Matt is the Lead and Founding Pastor of The Gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. Since Matt founded The Gathering in 2006, it has grown into a thriving multi-site congregation with three locations scattered throughout St. Louis. With over 1600 in worship a weekend, The Gathering was recently named the 3rd fastest growing large United Methodist Churches.
Matt is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis where he received a B.A. in mathematics. He then completed his Master’s of Divinity at Emory University in Atlanta. He served as an associate pastor for a local UM church in St. Louis before starting The Gathering.
Matt is passionate about church planting, connecting with new generations, and multi-site ministry. He frequently speaks and teaches on these subjects. Matt is the author of “Let Go: Leaning Into the Future Without Fear” (Abingdon, May 2019), “8 Virtues of Rapidly Growing Churches” (Abingdon Books, October 2018), “Happy? What It Is and How to Find It” (Abingdon Books, April 2017), “Fail: What to Do When Things Go Wrong” (Abingdon Books, September 2017), a contributor to Disciple Fast Track: Into the Word, Into the World (Abingdon, 2017), “Flipping Church: How Successful Church Planters Are Turning Conventional Wisdom Upside-Down” (Discipleship Resources, 2016), and the “Ask: Faith Questions in a Skeptical Age” DVD project (Abingdon, 2015).
Matt has been elected to serve as a delegate from Missouri to the United Methodist General and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2012, 2016, 2019, and is a delegate for both Conferences again in 2020. Matt is also passionate about the Mozambique safe water ministry he began through The Gathering. To date this ministry has raised over $1,769,083.78 for safe water and dug over 154 wells.
When he's not writing, preaching, or teaching, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids.
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