I'm sitting in the Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas on the afternoon of December 30, 2019. I have a few more hours to wait until I board my flight to Fort Lauderdale for the Q Christian Fellowship Conference, where I'll be performing at Q Night Live and helping to lead...

Last week I was so encouraged to read the news that a relatively prominent Evangelical Covenant Church called Vox Veniae in Austin, Texas (read their 2013 New York Times profile here) was choosing to disassociate from their denomination rather than submit to its...

It started the evening of June 18th. I was in bed working on my computer when out of nowhere my left arm felt very wrong, like it had suddenly fallen asleep. My forearm and fingers felt numb, and I couldn't move my hand normally. I leapt out of bed in a panic and...

I'm in one of my favorite places this morning, sitting on the couch in my pajamas with my laptop. I feel so at home in this cozy little house in Berkeley. For the last three and a half years, since that life-changing day in May of 2016, Annie and Victoria's house has...

I’ve never been one to stand on the sidelines, especially if there’s a bandwagon to jump on. So here’s my contribution to the #10YearChallenge. 2009 was a good year in many ways. I had just started my new job as worship pastor at Redeemer Covenant Church in...

A few weeks back, I wrote about why my identity as a gay man matters—-even in church, maybe even especially in church. I'm glad that I was able to find the words and that they resonated with so many of you. It led to some good, healthy conversations on Facebook and...

includer © David Hayward aka The Naked Pastor Purchase a print here. I recently got some feedback about my ministry from someone who used to go to my church. He basically said "I don't want to hear that Matt's gay every Sunday." Oof. I'll admit it. That hurt a little...

It's National Coming Out Day, and I have been doing a lot of thinking about my identity. For many, many years I tried to deny a central part of myself, and when I finally came out publicly in 2016, it was really important to me to "live in congruence with reality."...

This is not a good look for The Evangelical Covenant Church. It's fascinating for me to watch all of this from the outside. I DEEPLY understand all of the perspectives, both conservative and progressive, that surround this issue. I understand the reasons that my...

Sometimes I can’t believe the places I find myself. God keeps opening doors that I never would have even imagined walking through. This afternoon I spent time at the Ralston White Retreat Center with my new friends CJ, Leah, Sylvia and the...