River of Life Church — Attraction in Grand Rapids

It's a cult. I went there several times with my girlfriend and their services were actually pretty good. My girlfriend got really involved in the church and their bible studies. I went to a dozen or so services but when they continually sent people to my house to recruit me into getting more involved I took a step back. The more involved she got the more rules the church placed on her. Minimum of 1/3rd of her earnings were to go to the church. Minimum of 20hrs. of time a week was to be volunteering for the church and recruiting new members. She was told not to wear any makeup, she couldn't dye her hair and women could not wear pants and their dresses had to go down to their ankles. Months later during bible study she was told she doesn't have the spirit of the Holy Ghost because she was unable to speak in tongues and unless she could speak in tongues she would not go to heaven. They tried controlling who she could see, where she could work (females could only work with other females) and what she could do. All of these things are common...

Everyone was pleasant, but this church was not a good fit for us. It's way to loud. The pastor's microphone should really be turned down, it's so loud there's actually a faint echo in the room. I wanted to grab a remote control and turn it down. 👎 It's not a large sanctuary, so I don't know why they overkill the volume. A lot of ppl like it, but it's not for us. Sorry. The sermon was a good message, but hard to focus with the volume. The praise & worship was good, but they stay on 1 song way to long in repetition. It would be nicer to sing more variety & move on to...

They are not good neighbors, avoid buying a house in this area. They like to party, loud bass at any given time of day or night, there dumpster over flowed often and there trash blew into our yard- they cleaned it up on their property but turned a blind eye to the mess and burden they put onto others. They cut wood with chainsaws at 7:00 on most Saturday mornings. Don't know why they picked the middle of a residential area for...