By Matthew McClure

We have an update to share regarding the McClure family.

Matthew McClure is one of our pastors here, and his wife Tiffany is on staff with us part-time. Some new developments for the McClure Family will also have implications for the H2O Church Family, so we asked Matthew to write a letter that could be posted for others to hear what’s happening, first-hand.

Dear H2O family,

Grace and peace to you in our King, Jesus Christ!

I am writing to inform you that our family will be moving to Bowling Green – a college town in the middle of the cornfields of Northwest Ohio – this summer. We are incredibly sad to leave this church and its people, but we are also excited for what God has awaiting us in this next season of life.

I will be joining the leadership team at H2O Church in Bowling Green – the church that sent us out to plant here in Kent in 2008. We are eager to continue serving college students and equipping staff on the campus of BGSU. We are also excited to be in closer proximity to our parents and look forward to caring for them in the years to come.

This decision has been saturated in emotion and prayer, as Tiffany and I have logged many hours over the past months wrestling with this opportunity alongside our closest friends. We are convinced God has been leading us all along, from the first moments we started considering a move and up to this present moment.

We deeply love this church. When we chose to join the team that planted H2O Kent ten years ago, we knew it would be an adventure. What we did not know was just how thoroughly we would be shaped and transformed by God through it. We became parents here. I became a pastor here. We have seen God firmly establish a healthy, growing church here that has influenced so many lives. These ten years have been immeasurably rich and the essence of the abundant life Jesus promised his disciples.

I want you to know your pastors Eric and Jason have been nothing but supportive all along. They have demonstrated the kind of generosity toward our family that only comes from a deep and abiding trust in God and the conviction that this church ultimately belongs to Jesus. I am sensitive to the reality that some of you may have lived through painful church situations, and I want to be clear that there is not a hint of disunity or division among your pastors. We are the best of friends and there are not sufficient words to express the joy it is to labor for the gospel alongside them.

We are convinced the best is yet to come for H2O Church as this community continues to engage the campus and extend our reach into the city of Kent! We have such an amazing staff team of faithful men and women full of the Holy Spirit. I cannot wait to see how God grows their influence in the years ahead.

As you process this news, there may be questions that come to your mind. I am available and eager to have conversations with you, so please reach out. Thank you for allowing me the joy of being your pastor, and I look forward to these next four months with all of you!

Matthew, on behalf of Tiffany, Mason, Phoebe, Naomi, and Norah