Eric J. Bargerhuff, Ph.D.
Senior Pastor and Elder

Eric joined the staff of Clearwater Community Church in 2005 and serves in the role of our Senior Pastor. He and his wife Gina have been married for 14 years and are the proud parents of two very active boys. They currently live in Palm Harbor, Florida.

Eric has served in churches in Ohio and Illinois. He was called to the ministry in 1990 and ordained in May 1996. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree from Ashland University in Ohio, as well as a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in Biblical and Systematic theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. His first book entitled Love that Rescues: God's Fatherly Love in the Practice of Church Discipline is published by Wipf and Stock publishers and is a book about the grace and fatherly love of God that is embodied in the church's efforts to restore a brother or sister in Christ who has gone astray.

Eric is also a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and a Fellow in the Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology. His passions besides preaching and teaching include writing, grief ministry, and counseling. He is a big fan of many sports teams, including the Chicago Cubs, Dallas Cowboys, and Indiana University Men's Basketball. He even had a stint as a Division III men's assistant basketball coach in the mid '90's at a Christian college in Illinois.

Growing up in rural Indiana, Eric naturally loves the outside, including fishing and hunting and walking through the woods up north in the Fall. You will often catch him singing and has been known to break out into a hymn during the middle of a sermon from time to time.