Christ the Rock Fellowship was founded in 1912 on the outskirts of Worcester by a small group of missions-minded Christians. It was first known as the Gospel Tabernacle and later changed its name to the First Alliance Church of Worcester. We changed the name again in 2009, but continue to be affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a movement that now counts more than 6 million members worldwide. Here in the USA, the denomination has 500,000 worshipers, speaking 37 languages and dialects, in over 2000 churches.
The members of Christ the Rock Fellowship have shared our building with another Alliance congregation, the Vietnamese Christian Church, for almost 25 years now, and have developed a great friendship and a dynamic partnership with our Vietnamese brothers and sisters.
Our Sunday morning services are held at 10:30 AM. If you visit us, you will find some people dressed up and others dressed quite casually. Our music is a blend of traditional hymns and contemporary worship songs. We nearly always have a time to share our praises and prayer requests, followed by a message from the Bible. You could say that our style is "middle-of-the-road" - neither old-fashioned nor cutting-edge. It suits us well; perhaps it will suit you, too!
Our worship and community life is shaped by the core values of the Christian & Missionary Alliance:
- Lost people matter to God. He wants them found.
- Prayer is the primary work of God’s people.
- Everything we have belongs to God. We are His stewards.
- Knowing and obeying God’s Word is fundamental to all true success.
- Completing the Great Commission will require the mobilization of every fully devoted disciple.
- Without the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, we can accomplish nothing.
- Achieving God’s purposes means taking faith-filled risks. This always involves change.
We have a weekly study group that focuses on how the Bible applies to everyday life with its challenges and opportunities. We also have a weekly gathering where we pray for our friends and families, our community, our state and nation, and world events. In addition to these meetings, we regularly gather with believers from other Worcester-area churches to pray for our city and region, and we intentionally participate in events like the Convoy of Hope, where many churches unite to bless our city and its neighborhoods in practical ways.
The members of Christ the Rock Fellowship actively support our denomination's overseas missions and relief efforts. The Alliance currently has more than 700 workers in the field, in 70 different nations. We intentionally target people groups who have critically low access to the Gospel, and our goal is to build up self-governing and self-sustaining national churches that are able to send out missionaries of their own. We support this work primarily through giving to the denomination's Great Commission Fund, and our international workers receive full financial support from this fund.
The U.S. Alliance is part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a Christ-centered global movement more than 6 million strong. Our Acts 1:8 family—inspired by Jesus’ love and empowered by His Spirit—is passionate to bring the good news about Him to our neighborhoods and world. Learn more about the Christian and Missionary Alliance at www.CMAlliance.org
As we seek to know Jesus personally, being one with Him, He will reveal Himself as our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. Alliance founder A. B. Simpson called this theology the Fourfold Gospel, the Christological summary on which the spiritual DNA of the Christian and Missionary Alliance is built.
Around the world, the Alliance family celebrates Jesus. As one of our own says, “There is no heart He cannot reach, no wound He cannot heal, no bondage He cannot break...” Jesus said He came for the sick, not the well (Mark 2:17), and we’ve experienced His divine restoration. That’s why we’re passionate to take His good news—in word and deed—to those desperate for hope in every segment of our broken world.
Our Purpose: Christ the Rock Fellowship exists to glorify God by joining Him in His redemptive work of fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. We believe this will be accomplished through worship, discipleship, fellowship, and evangelism.
Our pastor since 2009 has been Rev. Steven Barrett, a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton who spent two decades in the business world before entering full-time ministry. In addition to serving our congregation, he also believes in being a blessing to our community, and is, therefore, an active member of the Worcester Clergy-Police Community Partnership and serves on the board of the Webster Square Business Association. He has a passion for helping people come to a deeper understanding of the Bible, and says that his primary purpose in life is to "nudge people closer to Jesus Christ."
