Matt Perman, Senior Director of Strategy here at Desiring God, is last to be mentioned (but not least) of the seminar speakers for our National Conference this year. His seminar is entitled "Zealous for Good Works: Rethinking Productivity in Light of Justification by Faith Alone."
During his days as a college student at the University of Northern Iowa, and alongside his degree work, Matt wrote scores of articles related to theology and apologetics. During this time his classmate and friend, Justin Taylor, had the idea to start a theological and apologetics website. So together they started the website, with Justin pointing people to helpful resources and Matt posting his writings to make them accessible to the outside world. Matt has over a hundred articles on the site, which you can still visit today in their native format at www.contendforthefaith2.com.
After graduating from Northern Iowa, Matt moved to Minneapolis to become part of the first class of The Bethlehem Institute (which has now become the M. Div. Apprenticeship Program of Bethlehem College & Seminary). It was during that time that he started working at Desiring God. Matt then went on to earn an M.Div. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY before returning to Minneapolis, where he now lives with his wife, Heidi, and their three children. Prior to his role as Director of Strategy, Matt was Director of Internet and led our website redesign of 2006.
A little over a year ago Matt spoke with Tom Nelson on "The Gospel and Money" at The Gospel Coalition's National Conference. Then in November he gave a message titled, "What Are People For? Toward an Ethic of Management," at the Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting in New Orleans. He has also authored several articles, including "Make it Free: Improving Online Effectiveness by Removing All Barriers to Accessing and Sharing Content" and "How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day.”
Matt writes regularly on productivity, leadership, and theology at his blog, What's Best Next. You can find Matt on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.
