CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – There’s a new church in an old church building in town.
Hope Rising Community Church now occupies the former Liberty Street Church of God near the Clarion Area Junior Senior High School and is in the process of purchasing the building.
Lead Pastor Harry Hoff, who has family living about 25 minutes away from Clarion, said the decision to start the church came after “a lot of prayer.”
“My wife Maura and I were driving through one day and I pictured a church that no four walls could contain,” said Pastor Harry. “I pictured a church that would reach out to the community, to the schools, and to the college. I pictured a church that could make a major impact. Whenever we decided to start Hope Rising –- in my life I had situations that I’ve walked into a church and didn’t feel welcome, I didn’t feel loved, because of my past and I shared a little about where I have been and what my life used to look like.”
Harry and Maura, co-founders of Hope Rising Clarion, and a launch team are planning a “soft” opening on September 17 and a grand opening on Sunday, Oct. 8. Services will be at 10:30 a.m.
Pastor Harry and Maura Hoff
“Because of my past, I walked into a church one day and the pastor walked the other way,” said Pastor Harry. “I never felt so shamed or so alone in my life. A couple of years later I wanted to have a church that really meets the needs of the community, both spiritually and physically, but have a church that welcomes everyone regardless of where you’ve been in life and walk in with your head held high, a place where anyone can fit in and anyone can grow and connect.”
“When we pulled into this community I saw a college, I saw a high school, and I saw people that I just felt drawn to. We took a couple of months and prayed about it and talked about it and prayed some more and said God, if this is what you want, I need you to open up some doors and every single door that could have opened were opened. We were just extremely excited.”
There is one other Hope Rising Community Church in Verona, just outside of Pittsburgh, and Clarion is the second.
“We launched Verona a couple of years ago and last year we gave close to 3,500 kids eight to ten gifts and that was called a Hope filled Christmas. It made a massive impact and gave a couple hundred families Christmas dinner; we gave 120 kids coats, gloves, hats, and boots.”
“It was amazing and we’re excited about bringing that to Clarion. I now that there is a need and there are some people here who are dealing financial hardships, so our heart is to reach out to those people. My passion is to reach out them not just spiritually but meet their physical needs. There are people who are hungry and just don’t have the money to put food on the table, don’t have money for clothing for their kids. I believe the local church’s job is to also meet those needs and as we grow my hope and my heart is to fill those needs in the community and help the elderly – helping them with landscaping, cleaning their windows or whatever they need.”
Asked if he thought Hope Rising would be competing with other Clarion churches, Pastor Harry doesn’t think that will be the case.
“No, I’m here to support them. With our Christmas outreach even last year there were churches in Clarion that I brought up truckloads of gifts up to bless their congregation. We’re not the competition. The Bible says a house divided by itself will fall. I believe we are not THE church, we are just a church. A part of our church is that we invest in other churches. We are very generous to local churches, helping them out in any way, shape, or form. I love the church and I am just one small spoke on the wheel.”
Some of the work done to the old Church of God includes interior painting, taking out the pews and putting in chairs, and adding a projector and monitor on the stage. A coffee bar is being added to help attract college students and new signage is on display on Liberty Street.
“We’ve mainly been just cleaning the place up with some painting and looking forward to loving and caring for people. Come on in.”
