Community-minded church moves to Gates

Living Hope Community Church, formerly located in North Chili, has moved to what was once the Perk building at 765 Elmgrove Road. The church is renting a portion of the building in which to hold its service and youth group meetings. Living Hope's services are on Saturday evenings from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., with a coffee hour following. The pastor, Gates native, Chris Marciano, says, "We understand the time constraints and pressures on today's busy family. We purposely keep our service an hour long and extraneous meetings to a minimum." Youth group times and locations vary.

Living Hope has been in existence since December of 1999. The church was established "to be a visible expression of the love of God in the community," Marciano said. While in North Chili, Living Hope conducted what Pastor Marciano called community blessings. "We just wanted to let the community know that we were there, that we cared for them, and that God cared for them also." One such "blessing" consisted of the church distributing 9-volt smoke detector batteries to the neighborhood during the "Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery" campaign in October. The church also passed out doorknob bags filled with games, stickers, pencils, candy and invitations during the Christmas holiday and for Valentine's Day. The church also sent "thank you" gifts to about 140 employees of local businesses. "We just wanted to express our thanks for their service to us and our community," says Marciano. In all, over 440 homes were reached in the area around the church.

Living Hope is excited about the prospects in their new neighborhood in Gates. "We're a small congregation now, but we have big dreams. We feel we're in the community where God wants us to serve," says Marciano, "and we're looking to see what the needs are in Gates and how we can best be a part of addressing those needs."

Marciano and his wife, Darlene, also a Gates native, have been married for 20 years and have three teenage daughters, the oldest being in college. They, along with the leadership of the church, have a strong desire to help strengthen marriages and families. The church also wants to reach out to college students.