Grace Baptist Church, Canton, Ohio, called Matt Hutchens as pastor of discipleship, youth, and families.
“An important thing in life,” Matt says, “is to honor God with what you do and to share Him with other people.”
Matt is a graduate of Appalachian Bible College, where he studied missions and camp ministry. He and his wife, Mallory, initially explored being involved in a newly established Christian camp in Guatemala.
“God closed that door,” Matt says. But Matt was “not too shocked,” because he hadn’t felt at peace with the idea of serving there.
“What I didn’t realize is that God was directing me back to my home church to do an internship—a pastoral internship,” Matt says. “God used that as a way to get me into pastoral ministry. . . . God just kind of lined up the ducks in a row.”
Matt and Mallory both cherish that time of his internship and enjoyed ministering to teens and their parents.
“The safest place to be is in God’s will,” Matt says. “[God] has been good. . . . His love is steadfast and it doesn’t change. He is faithful to us whenever we mess up, whenever we’re off track, whenever we’re ignorant. He is loving and kind to keep us on course.”
Matt joins a pastoral staff consisting of David Ryan, pastor since 1999, and Ken Floyd, pastor of leadership development since 2023.
