than is listed on the website.
10. What is the pastor's educational history?
As it is explained on their FAQ’s page, their pastors do not typically hold a traditional seminary degree. Here is their explanation:
"Our pastors have been trained for years through formal and informal leadership training classes. M28 churches also practices apprentice-style leadership training, which provides much hands-on preparation for pastoral ministry. For instance, Pastor Bill has been in this type of training since 1991 and now helps train others. He actually has a degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University, but has been a full-time pastor since 1992 and has planted four churches in Colorado and Utah."
11. How does the church discipline its members with their sin?
We don't find any information regarding sin discipline on the website either, but do see this on their FAQ Page regarding having problems with people in the church:
"One of the most common reasons people leave churches is because they have a hard time getting along with one another. This is nothing new. Relationships have always been difficult. Even one of Jesus’ prayers to the Father was that we would be united with each other. In fact, Paul outright begged the believers at Philippi to get along. It is extremely valuable for us to realize upfront that some degree of conflict is inevitable, so we need to have a plan to work through it when it happens if we hope to maintain any degree of unity in our church. So what is our plan? It’s pretty simple. Jesus said that if someone offends you, go and talk to him or her about it. Don’t talk to anyone else, just go and see if you can work it out. If you can’t work it out, the Bible says you should bring a mediator with you and see if you can work it out together. Obviously that’s not any fun to do, but we must value our unity more than we value avoiding conflict. By following these simple guidelines, we can sidestep lots of strife in our church."
12. How is the pastor compensated (income, benefits, bonuses, etc.)?
This information is not provided on the website, nor has anyone answered our questions. We have yet to receive a financial report, which supposedly is available upon request. Once we have one, we will update this check with the relevant information.
14. What is the size of your church and any other space the church owns for meetings and church services?
The Rock Church has over 2,600 likes and follows. Based on previous comparisons between a church's member numbers and their social media following, they probably have somewhere around 500-750 regularly attending members.
As for building size, you can do a walk-through of their building on their website here.