How a new church plant uses texting
As the pastor of a new church plant, Tony wears a lot of hats.
"I'm the lead pastor. And basically, that's the top of the job resume. The bottom is whatever: I'm the fixer of soundboards, the plunger of toilets, the sweeper of the driveway — whatever I need to be at any given moment."
Tony and his wife, Sheena, planted VUE Church in Longwood, Florida, at the end of 2024 with 25 members. From the very beginning, they were passionate about having sustainable ministries to support their people, whether it was children's, youth, or family ministries.
We wanted to make sure that we had something that was quality, presentable, and useful to people from the minute they walked in the door.
Tony took the same approach to their communication: he wanted to make sure it was effective and helpful for his congregation.
"When we started the church here, we wanted to make sure that we had something right from the jump that would work for us. It was really important to me that I did my research and looked and saw, okay, what can we do to find a system that's going to work with us and grow with us? I tried to be as intentional as I could to get it right on the first try."
VUE 🤝 Clearstream
"In finding Clearstream, I thought this really is the glass slipper here; this is the one that I think is going to fit us the best. So I signed up for a free trial just to take it on a test drive."
After trying out Clearstream, Tony attended the Exponential Conference in Orlando in March of 2025 and met our team in person.
"We got to meet some of our good friends from Clearstream, and I said, 'Hey, we're learning this; this is great.' And they said, 'Since you're starting this church, we want to sow into your ministry.' And we were able to take advantage of a year of free service."
It was during that free year with Clearstream that we just said, 'This is the one. This is the one that we want. This is the one that's going to work for us.' And we haven't looked back.
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Using texting as a growing church plant
VUE Church started using Clearstream before their initial launch to communicate with their launch teams and staff. Now, a little more than a year later, their church has grown to over 150 members. And Clearstream has grown with them.
Sending texts with Clearstream has really been a part of our structures and our systems from day one. There are things that we didn't have when we first started that we use now, and we didn't have to go back and pay additional fees or upgrade or add something on. And it just really felt like, 'Wow, this is designed to work with us and not tax us to work with it.'
VUE uses Clearstream weekly to communicate with their staff and volunteer teams, share updates for their ministry's daycare, and send out churchwide messages that people can reply to with questions or to talk with someone on their team. They recently had 40 days of prayer and fasting, and invited their church to join them.
"Every day, we had a devotion video that we filmed and posted up on social media. People who wanted to opt in sent the keyword 40DAYS, and then every day, they were sent the Scripture verse and a link to the video so they could track along with it.
That was a really, really cool and encouraging thing. Nobody had to download a new system, or nobody else had to do anything. We could just add that on to what we already had in place."
Following up with first-time guests and new salvations
VUE Church regularly uses texting to communicate with their church on Sunday mornings, including using keywords to connect with visitors and follow up with new salvations.
"We do everything from 'If you're new here, text in, NEWHERE,' and then it takes you through our process. It sends an automated response. You can respond to it. We do it for people who want to text in prayer. We do it for people if they pray to receive Jesus at a service on Sunday morning."
Some people don't want to fill out a card, or they don't want to go meet with somebody in the lobby. Texting creates another option for people to interact with us in a 21st-century mindset. It creates another option that I think is really viable and user-friendly for people.
The texting app for pastors
As the pastor of a church plant who's always busy with different areas and responsibilities, Tony has been able to respond to people right from his phone.
"One of my favorite things is the app, being able to use it on my phone. If somebody responds to something or somebody has a question about something, I don't have to wait until I'm back at my computer and logging in and looking for a message. That notification comes right to me as if it were a text message to my personal phone."
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Tony has also switched from giving out his personal number to sharing his Clearstream texting number. And, he's invited his team to help him reply to incoming messages.
"I'm a friendly person, and my wife corrects me on this all the time, that I give out my phone number to just everybody. Just, 'Here, here's my number. Just give me a call,' all the time, which is sustainable when you have a church of 30 people or 40 people, maybe not so much when you're at that next level."
Having this system where it comes to me like a text message without me having to give out my personal phone number, and then myself or one of my team members can field it if they're on call, is just money in the bank for me. It's so helpful.
Conclusion
"We're just really grateful; it's been an awesome tool, and it's one that I would quickly and confidently recommend to anybody who's really at any season, whether they're a little tiny church that's just taking their first steps or a huge church."
The versatility to meet us wherever our church ministry is applying itself is such a helpful thing because it really is a one-stop shop — it really is a one-size-fits-all.
"Wherever we're going, Clearstream is coming with us. And that, to me, is so invaluable because the last thing that we want to do is have to drag along 40 different apps, 40 different processes, 40 different logins. It really is the thing that does what we needed to do, where we needed to do it, how we needed to do it.
For us and for the foreseeable future, I see this as being something that would grow with us and be with us for the long haul. And that just makes me feel really, really good about supporting it, endorsing it, and sharing it."
Thank you, Tony and VUE Church!
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