SEASON TWO - EPISODE 22: A YEARLY CONTEMPLATIVE BREAKFAST WITH MATT NIGHTINGALE
Do you have that person who you grab a drink with maybe once a year and it’s as if no time has passed at all? That’s how my friendship with Matt Nightingale has worked.
Matt and I met probably twelve years ago. I think we initially connected through Twitter and our friendship then developed at a yearly conference we attended. It became our yearly tradition where we’d always have breakfast together during the conference. Our breakfast always ended up being hours of conversation and countless cups of coffee.
In this episode of The Why Behind the What, I have the privilege of interviewing my friend and colleague, Matt Nightingale. He is a pastor, spiritual director, an educator, ted-talker, musician, father, and does a lot of work surrounding spirituality and sexuality. He has a profound journey and his story is incredible. He has become known for his TEDx Talk with his former wife that shares part of his painful and redemptive story of being in a mixed-oriented marriage for 23 years and coming out during his mid-forties.
In this episode we talk about the importance of contemplative spirituality, spiritual direction, the restrictive teachings of fundamentalism, and how after deconstructing beliefs we didn’t really believe we were opened to finding God in new and incredible experiences.
I hope you’ll find our conversation to be as enjoyable as I did.
You can connect with Matt on his website. You can also follow him on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. A few people and resources we mentioned in this podcast are: Steve Wiens, The Journey Center, Quest Novato, Eva Sullivan Knoff, Joanna Quintrell, The Christian Closet.
And, as you discover a faith that you can truly believe in, one where you journey with others through contemplative practices that can be a healing balm to your soul, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.