At Nesconset Christian Church on Long Island, Pastor Scott Solimine has a unique ministry opportunity. While pastoring his church community, he’s also holding well-attended Bible studies in high-rise offices and building relationships with local business leaders—a group often wary of outsiders. With his inroad to these often-overlooked circles, Scott offers spiritual care to those who rarely seek it and is fostering a culture of connection and service both inside and outside the walls of his church.
But until recently, Scott’s ministry was being held back by technology. Nesconset was running on an outdated version of Rock RMS, hosted on a barely functional legacy server that regularly crashed and slowed them down. Although Scott was very hands-on with Rock, counting down to releases and consuming documentation as soon as it became available, their budget simply couldn’t accommodate updated infrastructure or training.
This time last year, after hearing about the challenges Scott was facing, our team offered an unprecedented grant for our Rock Cloud managed hosting service. Simultaneously, Scott applied for and received a Rock grant for Early Access. Together, these grants put the latest and greatest Rock tools in his hands immediately, with a stable environment he could rely on.
“It was a game changer,” Scott said. “We didn’t have to wait twelve months for new features—we had them right away.”
The migration to Rock Cloud brought peace of mind. Gone were the constant downtimes and support headaches. “Now it just works,” Scott said. “The migration was ridiculously easy.”
The impact was immediate. The church launched “Connect” small groups with 157 participants—an incredible number for a congregation with a weekly attendance of about 150 adults. Rock simplified group management and empowered leaders with intuitive workflows. “When someone signs up, the leader gets an email with a button to move them from pending to active,” Scott said. “Little things like that make a big difference.”
With the tech in place, Nesconset focused on ministry momentum—promoting serving opportunities, using Rock’s signup tools for volunteer events, and streamlining giving and event registration under one roof. Scott’s approach was strategic: start simple, customize slowly, and tap into local volunteers with technical skills to build what the church needed.
Now, with a year of growth behind him, Scott is reinvesting in others. He’s mentoring fellow pastors and churches considering Rock, offering guidance and encouragement to help them take the leap.
“We’re using the same tools as big churches—because we’ve been invited in. And now I get to turn around and invite others.”