ST. LOUIS – News outlets report on the violence and crime occurring in downtown St. Louis, but The Rock City Church is shining the light of Christ in the area.
“We are in the Cochran neighborhood, which is one of the most impoverished and crime ridden in the nation,” Pastor Jesse Sneed of the City Church said. “It is in the 99th percentile.”
The church plant had its first service in October in cooperation with UrbanReachSTL. “My wife, Savannah, and her mother, Tina (Squires), started this ministry,” Sneed continued. “Savannah attended a conference in Memphis geared to reaching people on the street. When she came back to St. Louis, she started in the toughest neighborhood. In 2017, they hosted Bible Clubs for the children in the neighborhood.”
“They just loved on the children and taught them Bible stories,” Sneed said. “They focused on John 3:16, taught them music, art/crafts, dances, and sports. They averaged 15 children per day, and they have served hundreds of families through the years.”
Working in cooperation with his family’s ministry and The Rock Church, St. Louis, the City Church has been holding Sunday afternoon services in the community center, which is one block from the purchased building that they hope to restore one day.
“That building was once a church,” Sneed said, “but it became one of the largest drug houses in the area. All kinds of demonic practices and prostitution were located there, as well.”
“We hold prayer meetings in the building,” he said, “but we can’t do anything else because it is in bad shape. Pastor Tim (Corwin of The Rock Church, St. Louis) showed up to one of our prayer meetings. We had invited 30-35 pastors, but Pastor Tim was the only one who came.”
The mission of The Rock Church, St. Louis, is stated on the website by Pastor Corwin: “Lifting up Jesus, Making Disciples, is our main purpose and what God has called The Rock Church of St. Louis to do.”
In speaking about the calling for the City Church campus, Cowin said, “I was praying about what God wanted us to do. We’ve taken the gospel to Africa and started missions there, but He put the calling on my heart that we should be involved in downtown St. Louis. It was at that time that I received the invitation from Jesse to attend the prayer meeting that was in that old church building.”
Sneed described one of the current “cool” features of the building in its current state. “One of the girls who had been trafficked out of that building as a child,” he explained, “had come back after she had received Christ and gone through the building and painted over all the demonic words and symbols with white and replaced them with Bible verses.”
“We would like to use that building someday,” Sneed said, “but the renovation would be two to five million dollars depending on rebuilding or restoring. It will be in God’s timing and nothing short of a miracle.”
Sneed reports that his Sunday service numbers fluctuate, but he has a core of 25–35 each Sunday. “I have eight people from The Rock Church, St. Louis, who come each Sunday to serve. My biggest population of those who attend are young adults in the 15–25 year age range. Changing the trajectory of the neighborhood must start with the younger generation, and it is more difficult to get the older adults to come unless they are coming with one of the children from the Bible Club.”
Sneed mentioned other outreach events that his family does for the neighborhood. “We did a Trunk-or-Treat,” he said, “and we had about 400 people in the community come by. Not all are called to it, but we were also able to hire three interns from the neighborhood for the summer to serve.”