H2O Cincinnati

Welcome, MBJ!

You are wise to be cautious initially about any church group. The Bible tells us to compare them to what scripture teaches. As Huldah points out, this college church group is basically connected to GCx. H2O Cincinnati is definitely a descendant of GCx. They are part of their Collegiate Church Network (CCN). So, your intuition to be very concerned is spot on.

The following can be found on their “About” Page:

“H2O is one of many college churches across the country, and we are proud to partner alongside other churches to reach college students with the gospel. If you would like to learn more about the Collegiate Church Network, click here.”
(Bold emphasis mine)

Here is a link to the history of name changes within GCx including CCN: http://forum.gcmwarning.com/jim-mccotter-gc-history/gcx-churches-escape-bad-reports-through-frequent-name-changes/

Here is some specific feedback about this particular “church”

I've recently encountered current and former members of H2O churches in my part of the country (Cincinnati, Ohio) and am greatly concerned that the same kinds of GCx abuses are still occurring in these H2O churches. It's similar to what happened when the original leader of the ICOC (Kip McKean) was kicked out of leadership and a new group took over. The same abuses still occurred (and are still occuring), but not to the levels that they did in the past. However, these abuses are abuses nonetheless. This is my fear with the people I know who are involved with H2O, particularly at the leadership level. ... It's harder to uncover bad GCx theology unless you really dig into it.
-xray342 (2015)

Experience posted here at other H2O Churches:

I was a part of the church as they decided to make the transition from Mosaic to H2O [GCx Church group at Ohio State University]... Friendships are formed STRONGLY and QUICKLY, and it can feel like "home." This is called "love bombing”.
-XianJaneway

...oversharing is rampant in Collegiate/GCM. Tons of emphasis on getting people to share their sins, and by them sharing, and in this case being very flippant about egregious sin, they can get 20 year-old guys to share their sins with each other and the staff. This helps build community, which ultimately is how they "secure commitments" as they would say.

These men are sick. They create systems where they have power, and they run the "churches" how they want to. Once you become a pastor, you operate by a different set of rules, leaving behind a trail of victims in your quest to "make disciples," aka get more people in your church. As they say, you can't pass on what you don't have, and very few of these men have dealt with their emptiness, so they're driven by a desperation success to feed their egos rather than by love of God and others.
-tsessef

You might want to reconsider your assumption that "there has been a formal distancing." You also might want to click on your own link again to see the chameleon nature of the organization. Now they are calling themselves "Reliant," and guess who is on the board of directors? None other than David Bovenmyer, Greg Van Nada, Joe Dunn, and James Kaufman, whose "roots with the ministry run very deep." So it appears that at least half of the board go way back with GCx, and a quarter of the board helped propagate GCx from its earliest years.
-newcreature

Greg Van Nada is the Managing Director of CCN.
Greg Van Nada has been a leader in GCM churches for many years and goes way back in the history of GCC.
GCM churches are now called CCN churches, but were started by GCC.
Same churches.
Same leader.
No distancing from the past history in words or actions.
Oh what a tangled web we weave...
-Linda

Your son is considering leadership in a movement [H2O Church at Bowling Green under CCN, formerly GCM] that has had a sorted and extremely controversial past, including being classified a cult at one point by at least 3 watchdog organizations. Although the movement issued an apology in 1991, it is the testimony of many ex-members that the same types of abuses that landed it in hot water in the past still occur to this day.
-puff of purple smoke

I was a part of H2O in Orlando, Florida in the early 2000s. . . . A system of leadership development that focused almost entirely on farming student leaders who were in college.

Often times a lot of responsibility was placed on these students who did not have the maturity to handle the role. Nor did they seem to have the time either. A student leader's number one priority tended to seem like it was the success of his ministry or the ministry of the church (i.e. his/her life-group) not their studies. Definitely an imbalance there and/or de-emphasis on a student leader's academic responsibilities. Reminds me of those in college athletics; though there is lip service paid to athletes being in college to get a degree/education, the sense you tend to get is that they are only there to play whatever sport they are playing and that is all the college really cares about.

These same college leaders grow up to be pastors in GCM and they continue the same kind of leadership development because that is all they know.
-bothered

About GCx Church Organization [including CCN - H2O Churches]:

Attending a GCx church will not let you in on the undertones, the core DNA... the matrix of the group. The DNA is flawed from the first generation of the church. That mutation has replicated itself again and again. It's possible to see intimations of the dangerous thinking and practices, but it's easy to write those off as simply personal differences or aberrations. However, with GCx, the surface oddities are merely the tip of the iceberg. Not only that, but certain things (the history, the beliefs on dating, the lack of community with other believers, the group think, the heavy handed life involvement, the work so hard to "burn out for God," etc etc) are all hidden deliberately. They are not revealed until you have demonstrated that basically you're not leaving ever and they know that you can be "trusted."
-Agatha L’Orange