Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Chester is live-streaming its traditional Sunday morning service to local retirement communities to ensure members with mobility issues can participate, writes Paul Seebeck for Presbyterian Mission.

The idea was originally proposed by Westminster’s lead pastor, the Rev. Don Lincoln, more than a decade ago.

Plans were then being considered to build a retirement community near the congregation. However, those plans fell through during the 2008 economic crisis.

Over the years, with a growing number of the church’s members starting to move into the nearby retirement community Maris Grove, he decided it was time to try again.

So in late 2016, he proposed the idea at a luncheon attended by a number of Maris Grove residents.

The idea was well received, and by October 2017, the church was live-streaming its service into the retirement community’s theater. Since then, around 75 to 100 people have been attending the streamed event each Sunday.

About half of them are Westminster members, while others grew up Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, and Catholic.

The idea has been such a success that, today, Westminster is streaming in two other retirement communities as well.

Read more about Westminster Presbyterian Church from Presbyterian Mission here.