Matt has motivated, informed, and entertained a variety of journalism, professional, and civic groups. As well, as a preacher and teacher, he has rallied audiences at several churches and retreats.

Some of Matt’s topics include:

Go ahead, blame the media

For general audiences: After a quarter of a century covering the news, Matt brings a different perspective to the news of the day. Over the course of his career, he has seen the media change from big institutions to a media composed of “citizen journalists” and more sources than you can count, from Twitter to The Washington Post. And everyone’s biased, aren’t they? How do you make sense of it? Illustrated by curious and humorous stories, Matt provides a few key ways anyone can understand the media and understand anything from The New York Times, cable news or your own Facebook feed.

What the media can teach the church

For church audiences and leadership: Can a Christian be in the lame stream media? Can a Christian be anywhere in the world? Matt grappled with questions, typically put to him by devout believers, and what he found is that a life in the media prepared him well for a life in ministry. How? Matt explains that the lessons learned in the media directly play out in the Christian faith, starting with seeking the truth and running through needing (and extending) the grace that only Jesus can provide. With some humorous examples, Matt demonstrates how life and faith intersect on the pages of the newspaper and the pews of the local church and how believers can benefit from those lessons and grow in their own faith.

Finding a faith that holds on

For a church audience: Faith has become a relative term in American culture. People have faith in what seems to fit their lives — their bodies, bank accounts, possessions and the people around them. But biblical faith has nothing to do with what’s seen, and in an exploration of biblical truth, starting in the book of Hebrews, Matt outlines what a real faith looks like and how that can develop in believers today.