In-Person Meeting Guidelines

Dear Living Hope Family,

After much prayer and discussion, the staff and elders have discerned how Living Hope will move forward based on the increased levels of illness in our direct community and the most recent COVID-19 state mandates. The state of Pennsylvania has put in place a number of guidelines and restrictions that directly affect places of worship. In light of these modifications, Living Hope will be changing the way we hold services and weekly ministries. Beginning the week of November 30, we will be adhering to all mandates as they relate to churches and have determined two distinct sets of guidelines - Worship Services & Weekly Ministries:

1. Worship Services: Living Hope will continue to hold three Sunday morning worship services (starting Dec. 6) at the usual times of 8am, 9:30am & 11am. Guests will be required to wear a face covering when in attendance, unless a health condition precludes. The worship services will resume with our usual format. Included in the Sunday Worship services are both Children’s Ministry and Student Ministry curriculums which will continue as regularly scheduled. In addition we will be including the other worship services in this guideline including Sunday night Senior High worship services at 6:30pm, Wednesday night Middle School Worship services at 6:30pm and Thursday night Young Adult Worship services at 7pm. Excluded from our normal Sunday morning services are such Sunday classes like GracePoint, MissionPoint, StartingPoint, Baptism Classes and our Membership Classes. These programs will be modified to suit the guidelines and move to Zoom calls or other options as they are scheduled on a case by case basis.

2. Weekly Ministries: All other gatherings that are not worship services will adhere to the following guidelines when meeting. Guests will be required to wear a face covering when in attendance, unless a health condition precludes. Each ministry will be assigned to a room for their meeting based on their attendance needs, and with the ministry leader’s input. Each room in the building has been assigned a capacity based on the guidelines set forth by the state of Pennsylvania which allows for 75% of maximum capacity. The administrative staff will make specific scheduling arrangements in an attempt to accommodate each ministry.

We will continue to discern the direction as we proceed and will be updating the congregation on a regular basis. Our desire is and has been to meet together as a congregation however we are continually evaluating the trends in and among our congregation and community. We know these are unique and potentially trying changes to our normal operations, but we’re happy to continue in-person gatherings as safely as we can.

We hope you had a restful Thanksgiving! We are praying for you!

Together in Christ,
Elders and Staff
Living Hope Community Church

To view the mitigation order: