The @SeekingPastor Interview

Today I have the privilege of sharing an interview that I conducted with Matt Cannon.  Matt is a blogging legend, 6’7′ former basketball player and pastor.  He hasn’t written for his blog in a while.  If you’ve missed his writings, he tells you why he has slowed down below.

Whenever I see Matt’s number show up on my phone, I know he must be visiting Cades Cove, which is near the little area I live in.  We haven’t seen each other in a while, and based on his schedule that I glean from this interview, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  Matt, is a busy guy.  I appreciate him spending some time answering these questions and hope that you enjoy.

Matt, besides Jon Acuff, who happens to be my best friend, you may be the only blogger that I personally know. Would you care to tell everyone how we know each other?

On a dark, dreary Monday morning in 1999 I began working at the same company you still work for and was placed under your leadership and tutelage. As I began my employment there, you were charged with teaching me everything you know; it was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

In other words, I worked for a few years at the same company you work for and you were my supervisor for about a year. We became “friends” there.

If I ever had the opportunity to introduce you to an audience of 1,000 people, what is the one thing I would be guaranteed to say about you?

You would tell them about the time I nearly decapitated myself on a bathroom stall coat-hook at work and how you had to drive me to the hospital in a truck that was roughly the size of a small lunch box.

How did you begin your blogging career?

I had the opportunity to write a monthly column in the Knoxville News Sentinel for a year starting in 2007. While doing this I realized how much I enjoy writing which led me to begin blogging.

How would you say that you have changed in your blogging style and voice?

My original style and voice was basically nonexistent. I had no focus; I had no real style. Over time my style/voice/whatever sort of just came from my personality. While I haven’t written much in recent months, I guess my style/voice could be described as a humor-infused spirituality with occasional forays into poetry.

You haven’t been blogging as much lately as you used to. Have you run out of things to say?

No; I’ve ran out of time for right now though I am trying to rectify this. I am a full-time pastor, a father of 5 young children, a husband who is trying to do it right, and a seminary student. Also, some of the time I formerly used as writing time has become walking time in order for me to lose weight and become healthier.

You were in the Blogging All-Stars last year. How did that turn out for you?

Jon Acuff’s “Tweet Heard Round the World” (or JATHRTW) ruined my life.That’s all I can say about it without putting a hole through my laptop.

You are actually the person that encouraged me to begin blogging. How does it feel to get some credit for the awesomeness of Deuceology?

Completely unfulfilling.

How much of an influence has Weird Al Yankovic been on your life and your writing?

Weird Al’s music definitely helped form and encourage my strange sense of humor. If only I had his accordion playing skill then my life would be complete.

You have spent most of your adult life as a bi-vocational pastor. Now you are full-time. How would you describe the differences between the two, besides the fact that you don’t work a secular job? What adjustments have you had to make?

Being full-time affords me much more time to counsel people and visit people who are hospitalized. It also gives me more time in sermon preparation and seeking a vision for our church’s future from the Lord. Those are really the main adjustments. I have also found that being bi-vocational for so long taught me some very valuable time management lessons that I still use.

Your wife just recently graduated and the ceremony was conducted in a rodeo barn. Is there anything else to say about that?

Other than the rodeo clowns getting in the way and some of the students being gored to death, I would say that it was a rousing success.

Thanks Matt!!! What questions did you have for Matt that went unanswered?

The Weekly Round-Up 3/17/12

Instead of highlighting what went on here at Deuceology this week, I want to give a shout out to some of my favorite blogs and posts that I read this week.

I’ll start with Pastor Matt.  Matt is a church planter in New York, who loves thrash metal and the Constitution.  I love the variety to his posts. Check them out.

My good friend, Matt Cannon a.k.a The Seeking Pastor, made a bit of a comeback this week.  He has not posted as much since becoming a full-time pastor.  I’m not sure that I understand this, what with him only having five children as well and a wife who is incredibly busy as well.  Hopefully this is a return of regular posting to a true giant in the blogging world.

Rob Shepherd over at RobShep.com has had a great series this week of things he can’t support.  Rob is on my everyday reading list.  He is also planting a church and recently sold his house.  Rob loves The Walking Dead, which I’ve never seen, but we share the same tastes in movies.

Jon Stolpe has quit being a chicken farmer and gives great advice for small groups.  His Icebreaker questions are one of the highlights of my week every Friday.

Bill the Cycle Guy is a pastor in Indiana.  His posts challenge me in many ways.  This week he highlighted his family and what they mean to him.

Ben Emerson  at The Whole Dang Thing is blogging his way through the Bible, one chapter at a time.  Right now he is in Deuteronomy.  If you think the Old Testament is boring, check out Ben’s blog.

These are just a few of the blogs I check out on a regular basis.  Next week I will highlight some others.

What are some blogs that I or my readers should check out?

Just Right

We recently got new bathroom stalls in several of the men’s rooms at my employer.  This is a wonderful new benefit at work.  The days of chasing other guys around the building, trying to beat them to a stall are pretty well over.

When I think of restroom stalls at work, I can’t help but think of the time my friend Matt Cannon, the Seeking Pastor, began working on my team.  I was his first supervisor.  It wasn’t long after he started that he came to me holding his head.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me………………………………………excuse me, but I had to pause to laugh.  The story still does that to me now over twelve years later.  Matt had been in the stall performing a normal, bodily function.  He stood up and rammed his head directly into the coat hook on the back of the stall door.  How is that possible?  Matt is about6′ 7″.  A normal sized human being, like myself, would find it impossible to do this.  Not Matt.  A trip to the emergency room, a drug test and six staples later, Matt was somewhat back to normal.  At least as normal as a 6′ 7″ pastor could be.

The interesting thing about our new stalls is that I’m not sure that Matt would fit in them.  The new ones are a bit narrower than the old ones.  While I have not seen him in a while, I think Matt would find them a bit “tight”.  In fact he might look around for normal sized stalls if he still worked there.

That sounds a bit like Goldilocks to me.  You remember what Goldilocks did.  He tried the Three Bears soups, chairs and beds until she found those that were just right.  I think Matt would do the same with the bathroom stalls.  He would look until he found the one that was just right, which would probably be those that were  handicapped accessible.

We are like that, aren’t we?  We are looking for the one that is “just right”.  The right what one, you ask?  Anything.  Everything.  It doesn’t matter.

It might be the right job.

The right member of the opposite sex.

The right school.

The right house.

The right church.

It doesn’t matter what it is.  You and I are usually looking for the one that is just right.  Even we that follow Christ are not immune.

I think we have it wrong.

Instead we should be looking to be just right ourselves.  Instead of looking for the just right in everything else, how about focusing on being just right ourselves?  On being right in Christ?

When we do that, we are probably more likely to find the right one, the right school, church, etc.

What is the right “thing” that you have been looking for?  Have you been looking to being just right in Christ?