Faithfully Creative

The extending piece of being a person of welcome… offers a more substantial sense of belonging than if we were to only consume. - Sarah Westfall My humanity needs space for nothingness. It needs to become settled once again… so that sometime in the future again, I can exhale and give again. - Sarah Westfall In this episode, Matt has a conversation with Sarah Westfall. Sarah is a full-time writer,...

“To live a creative life, we do have to make a choice to live in courage, to be willing to be vulnerable and to put ourselves out there.” In this episode Matt has a conversation with Stephen Roach. Stephen is host of the Makers and Mystics podcast and founder of The Breath and The Clay creative arts organization. Stephen travels as a keynote speaker and event curator conducting workshops and event...

"If we believe we're made in the image of God, a creator God, then that image in us is creative. It's a way of engaging with that divine spark." In this episode, Matt has a conversation with Shari Green. Shari writes fiction and poetry for children and young adults. Her latest book, SONG OF FREEDOM, SONG OF DREAMS, is a 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award finalist. Her other novels in verse inc...

"The church doesn’t need to be full of professional artists to be creative. Creativity is about engaging our neighbourhoods with imagination and love." In this episode, Matt has a conversation with Dr. Mark Glanville. He currently works as the Director of the Centre for Missional Leadership at St. Andrew’s Hall at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and is the author of 5 books. He has...

“Creativity is a response to being loved. Whether through poetry, music, or even gardening, it’s how we express our connection to the sacred.”—Kaitlin Curtice In this episode, Matt has a conversation with Kaitlin Curtice. Kaitlin is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As a citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity...

In this episode, Matt talks with Laura Alary. Laura is the author of over 20 books (a few are on their way to publication). On her website, she claims to “write stories that make us bigger on the inside” and explains that “…means my books make you think. Wonder. Ask big questions. Maybe understand other people a bit better. Some of them are serious. Some are funny. Most are a bit of both. But they...

In this inaugural episode of the newly minted Faithfully Creative Podcast, Matt has a conversation with Merideth Hite Estevez. She is a Juilliard-trained oboist, Doctor of Musical Arts, author, coach, and speaker who helps self-identified artists and the creatively curious recover the joy of making. Merideth is host of the Artists for Joy podcast and author of The Artist’s Joy: a guide to Getting...

Note: The personal essay below is most of this podcast episode. You may either listen or read. Your choice! As I’ve attempted to move toward a more regular pattern of writing, I’ve decided to change the name of this Substack newsletter and also change the name and essentially re-launch my podcast. Both will now be called “Faithfully Creative.” My aim is to stay on the same trajectory that I’ve bee...

This amazing conversation with Juno-award winning musician, Steve Bell , was the 9th episode of the Spirituality for Ordinary People Podcast. I felt like it was worth re-sharing, and have also included the original “show notes” below. You can also get a transcript by reading this post in the substack app or on the substack website. This interview was such an amazing experience, recorded in Steve’s...

There are certain Christian traditions that seem talk about how we need more “Bible-based teaching.” These same traditions that tend to indicate that they are elevating the Bible and take pride in “understanding the Bible literally” or, if they actually deign to admit that it is impossible to take the entire Bible literally because, well, least of all, there are poems in the Bible (even an entire...

A podcast episode based on a written reflection first posted to the Noticing Delight Substack . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mattbrough.substack.com

Reading is interpreting. We know this more keenly than ever because we interpret all the time. You receive an email announcing that you have won a cruise. You read just a bit of it and already you have done your interpretation. It is spam or a scam. You delete it or send it to your Junk Mail folder. You read a news story and wonder if they have really got all their facts straight. Where is the new...

You can listen to the version audio or read the full reflection (transcript) below: The fact that we hold this collection of books as sacred (or if you personally don’t, you may at least agree that there is deep ancient wisdom there), is enough to say that we may want to do our best to understand what the Bible is all about. Interpreting the Bible can be challenging but, believe it or not, it can...

The fifth in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. He is born among us and is one of us. The incarnation. God with us and with intent, with imagination and creativity. Bearer of hope, and peace, and joy, and love. And so, we can be religious about the incarnation. As God came into the world and loved the place and people to which He came, we can do the same. You can see the places you find yo...

The fourth in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. The final advent theme is Love. Love is so central.  It is at the core of who we are as human beings. We naturally love.  Think of parents, children, grandchildren, wives, husbands, true friends. And our faith takes us further with love.  Over and over we are asked to give ourselves to love. To be religious about it.  To let our love reflect...

The third in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. What if joy was something you could simply choose? We tend to think joy is something that happens to us. It isn’t in our control. We would love to feel joyful, but that is really hard to do day in and day out. Is it the same as just being happy all the time? No, not really. So, what would it mean to be religious about joy? To say yes to joy,...

The second in a 5-part series for Advent 2022. Being religious about something is about devotion, it’s about commitment. It is about staying the course even when you don’t feel like it. We are compelled to stay with it. We’ve made it our religion, and ours is a religion of peace. War is rampant, but we claim peace. Jesus claimed “Blessed are the Peacemakers” and declared that they would be called...

The first in a 5-part series for Advent/Christmas 2022. Getting religious about hope is not about being unrealistic or having some pie-in-the sky, everything will always be totally fine attitude. Religiously hoping means a full on acknowledgment of life in all its mess, brokenness, and still we fend off cynicism. We lament, but we don’t despair. We don’t just “hope everything gets a bit better soo...

"From now on you will be catching people" -  Jesus says this to his followers and it does not sound positive at all. Catching people? So, the job of people who follow Jesus is to go and "catch" others? Trap them? Trick them into something? I'm going to just say NO to all of that, but also say that when Jesus said this, there was something far more going on (no surprise - it's Jesus!). This is a pu...

Matt welcomes AJ Sherrill for a conversation around a book that has one of the most amazing sub-titles of all time! - Being With God: The Absurdity, Necessity, and Neurology of Contemplative Prayer. AJ is the Lead Pastor at St. Peter's Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and is an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he teaches popular courses on transformational preaching...

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Ten - God With Everyone For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get...

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Nine - Running Away From God's Presence For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other sub...

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Eight - God NOT in the Earthquake, Fire, or Storm For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with...

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is Part Seven - God in the Temple part 2 For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscriber...

The Audio version of Prairie Presbyterian Church's Be Still and Behold series: 10 Weeks Exploring God's Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Get an Overview of the series here. This is part Six - God in the Temple part 1 For the printed liturgy and the original video series, visit https://www.prairiechurch.ca/worship   This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscriber...