The Catholic Book Blogger
Matthew Warner is a lover of God, his wife, his kids, his life, cookies, hot-buttered bread, snoozin’ & awkward (as well as not awkward) silence. He is the founder and CEO of Flocknote, the creator of Tweet Catholic, a contributing author to The Church and New Media book, and writer/founder at The Radical Life. Matt has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship. He and his family hang their hats in Texas.
It was a pleasure to invite Matt to stop in here at CBB to talk about his recent book from Dynamic Catholic, Messy and Foolish.
PETE: Obviously Pope Francis’ words to “go out and make a mess” struck you. What was your driving force to write Messy and Foolish”?
MATTHEW WARNER: Over the years, I’ve made a lot of mistakes trying to find evangelization shortcuts and creating ways to simply “get the truth in front of people.” In those efforts, I was often doing more harm than good because I wanted to skip over the hardest and most necessary parts: making sure that I was living the life God called me to live personally and then through that building good, authentic, meaningful relationships with people God put in my life. I slowly learned (the hard way) that all of that *must* come first before the *facts* have an overall positive impact on people.
And when I look around the evangelization landscape today in the Church, I see the vast majority of people continually making the same mistakes I did. This book is especially for them.
PETE: Before we get to how readers can enact the ideas in your book, how have you been “messy and foolish” in your own life and endeavors?
MATTHEW WARNER: I think the obvious things would be: I quit my dream job as a computer engineer to help build a more connected Church and improve the way the Church communicates (flocknote.com and DigitalChurchConference.com). I love thinking of big, creative (but also practical) solutions that make huge improvements to how the Church operates (like what we’re doing with Flocknote). I like radically rethinking how work fits into family life and am constantly molding my company to both serve a practical purpose in the world while not competing with — but rather enhancing and supporting — the families of our employees. Also, our family decided to homeschool and build our own homestead, gardening and farming, so we can spend more time working and learning and living together. As a result, we don’t have much time for social media, TV shows and a lot of other such novel activities. Some people might feel like all that is radical or messy and foolish.
But the book is primarily talking about a deeper more profound kind of “messiness and foolishness.” And it’s one that is a daily struggle for me and a life-long journey I’m on: that of sainthood. And it involves waking up each morning and rejecting a lot of the “values” of modern America and trading them in for a lifestyle that seems fairly foolish to many people. It’s an adventure that makes a complete mess of *your* plans for your life. And that’s why so few end up doing it to the degree God is asking us.
PETE: So how can readers play an active role in evangelization?
MATTHEW WARNER: Read the book. Then go out start living the simple commands Jesus gave us. God’s plan is genius. If we simply do what he asks, the rest seems to just happen. People are inspired and drawn in. Questions are asked. The truth gets communicated. Conversion happens. The Good News spreads.
If we try to take shortcuts, the opposite happens.
PETE: What advice can you provide for those who may be intimated with the whole idea of evangelization?
Evangelization is the mission of the Church. All of us are called to do it. And it’s a lot easier than you think (once you are willing to do the hard work that needs doing on yourself first).
PETE: Time for my signature ending question. This is a blog abut books. What books are currently on your bookshelf to read?
Oh goodness. If I listed the ones on the shelf we’d be here all day. But I’ll tell you the ones on my desk and next to my bed.
A Map of Life by Frank Sheed
The Name of God is Mercy by Pope Francis
A second Look by Mark Hart
What Matters? Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth by Wendell Berry
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by GK Chesterton
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