Matthew Deen
WHO AM I?
My story begins in the Chattahoochee Valley region of Georgia, where I was born and raised. I was blessed to have as my first spiritual teacher my very own mother, who was a children’s minister and educator in the Pentecostal church that was my first and longtime spiritual home.
After graduating college in 2010, I moved to New York City, where I built the beginnings of what I believed would be a long career as a nonprofit fundraiser. But a series of events, personal and public, led me to discern a call to ministry. In 2017 I entered Union Theological Seminary, where I began to work through a lifelong accumulation of questions, curiosities sown from earliest age and nourished through many joys and hardships.
While in seminary I had the privilege of serving as a community minister at Judson Memorial Church. Since graduating Union in May 2020, I have served as an interning minister at Centre Congregational Church in downtown Brattleboro and, since May 2021, I have served as pastor for Marlboro Meeting House, a seasonal worship community in Marlboro, Vermont. In August 2022, Newfane Church made me the happiest minister this side of glory by calling me to serve as their pastor.
I am also privileged to do work for Auburn Theological Seminary in NYC, as well as the BTS Center in Portland, Maine. I am richly blessed to live in Townshend, Vermont, with my spouse Ella and our temperamental cat Mimi.
WHAT I BELIEVE:
I believe the whole of Creation is the result of God’s ongoing creative love and that all of us have a vital role to play in stewarding this love toward the liberation and wholeness of everyone—our fellow creatures included.
I believe that God loves all of us—all of us—far beyond our ability to comprehend it and that the more fully we come to understand the depth and breadth of this great love, the freer we become.
I believe being a Christian is about how well one loves, not how well one believes (or what one believes).
I believe the Bible is an endless source of healing wisdom and liberatory insights and that it is as relevant today as at any time.
That said, I also believe that the work of interpretation is never final, that God is still speaking, and that Scripture is too important ever to take its meaning for granted.