HEY, I’M MATT!

I'm endlessly curious about the Bible and Christianity and the God those things are about. I was raised around Evangelical Christianity, collected a few degrees about theology and such, pastored churches and then had my faith fall apart. I spent time believing there was no God, but then started over on Christian faith from the beginning, and that's where I am now. The idea of an infinite God setting out to redeem a busted up but still beautiful world over the long haul is about the most interesting thing I can imagine, and that (at its core) is what all my videos are about. I make explainer videos, do reviews, tour churches, interview people, make deep-dive history and theology stuff and sometimes I post ridiculous sketches. Feel free to enjoy what you resonate with and ignore the rest. If you're here, it's because your curiosity overlaps with mine, and I'm grateful for that. I'm always glad to cross paths with anyone of good will whether we agree on everything or not.

WHAT I BELIEVE

I’m a Christian who believes in One Triune God who made everything. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God in the flesh and the promised Messiah, and that through Him there is forgiveness of sins and right standing with God. I believe the Bible is from God and is reliable.

I’ve been connected with the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) for a long time. I got undergraduate degrees from their college (where I met my wife, Camilla), and got my seminary degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois (which is also associated with the EFCA). After that I did more school for language, and then did a post-graduate degree from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Almost all of my pastoring career was in the EFCA, and it was great. I’m not a pastor now, but I left on the best of terms in 2019 to write, record and make videos full time.

I tell you all of that as a point of reference to help you get a sense of what I believe. I think the EFCA statement of Faith is a solid expression of historic, orthodox Christian belief. I like what it says, and I also like what it doesn’t say. I think there are other coherent statements of Faith from other Christian traditions, and even if I don’t agree with every single thing other historic, orthodox Christians might think, I’m usually pretty good at understanding why we differ and getting along anyways. So even if we’re not identical to each other in our convictions, I hope we can still spend time together in good will here on the Internet where our paths have intersected.

Here are three statements of Christian belief that succinctly express where I’m coming from:

The Evangelical Free Church of America’s Statement of Faith

The Apostle’s Creed

The Nicene Creed