September 2025 | 7
Church Planter Brings a Clear View of Jesus to Euclid
By Stephanie Heading, managing editor
“On a Sunday morning, we’ll have 25-30 people, half will be African American, half will be white, but it’s a beautiful family, and we call ourselves a family on mission.” Lentrail says diversity is important in his ministry context. The city of Euclid is 60 percent African American, and 30 percent white. “Our church, from the inception, reflects our neighbor - hood,” he said. “It creates this entry point where different ethnic groups walk in and there’s someone that they can relate to, and it creates this beautiful culture that God is forming here at Clearview.” The church also emphasizes engaging its community with events like “Family Night.” “That’s one of our most well-attended events, and it’s simple,” he said. “We just bust out board games, and we have pizza, and we invite the community in to come and hang out with us. Our last game night, we had 45 people there. It’s a great time of engaging the community.” However, they want to do more than just engage their community. Their vision is to reach one percent of Euclid’s population. “Our biggest dream, part of our vision, is just to reach one percent of the city,” he said. “Sometimes I joke and say, ‘I don’t know if it’s just because my faith is smaller or just because one percent of 49,000 is a significant amount.” An opening in the local schools is moving the church to- ward that goal. “We were given the opportunity for me to go into Eu- clid High School and share my testimony with the ninth grade,” he said. “All freshmen came in. They had this elective class, and the teacher who ran that class let me come in and share my Christ-centered testimony.” Recently, the church was invited to an elementary school to pray over the school year. The principal also asked church members to come on the first day of school to high-five and encourage students as they entered the building. Above all, Lentrail hopes his work at Clearview will help the people of Euclid understand who God is and truly see what Christ has done for them. “When we moved here to Euclid and as we began to en- gage the community, we didn’t find many people who had some kind of knowledge about God,” he said. “And so that’s why we came up with the name, ‘Clearview.’ Our mission statement is just simply that we want to help peo- ple see Jesus clearly and follow him fully.”
Pastor Lentrail Abston and family
A Cleveland-area pastor lights up when he shares his sto- ry – a testimony of a new life in Christ, a call to church planting, and a mission to reach his community with the gospel. “So the Lord saved me in prison,” said Lentrail Abston, pastor, Clearview Community Church, Euclid. “While I was there, Jesus rescued me and gave me my calling.” When he got out of prison, he moved in with a mentor, who lived in Mansfield, and attended church with him. “I think the burden for church planting was birthed there, because I asked the question, ‘Why aren’t there churches like this in my old neighborhood?’ That’s when the burden was birthed.” As he grew in his faith and started studying, Letrail at- tended an evangelism class at Liberty University. “In the book Evangelism , they made this argument that church planting is one of the greatest ways to fulfill the Great Commission. That added theological conviction to my desire to church plant first.” Clearview Community Church was the result. It’s located about 15 minutes from his old neighborhood in Euclid. “I wanted to see something like this in my own neighbor- hood,” he said. Then the theological conviction started to form, and then a wide-open door through the program with Christ Community Chapel, which was our original sending church. That door was so wide open, it almost felt like sinning not to walk through it.” Lentrail developed a core team, many of whom drive from Hudson, 30-40 minutes away. The core team made a one- year commitment to the church. “All of them have stuck around,” he noted. “And that cre- ated this diversity amongst our church immediately.” Clearview’s diversity is especially seen during Sunday morning worship services.
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