Matt Hawkins

Making A Difference

Matt Hawkins is a fun guy with a serious side. He's passionate about helping the youth of Harvest find a meaningful relationship with Christ and coaching them toward a richer spiritual walk. He also oversees Hebrews Fort Wayne, a coffeehouse showcasing a wide variety of Indie bands and music.

If you have questions for Matt, you can email him at matt@harvestfellowship.us and you can visit hebrewsfortwayne.org to see what bands are scheduled to appear at Hebrews.

 

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The unedited audio version of this interview is available below. To play, just click the play arrow (➤). If you prefer to download the file, click on "menu" and then click "download." (If you want to listen to this on an iPhone or iPad, this direct link may work better.)

 

 

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brad:  Thanks, Matt, for doing this. I appreciate it.

 

matt:  It's good to be here, Brad.

 

brad:  I just have a couple questions. People who have been around Harvest for a while kind of know you. They know your oddities and your quirks...

 

matt:  Sure.

 

brad:  And they also know some of the things you're good at. You've been involved with the youth and pretty much coordinating that effort for how long?

 

matt:  Seven years.

 

brad:  You were just a kid when you started!

 

matt:  Yep, still am!

 

brad:  How old are you now?

 

matt:  27.

 

brad:  And now you've got a baby...

 

matt:  Yep, one year old.

 

brad:  So you're definitely getting older.

 

matt:  Yep. Yep. It's happening.

 

brad:  Do you see changes in your life since you've had a baby?

 

matt:  Oh, yeah. Just the way I think about stuff, and my body aches a little bit more, and just the quirks of getting older I guess.

 

brad:  But you're able to handle it so far.

 

matt:  Yeah. It's good.

brad:  Let's talk just a little bit about the things you're involved in at Harvest. Some of the things that I would like to cover are, what are some of your ideas for the youth and what are your observations about youth in general right now in our society. Also, I'd like to touch on the Hebrews Coffeehouse because I really appreciate the work that you do there with the music and the bands that come in and all that.

 

So let's start with the youth. Trends change, society evolves, and kids are one way in one generation and another way in another generation. You work mostly with high school and junior high kids; what are kids like in that age group right now?

 

matt:  Well, it's hard to compare to when I first started, but I think kids are always just all over the board, and they don't know what they're into. They're kind of developing things that they want to be a part of and things they believe in. I see kids go from eighth grade to freshman year, and that's kind of when they start to solidify who they're going to be, who they're going to be involved with, stuff they're going to do in their free time in sports and whatnot. So I don't have any vast wisdom of teenage culture and the trends that are happening, but I do know that kids are seeking for stuff, and they're seeking for truth, seeking for things that aren't the truth, and that's kind of why I feel called and led to be there and to minister and disciple them when they're trying to figure out what they're going to do with their life, you know, and what they're going to align themselves with during that time.

 

brad:  It's a pretty pivotal time in their life, especially junior high.

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  My son works with Youth for Christ, and he has said before that by the time they're out of junior high school, a lot of their patterns and habits are set.

 

matt:  Uh-huh.

 

brad:  The kids are pulled in a lot of directions, aren't they? I mean, there are a lot of things to command their attention.

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  And if they haven't created a habit around God, He's not really high on the list.

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  Some moms and dads have done a good job of teaching their kids the primary things, but others are still learning it themselves.

 

matt:  You can teach your kids all day long and bring them to church every single Sunday, but it has to come to a point where it's their calling, it's their desire to walk with the Lord and be in the word, and not because somebody is making them, you know? I like to see in kids' lives where that transformation is happening. It's not because I'm forced to do something or just because I'm giving them a Bible study, but they're actually connecting it with their life, you know?

 

brad:  They can probably relate to you as a young man, older than them, but someone who's still young and who has seen a bit of life and...

 

matt:  Uh-huh.

 

brad:  They can see real world applications from your life, things that you can teach them about both what you've done right and what you might have done wrong. I also know that you don't have their attention for a long time. I've heard that in junior high you often have their attention for only about one minute of their age. So if they're 13 years old, you might have their attention for 13 minutes. Of course it's going to vary a bit from kid to kid, but it's not a real long time.

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  So, in your classes and youth group meetings, how do you find the balance between serious teaching of God's principles and just having a good time?

 

matt:  Well, that's hard. On Sunday mornings we'll teach for probably about 35 or 40 minutes. It's not solid me speaking for 35 or 40 minutes; I try to make it funny and interesting, and, you know, the kids will share stuff. So I would say we probably get a solid 20 minutes or so of just teaching, but sometimes I might get off on a funny story or tangent to make sure that they're still listening, and it can kind of go in that direction, but you always have to pull it back and bring it to the teaching of the word because that's what obviously they're there for, what they need. I just try to make it interesting. I try to make it where they can pay attention, and where there may be something waiting around the corner, you know?

 

brad:  In that age group, if it's not a bit entertaining, they don't even want to come. So you don't even get the opportunity to tell them about the gospel because they don't show up. So it's kind of a delicate balance?

 

matt:  Yeah. I find that my teachings lately have been focusing more on discipleship and serving. Like, we're back from this missions trip, and that's all I'm thinking about; it was this great thing. And so I'm trying to encourage them as we're teaching when we go out to then pull those things in and serve because we've been talking and we've been learning about serving and discipleship and stuff like that. So that's been one of the recent topics of our sermons. We've got to go do that. So it takes a little bit to teach that, but then it takes a lot more effort and time to actually go out and do it and show them what that looks like.

 

brad:  Would you say the kids you work with are primarily from Christian homes?

 

matt:  Yeah. Yeah. For the most part.

 

brad:  And your growing up, what was that like?

 

matt:  I grew up Catholic so, for me it never was a Christian life, it was just a religious life. I did all the stuff that my mom told me to do, went to all the church services, the masses, and I was confirmed when I was 14. So I kind of went through the traditional Catholic upbringing but, you know, it never had any heart; I never had any connection with God, I guess. I just did it because I had to or because I felt obligated to. I think one thing that I was taught was to just to do these things, and to perform like this and God will be happy with you, but it never once became about a genuine relationship with God. And I never had that until I was 16 when I got saved on a rafting trip in West Virginia.

 

I don't remember what the sermon was about, I don't remember the scriptures we went over, but I remember thinking this is something I don't have. I don't have this personal relationship. I have religion, I know some Bible stories, I know things about God, but I don't have a relationship with Jesus. And so that's what I needed, and that's what I had a heart for. So I got saved when I was 16 in West Virginia, and then I met my wife in the same trip. So it was a good combination for $175!

 

brad:  What a deal!

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  Was your salvation experience the kind of thing where you went from A to Z immediately, you just changed overnight?

 

matt:  Lindsay (Matt's wife) would say that I was swearing all the time, I had a terrible mouth. I was that kid in the van. It's like whoa, this kid is saying the F bomb all the time, and I remember I stopped swearing like pretty much immediately. It was, like, gone. But I still struggled with alcohol a little bit, not like it was before, you know.There was a pretty big difference there, but it wasn't like I was this terrible person before, and now, suddenly, I'm different. It was a process I guess. It still is a process, but I was being sanctified back then through the months I was being obedient.

 

brad:  I was saved when I was 17, and I'm 61 now, and I'm still working on it. It is definitely a process.

 

matt:  Uh-huh.

 

brad:  I'd like to say I've got it all nailed down, but I just don't know how realistic that really is with humans.

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  The trip to St. Kitts...I've heard it went well?

 

matt:  Yeah. Well, my friend Brandon Grayson moved down there seven months ago to be a missionary. He just felt called to go and just help with churches in St. Kitts. There's not a lot of young or middle age people, it's either you're a little kid or you're 70 years old, and from what we saw, there's just no middle ground. There no one is reaching out to youth or reaching out to college-age people. So he moved down there, and he's just been incredibly blessed, and as he's been obedient, it's God has brought tons of people into his life. He's had amazing opportunities to be on radio stations and just to be a big influence all over the island in just a small amount of time.

 

And so we went down there with our group, and we didn't really have this huge master game plan, but we knew that we were going to be obedient. We knew that we were going to do VBS stuff, Bible school things, and do some painting. But to me the blessings of the trip were to take kids that are freshmen in high school now, and kind of just lead them and teach them up to this point, and then take them on this trip and then see God do these things in their life.

 

They've learned from observing, and now they're super pumped about the Lord, and they're in the word daily, and they're journaling and writing, and it's been an encouragement to see eighth graders now become freshman, and develop these patterns and have a consistency in what their life is like now. They seem to want to pursue the Lord and have a pretty serious relationship. So, to me, that was the blessing. To take these kids who are just wanting to be obedient. They're not perfect, no one is perfect, but we wanted to go and we wanted to serve, and then through that, we really saw how a Christian should live their life daily. Obviously, a missions trip is kind of an admirable thing because you have to work and you have school, you have sports, but to see what our lives would look like and what the blessings would be if we spent our days being obedient. And I think the kids really connected with that and really saw the blessing that would come from that, so, it was a really great week!

 

brad:  It would be hard to know what more you could expect from a trip than to have them find a new perspective on how to live their lives and how to spend their time and to reorient their direction.

 

matt:  Yeah. Yeah.

 

brad:  Someone said recently that success is value that you add to your own life; significance is value that you add to others. And that's what it's all about: just contributing to other people's lives and hopefully building a pattern, a lifestyle that's more oriented towards others than ourselves.

 

Matt, another thing that you work on at Harvest is Hebrews, the coffee house ministry, and you choreograph the bands that come in, you find them and work out the schedules, you book the shows and so on. I really like that as an extension of Harvest. It brings a lot of people in who don't normally come to Harvest and it fosters a bigger view of the church. What's your vision for that? When you're working on the Hebrews Coffeehouse ministry, what is it that you're trying to accomplish?

 

matt:  Yeah. When we first started doing it my vision was to give kids or teenagers or anybody a venue that wasn't just like some other club, like Piere's in Fort Wayne for example. I wanted it to be about the Lord and about ministry. From the very beginning of it, we always said, if someone's going to come in here, we should do what we can to bless these bands. Maybe they're traveling in a van they have to sleep in overnight, and maybe they're not eating very well. We should just try to bless them as much as we can and give them food or a house to spend the night in.

 

So, our vision has always been to encourage the guys that come through but, at the same time, to encourage the kids and people that would come to the concerts with good music. Most of the time, we have Christian bands.

 

It's about ministry and, I know, that's a very simple term. People use it all the time, but it is about blessing people, giving them a place to come and to experience the Lord and just be blessed and encouraged in their walk, whether they're playing in a band or coming to listen to the music. I always want it to be about the Lord and Him using the music to reach out to people, because music, we all know, is a big deal, especially for teenagers. They love music and music has this ability to connect us with something. If it's a message of the Gospel and a message of truth, that's a pretty important thing.

 

brad:  Different people relate to the Lord in different ways. Creative people see the world a certain way, musicians see it a certain way. I like that you mix up the styles; it's not always the same style of music. Some shows are going to appeal to a certain audience, and others are going to appeal to another audience. You cover the gamut, I think, in musical tastes and styles. There aren't a whole lot of venues in the Fort Wayne area where you can see that much of a cross section of Indie artists and people who are just introducing their music to anyone who cares to listen.

 

You have had well known people at Hebrews, like Phil Wickham, John Mark McMillan & Bethany Dillon. But often my most enjoyable groups are the ones I've never heard of, the people who are working hard trying to get their ministry out there, trying to express their creative tendencies that God's given them, and no one really knows about them yet. That's fun.

 

matt:  Yeah, to me it's fun to find someone that maybe no one has ever experienced and it's cool to find bands that you know might move up.

 

brad:  Yeah.

 

matt:  I've always loved discovering music and discovering bands and whatnot, so it's kind of a cool thing to find these bands and see them in our little church.

 

brad:  Yeah. You do a great job at it. I don't come to all the shows, but I do come to quite a few. I'm usually the oldest guy there, but thanks for still letting me in the door. You pretty much have everything from acoustic folk stuff to screamo.

 

matt:  Yeah. Not so much screamo anymore.

 

brad:  I suppose it has its place, too, for certain people.

 

matt:  Yeah.

 

brad:  So, just looking at your overall input at Harvest and the role that you play there, your father-in-law, Paul Mowery is the pastor.

 

matt:  Uh-huh.

 

brad:  You know pretty much what his vision is for the church and the world in general and the way he lives, so then you can come alongside and be a support to his vision as well as fulfilling your own. Do you have dreams for Harvest Fellowship and also for your own life in general, things you'd like to accomplish?

 

matt:  Well, I think, you know, the focus in our church has always been the word. And however you can get that out, no matter what avenue that is, whether it's radio or people coming into your shows, giving them the Gospel, I think Paul's big thing is you teach the word, you know, soundly and correctly, and you give the people a real heart and desire for the word, and it will do a work that's way bigger than if you just get them pumped up about going to a church or just get them excited about some new program.

 

And so that's kind of how I am. I'm not real pushy or edgy as far as new great things are concerned. I just want to teach the kids in our youth group the word, I want to give them a heart for the gospel. I want to give them a heart for what's He's doing in our lives and what He has done in people's lives throughout history.

 

So, as I work and as I do whatever I do, I always have that in the forefront of my mind: that this is not about church, this isn't just some game, it's not some business, but it's about connecting people with the word and connecting people to live that out and to be consistent in their walks. And the word obviously does that. It cleanses and it does all these great things that if we would spend more time in it, I think we would be much better off.

 

However that works, whatever I do, that's my mission and my heart, too. Our youth group isn't this huge exciting collection of people. I just want to disciple kids. I want them to hear the word, and I want them to connect with serving and fellowship with each other and eating meals together and stuff like that and prayer. That's kind of how I look at what we do and how that connects with the vision, I guess, of our church. It always comes back to the word, it has to, because if it's not, then we're just wasting everyone's time.

 

brad:  Yeah. I think we had a conversation recently where I was telling you that one of the most exciting things to me in a church is when you see individuals who have a certain vision along with the commitment to see it through. There are a lot of people with good ideas and quite a few people who talk a lot about ideas. But there's a lot fewer people with the passion to follow up and commit to the work. It's the old "10 percent of the people do 90 percent of the work" thing, you know?

 

So, I really appreciate when I see someone who has a vision for their life and a passion to fulfill it, and they're willing to put in the hard work of just doing it, because it usually is work. I appreciate that what you do seems to come from some pretty deep place inside, and to me that translates. I think the kids know that you're serious about what you're trying to teach them and that you're serious about trying to live it out in your life.

 

matt:  Well, I think about my own life and how I grew up as a teenager never spending any time in the word or in prayer. And then, when I got saved, to see the fruit and the blessings that came out of that makes me want our kids to experience that too. I want them to know that their life shouldn't be focused just on school and boyfriends and girlfriends and who's popular and who's not. There are bigger cares and there are bigger things to worry about.

 

Just to be obedient to the Lord is the thing that made the biggest difference for me when I was a teenager, and I pray the same thing for our kids, that they wouldn't be consumed with the world, but that they would be consumed with the word, consumed with God, spending time with Him. That's the most fruitful thing they can do.

 

brad:  Well, I really appreciate your time, Matt, thanks for doing this!

 

matt:  Thanks, Brad.

 

 

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photography: Brad Wieland

 

Written by Brad Wieland, this story is part of a series called Spotlight on the Harvest Fellowship website. As new stories are added, you can check out other people's stories on the archive page.

 

published 09/01/2011