And now for something completely different. . .

This isn’t specifically about Asperger’s, but something I’m really excited about and want to share with you.

I was honored to be his official photographer 🙂

My pastor is awesome.  I won’t get into all the reasons why here, so you’ll have to take my word for it right now.  He recently wrote a book called Resisting Gossip.  You should read it.   Here’s the review I wrote for Amazon:

I am one of the happy members of Lanse Evangelical Free Church, we who call Dr. Mitchell “Pastor Matt.” During the process of getting this book published, he gave our Bible Study group updates and prayer requests. I loved sharing the joy of finally seeing this book become a reality! More than that, I loved discovering that Pastor Matt writes the same way he preaches and counsels- with a conversational tone, appropriate and effective use of Scripture, and an obvious heart of concern for others.

In this book, Pastor Matt:
defines gossip
explains the different heart motivations behind our gossip
provides real strategies for resisting gossip
advises on how to respond when we are the subject of gossip
teaches how to repent of our gossip
includes a section for leaders to help cultivate gossip-resistant churches

All of this is done with carefully-chosen anecdotes and Scripture references. The verses aren’t taken out of context to support his points or thrown in as an afterthought; instead, it is clear that Pastor Matt learned what he is teaching from studying the Word.

This book is easy to read yet rich in content. It is sharply convicting yet full of grace and hope. It teaches timeless truths that are extremely timely in our current culture. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

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A few years ago, I asked my facebook friends for podcast recommendations.  One (also single) friend suggested the Boundless Show.  I checked it out and enjoyed it enough to keep listening.  A few months ago I was taking a walk and on the show they were interviewing a guy who just published a book.  I thought, “Hey!  Pastor Matt just wrote a book.  They should interview him!”  I got on their website and sent them an e-mail about the book, thinking it was a long-shot but couldn’t hurt.  After a few exchanges back and forth and having the publisher send them a review copy, we finally heard back that they wanted to get him on the interview calendar in early 2014.  I was *so excited* when I read the email! (For those of you who know about stims, my excitement translated to approximately 3 claps, 5 hand-flaps, and 4 knee-slaps.)

P. Matt asked me to suggest a few shows to listen to to prepare for the interview.  That inspired him to write this blog post (and that blog post helped solidify my decision to cut back on facebook time somehow; my solution was to delete the app from my iPhone to make it less convenient to check constantly.  But I digress.)

And here it is, his Boundless Show interview.  I am thrilled that I was able to help make it happen, and I hope that many people are blessed by his wisdom, as I have been.  Enjoy!

(click the image to go to the page to listen/download, or click here to download the podcast via iTunes- it’s on “An Unexpected Love Story: Episode 313”)