Matt’s Blog

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2021 in Review

2021 in Review

It's become a tradition of mine to look back through my Instagram on New Year's Eve and reflect on the past twelve months. I did it two years ago as I was traveling to Fort Lauderdale for my first Q Christian Fellowship conference, and then I did it again last year,...

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Pray Away

Pray Away

Before I started "Pray Away," the new Netflix documentary about conversion therapy, I dug out my journal from the fall of 2002. I had just come out to my wife and ministry colleagues that spring, and I had started Christian counseling to deal with my "broken"...

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The Gay Man Who Launched the Jesus Movement

The Gay Man Who Launched the Jesus Movement

Alejandro and I watched the documentary Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher (available to rent on Amazon Prime Video for $1.99) a few weeks ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it.  Friends, the simple fact of the matter is that the Calvary Chapel and...

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Launching Common Sanctuary

Launching Common Sanctuary

Two weeks ago today, in my friends Lynne and Rod Wallace's beautiful backyard here in Santa Rosa, thirty of us gathered for wine and hors d'oeuvres and songs and stories and conversations. I called it a "soft launch" for friends and family to learn about my new...

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Celebrating Pride 2021

Celebrating Pride 2021

Every year around this time, I hear from well-intentioned Christian people who are very concerned about my embrace of Pride. After all, they reason, pride is a sin. Proverbs 16:18 makes this clear: "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." In...

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I Don’t Believe in Ex-Homosexuals

I Don’t Believe in Ex-Homosexuals

On Thursday, I had a conversation with some fundamentalists on Twitter who were convinced God does not love and affirm LGBTQ+ identities and relationships. One of them told me that I had never really known God, because if I had, God would have taken away my "same sex...

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Meeting God in a Gay Spa

Meeting God in a Gay Spa

God met me in a gay spa in Puerto Vallarta last week. Alejandro's Valentine's Day gift to me was two hours (deep tissue massage and Vichy body scrub) in one of Puerto Vallarta's premiere spas, Acqua Spa for Men. It's in Zona Romantica, the gay district, it's for men...

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Sin

Sin

I've been thinking a lot about the fundamentalist/Evangelical understanding of sin. I remember spending a lot of time and energy trying to figure out whether something was or was not "a sin." It was never about the consequences or impact of a behavior, it was about...

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The Glorious Miracle of Simply Being

The Glorious Miracle of Simply Being

(This was a Twitter thread Wednesday night. I was encouraged to turn it into a blog post.) Y'all. I have finally accepted I will never win a Tony award. And honestly? I have to grieve that a little bit. Because let me tell you, when I was a kid, that was my biggest...

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Latest Posts

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2022 in Review

2022 in Review

It's 10am on Saturday, December 31, in Santa Rosa, California. It's cold and dark and absolutely pouring outside. I'm still...

A Different Kind of Pride Month

A Different Kind of Pride Month

It's June 19, 2022, and I'm just now writing my annual Pride Month post. I know, I know... It's not like me, is it? I...

Spiritual Direction & Support Groups
“Spiritual direction—also called spiritual companionship—explores a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human. Simply put, spiritual direction is helping people tell their sacred stories everyday.”

Liz Budd Ellmann, MDiv, former Executive Director, Spiritual Directors International

I am honored to serve as a spiritual director through The Christian Closet, offering web-based counseling, coaching and spiritual direction for LGBTQ Christians.