On Sunday, September 13th, Pastor Noah, our founding lead pastor, shared with our church family that his season leading King’s Church is coming to an end. In the first quarter of 2027, Pastor Noah will step out of the lead pastor role, and Pastor Matt LoPresti will step in as Lead Pastor of King’s Church.

We want to say the most important thing first, plainly: nothing is wrong. There is no crisis, no conflict, no moral failure, and no falling out. This is a healthy church transitioning leadership from one pastor to another with integrity, intention, discernment, prayer, honest reflection, conversation, collaboration, and wisdom. This page exists to give you a  fuller picture of what this means for the community of King’s Church.

WATCH THE FULL MESSAGE

Why This Is Happening

From the foundation of this church, Pastor Noah has said and practiced the same thing: “we hold everything open handed”. King’s Church has never belonged to one person. It has and will always belong to God and to this community. Every pastor is a steward of something they will eventually hand to someone else.

As Pastor Noah and Steph together began to sense that their assignment here was finishing, they started by praying through the weight of this decision as a couple over many months, before it was ever spoken to anyone else. It wasn’t an impulsive decision and it wasn’t reached alone. Once they felt ready, they brought it before our board of overseers, a spiritual director, and the people closest to them; all individuals who have great wisdom and enough proximity and trust to speak honestly and truthfully. The response Pastor Noah and Steph received during conversation, prayer and discernment with those groups was agreement.

In Pastor Noah’s own words: “after we purchased our first building, it felt like reaching the end of a book and turning the page looking for another chapter, only to find there wasn’t one. We knew our story at King’s was coming to a close.”

What makes this bittersweet, rather than sad, is where the church is standing right now. In a real sense, King’s Church today is what we have spent almost ten years praying for. In so many ways, King’s is in one of the healthiest places it’s ever been. That in itself is a gift from God, especially in this season.

Why Pastor Matt

Pastor Matt and Nikki have been part of King’s Church since before we ever had our first gathering. This church has their fingerprints all over it. This is not an outsider coming in to lead. This is a couple who have loved, prayed, fought for, served, and given deeply to this house for a decade. We see and sense their deep pastoral calling to lead this church family.

How This Is Happening

This transition has been planned carefully over many months in partnership with a consulting group that specializes in pastoral succession. Leadership of staff, meetings, and decisions is steadily transferring to Pastor Matt with partnership and oversight from Pastor Noah when appropriate, and will continue through the end of Pastor Noah’s time at King’s. 

Our board of overseers will remain largely the same through the coming year, for deliberate continuity. Our stewardship team continues to serve the financial health of the church. And our newly installed elder team will  serve the spiritual life of our congregation. Our structures are getting stronger. The person at the front is changing. The foundation underneath is being reinforced.

What’s Next for Pastor Noah and Steph

Once Pastor Noah and Steph’s season officially comes to an end at King’s they will enter a time of rest. Pastor Noah will spend a month in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago followed by a long season of quality time with the family. Several months after the decision to transition out of King’s was made, Pastor Noah’s mother and father-in-law, who are the lead Pastors of Faith Family Church in Canton, started to sense a transition in their leadership as well. After further discussion and prayer, Pastor Noah and Steph will begin the process of transitioning into the Lead Pastor roles at Faith Family Church in Canton sometime around the beginning of 2028. Though King’s and Faith Family are autonomous churches, we look forward to continued friendship in ministry for years to come.

FAQ

  • No. There is no crisis, conflict, scandal, or burnout behind this. This is a healthy church and a healthy pastor making a planned, prayed-over leadership transition. We know that’s an unusual thing to hear in this day and age, which is exactly why we want to say it plainly.

  • Sometime in the first quarter of 2027. We’ll announce the specific date well in advance so everyone has time to plan for it. Nobody is slipping out the back door after ten years….(though if we left it up to Pastor Noah’s introverted personality, he would)

  • Pastor Matt will become Lead Pastor of King’s Church. Pastor Matt and Nikki have been part of this church since before the first service and have served on staff nearly the entire time. Nikki will continue serving as our Generational Ministries Director and Partnerships Director.

  • No. Pastor Noah and Steph sensed it over a season and prayed through it together for months before bringing it to anyone for counsel and wisdom. It was then brought before our board of overseers, a spiritual director, and the people closest to them. There was consensus that both the decision and timing were right. The plan itself has been developed over many months with the guidance of a consulting group that specializes in pastoral transitions.

  • King’s Church is in a genuinely strong position both naturally and spiritually. Attendance, membership, finances, and measurable outcomes are steady and growing while spiritual hunger continues to increase.

  • Our mission and values aren’t changing. Pastor Matt will lead with his own voice and vision, as we'd want him to. This implicit trust in God’s direction and Pastor Matt’s leadership are what make this a real transition rather than a caretaking arrangement. This is not a reinvention of what King’s is, but an unfolding of the next chapter in the same story, led by someone who helped write the first one. As Pastor Matt and Nikki have said “King’s will only continue to become more of who we already are”.

  • No. Nothing about the structure of Sunday changes as a result of this transition.

  • After a year of rest in 2027, they’ll begin the process of becoming the lead pastors of Faith Family Church in Canton — the church where they served for a decade before planting King’s Church. That process is expected to begin around 2028.

  • No — and that’s intentional. After his final Sunday, Pastor Noah won’t hold any formal responsibility at King’s. He and his family will transition to attending Faith Family in Canton. We will continue to be friends in ministry and hope to welcome him back from time to time as a guest speaker.

  • Yes, and we want you to hear them from us. Pastor Casey has been sensing a shift for the past year and will be transitioning to go full-time with 24-7 Prayer. She and her family are staying at King’s, and she’ll continue serving as an elder. Josh Ludwig is joining our pastoral staff full-time this fall as our communities pastor and Kellie Dundon will lead the prayer team as a volunteer.

  • Honestly. If you’re sad, be sad — that’s a sign his leadership has meant something to you. If you’re excited, say so. Both can be true at once, and they are for most of us.

  • We’d like to hear it. Send any questions to info@kingschurchoh.com