Interview With Matthew James Dowden

Beginning in 2020, I will introduce a (hopefully regular) new phase of Transforming Truth Today: an interview series with artists and Christian leaders I consider influential, noteworthy, or simply interesting. This is the first installment.

I have followed Matthew James Dowden's film career since his delightful A Brush With Love premiered this past spring. I reached out to him on social media, and we struck up a Twitter friendship. After seeing him in another movie, I decided he would be the perfect candidate for an interview, and indeed, beginning a whole new season of my work here at T3. 

Those who know me offline will be well aware of my burden for the arts and the men and women who comprise the entertainment industry. I believe strongly in the power of good music, good film and literature, good visual art to shape the affections and delight the soul. Matthew's work is a tremendous example of this kind of gracious ability, and besides his evident gift in front of the camera he is also an eminently gracious, warm, and hospitable gentleman. 

My lone regret is I was not the first person to interview Matthew and present his vast range of giftedness to the world. Ruth Hill, Mercy Lyman, and the ladies of Hallmarkies all beat me to the interviewer's chair, but their good work will give you an even more well-rounded introduction to this remarkable human being. Be sure to follow Matthew on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and for a full list of his work go to IMDb.

On to the interview!

Can you share a bit of your background, and particularly how you came to acting? How long have you been working in the film industry?

My early schooling involved many music performances and I have a love and passion for the arts, but it was while traveling with my one-person variety show “Magic of the Movies” that an opportunity to come to Vancouver presented itself allowing me to make the transition from stage to film and television. So even though I’ve been performing almost all of my life, I’ve been in the film and television industry for the last three years.

Your film repertoire is rather diverse, but you have recently focused especially on family-oriented work, frequently from Hallmark. What in particular draws you to these sorts of stories and communities?

I’ve been very fortunate to have already done a variety of roles, but I love the idea that people feel good after watching a Hallmark production. I think people love a Hallmark production because they enjoy the feel good factor it provides, and I love being part of that.

Besides acting, you’ve also made your mark as a magician, writer, musician, vocalist, illustrator, and variety show talent/producer. (That’s not even including your law degree!) First of all: Can you fly, too? Second, what is your favorite thing about acting/music/writing—and why do you think so much of your life has been devoted to artistic and creative pursuits?

To name one favourite thing about any of those disciplines is always difficult, but if I had to narrow it down, I’d say it’s the feeling of fulfilment that comes from creating something, whether it’s a new character, a piece of music or prose that only existed in your imagination. I love the possibility of the blank page. To have something develop and come to life is very exciting. From a very early age I was drawn to art and creative writing and I think the young me would be pleased with what I’m doing now. I’m afraid I can’t fly…although it was always my choice of super power as a child. Who knows, maybe one day in a movie? 

If you could let your fans know one thing—about you, about life lessons, about whatever—what would it be and why?

To pursue your dreams. That may sound a bit cheesy and cliche, but I think saying yes to new possibilities and taking the first step towards what you really want to do, whatever that happens to be, can be both the scariest and most rewarding path you can take. Life is both shorter and longer than we think. Its long enough to do a multitude of things and have many different experiences but it’s also short, so why waste a second doing something you don’t love? 

Can you tell us anything about your upcoming projects?

I’m about to fly to Victoria to start work on Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries for Hallmark which I’m very excited about. I love my character and can’t wait to start filming, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you too much as I don’t want to give anything away. I’m also working on the sequel to my first children’s novel, Matthew the Magnificent, and writing scripts for film and television. 

What would your dream acting job entail?

My dream acting job would be in a period piece with my character coming from either the past or future. But aside from the role itself, my dream acting jobs are always the ones where you get to spend a lot of time with the people you’re working with and making friendships that last a lifetime. That’s what’s so lovely about Hallmark projects and filming in Vancouver, you run into a lot of the same people behind the scenes, the lead stars are always so lovely and giving as actors, and there’s a real sense of family and community and we have a lot of fun on set.

Alongside Jill Wagner for their movie Mystery 101: Dead Talk.

You recently wrote and illustrated a children’s novel, Matthew the Magnificent. What inspired you to write this book? Also, what if any have your strongest literary influences been?

The story has some obvious links to my own life, but mostly I just had the seed of an idea that then developed over time during my writing process. Illustrating a book is also something I’d never done but, having always loved art, I loved the challenge and am very pleased with the results. I’d say the strongest influence for both the writing and illustrations of the book is the wonderful author Roald Dahl. I loved his books as a child so much that, in my show, I used to sing “Pure Imagination” from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had always been a fan of Quentin Blake’s illustrations too. They had a childlike innocence while still having a strong sense of movement and life to them. And I tried to honour that innocence with my drawings.

You got your start musically as a chorister in the Durham Cathedral, a prominent and historic location within the Church of England whose construction began in 1093, and lavish with English tradition and history (and, yes, one of the film locations of Harry Potter!). What do you remember most about this time in your life, and do you have any favorite musical pieces or stories to share?

My musical training and education at the Chorister school was a very special time for me and a wonderful start in life. I will always be grateful for my musical training while at Durham, as it has blessed me with so many opportunities, mostly to the introduction to live performance, which is what set me along a path to where I am now. I will always have an affection for much of the choral music that we studied there, and I still get emotional listening to an evening vesper, but I’d have to say that “Zadok the Priest," a most dramatic and moving piece, which was the music used for the Queen’s coronation, is a firm favourite.

The iconic Durham Cathedral.

Besides watching your stuff, how can your fans best support and encourage you?

I recently went on a western Canada book tour (currently the book is only available in Canada but is expected to be released in the USA for 2020), which was great fun and I was over the moon at how well Matthew the Magnificent is being received by teachers and librarians. I especially love hearing from kids and adults about how much they enjoyed reading my book and how it’s becoming a nice bedtime ritual for those younger kids that have it read to them. Reading to a child is so important and when I know I’ve helped create that shared experience, or sparked an imagination, it's very satisfying. With my acting, it’s always nice to know people are tuning in to watch me, and are enjoying my performances. It makes me happy to know that people are as excited about my growth as an actor as I am, and are being entertained by my performances!

What gets Matthew James Dowden up every morning? What keeps you going?

The excitement of life’s many possibilities, new projects, and coffee….lots and lots of coffee :-)

Matthew alongside Morena Baccarin as the Baudelaire parents in the Netflix iteration of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Thank you kindly to Matthew for his kindness, confidence in me, and taking the time to do this interview during a busy book tour and film schedule. His self-deprecating humility, obvious talent, boundless creativity, wry humor, and genuine warmth are outshone only by his kindness and intellect -- or maybe it's the other way around. I am grateful to have the privilege of interacting with him and supporting his career, and enthusiastically look forward to the film and writing chapters of his life taking off as fruitfully as his hard work and tenacious pursuit deserve!

The Tall People, Sub Rosa, and Me

Be sure to read fellow author Charis Joy Jackson's previous installment in this blog tour promoting The Tall People and Other Collected Stories.

About My Experience
This post can also be titled, "That Time I Finally Got Published."

I have followed Ethan Renoe's written ministry for the last several years, and am always blessed and challenged by his thoughtfulness and his warm heart for people and our Lord. So when I received an email from him (I subscribe to his blog) about a publishing opportunity, I was intrigued.

He needed short stories to fill out an anthology he'd published in the past. The length requirements alone made most of my stories ineligible (I am nothing if not verbose, as all two readers of this blog will affirm). But I managed to find two that fit, sent them to Ethan, and waited.

A few days later I got the email from Ethan saying he picked--and loved--one of them, and that if it was okay by me he would include it in the book. And so here we are. 

Part of me never thought this day would come--or at least it would come differently: after I graduated from seminary, after I began pastoring, after I had more credentials, more credibility, more experience. Something.

I did not think a very viable opportunity for visibility and experience would come when I least expected it. I am thankful for God's providence!

About the Book
The Tall People and Other Collected Stories was initially released as an anthology by my new friend Ethan Renoe, comprised of multiple short fiction pieces he'd penned over the years. This time, it has been rereleased with contributions from me and fourteen other people, whose stories run the gamut from the supernatural to the mysterious to the fantastic. In their own way, each contribution makes a vital point about human nature and our need for grace.

About My Story
"Sub Rosa" concerns a woman who must deal with the aftermath of the betrayal and fallenness exposed in her husband's infidelity. Inspired by William Blake's tremendous poem "The Sick Red Rose," I intended for the imagery to communicate something of the depravity and heart-sickness of one man as a foil representing all of our sinfulness and need for divine rescue. I would say more, but then you wouldn't read it on your own, would you? :-) By the way, sub rosa is Latin for "beneath the rose," a euphemism denoting that which is hidden secret, or concealed (whether for legitimate or nefarious purposes). 

Beauty can cover a world of mess, making it that much harder to detect, repent of, and recover from. Only God can expose the sinfulness that lurks within each heart, and only He has the complete cure.

I look forward to seeing how our Lord uses my small story to teach His people to look inward at their own hidden depravity, which manifests itself in sometimes shocking or unbidden ways, and rely ever more fully on His grace and power to part with their sin and live fully for His glory.

Ethan's blog has a list of all of the contributors and more information about the book, and be sure to click over to Hannah Thomas's blog for the next installment of the tour!

Most importantly: GO HERE to buy your own copy, in both print and digital formats (or both, if you really want to do us all a favor).

A post you should read (that isn't mine)

I have had the privilege of being friends with Stephen Altrogge for many years. Besides helping me wade through the waters of my freelance writing business (a lot happens when you don't update your blog in three years, eh?), he has made me laugh, encouraged me, and taught me how to love well and be a loyal friend.

I am regularly encouraged and challenged by his and his father's written ministry. While we disagree on a few theological issues (over which we poke fun at each other regularly, even though he knows I'm right), I never fail to be pointed to Christ or strengthened in my walk with Him by Stephen and Mark's insightful, battle-tested, Spirit-led posts.

This one is no exception. As we partner with our sovereign God in fulfilling His program and furthering His Kingdom before His imminent return, we will face desperate spiritual need and lack in many areas. Prayer is God's means of connecting His provision with our need for our blessing and for the fulfillment of His purposes. But does prayer work? What do we do with unanswered prayer? How do we follow the Lord in conflicting desires, seeing through a glass darkly, wrestling to know the application of His will in all things?

Stephen would not put forth his post as the definitive answer to these questions. But it is a thoughtful, biblical, and comforting examination of truth that will renew your mind and put steel in your spirit.

Let's go to the throne -- together!

On becoming what I hate...

I first started blogging when I was in college. I'd always enjoyed both reading and writing, and since I was both stupid and opinionated I figured blogging was a great (read: FREE) way to put my opinions out there for the world to see. More seriously, I deeply desired to use blogging, as well as any kind of writing given my gifts in these areas, as a platform to disseminate the truth of God's Word, especially regarding issues which I feel are under heavy attack by the Enemy today.

That blog became defunct rather quickly as college got in the way. Last September, after much fanfare to friends and colleagues, I launched this blog. And it, too, quickly fizzled out. I have posted a grand total of five times this year, two less than when I started, and most of them in February. 

This is exactly the kind of blog I hate. And I've become it, shamelessly.

No, not shamelessly. Frustratedly. I work from home. Heavens, I blog for a living (don't ask). One would think I would find the time to blog regularly, with profit. But as with many things, I struggle to finish what I start. I;m not sure if this is always and everywhere a sin, but it does certainly make things harder. 

I'm not sure where to go from here, and it's not exactly like I can ask folks to pray for me, since I have almost no readers! But I simply must try to do better, be disciplined in my work and personal study so I have things to share on the blog here. Hopefully the Lord will allow me to build and audience and have an online community of whatever size with which to share His Truth, for His glory and their joy.

Trusting Christ in the day-to-day

Christians are supposed to walk by faith, not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Basically, this means we are supposed to live our everyday lives, in every area, according to faith in God and His Word, and all that implies -- not by our fallen human perceptions, priorities, and values. Romans 10:17 makes it clear that Bible study and other "hearing" of God's Word, informed by prayer and illumination by the Spirit (cf. 12:1-2), is the key to this faith.

We know that.

And yet it is one of the hardest things to do, even if it is the most basic.

I am still on my pilgrimage, so it's not like I have all the answers (though I wish I did). And while I am still thinking through how to practically walk by faith, the one thing I do know is this:

It's worth it.

Since I graduated college last May, my priority has been finding some kind of employment. Of course, so was everyone else who graduated when I did.

I learned very quickly that whatever wonderful experiences I had while at school and however much the Lord had grown me and given me ministry experience...employers were not exactly interested in that. Most jobs within a reasonable driving distance required all sorts of hands-on experience a college graduate would not have -- and that was just to apply for the job, never mind get a simple interview.

Doors kept slamming. My heart got more and more worn. And, of course, my student loan debt wasn’t going to take care of itself.

I spent many nights asking the Lord exactly what I was doing wrong. Was I lazy? Too picky? Prideful over some of the work I could be doing? I was getting tired and ashamed of telling people at church that, no, I still did not have a job and to please pray I would find something soon.

Then, an acquaintance from out-of-state told me about a job opportunity she knew of. It was something I'd heard about in principle (the kind of work, not the actual job itself) but never thought I could do. After all, I was a college graduate with no experience in the real employment world. Oh, sure, I’d worked during college...but I’d worked for my college. With nice Christian people. I could walk to work from student housing, for heaven’s sake. I knew nothing about actual employment in the "real" world.

But I was desperate enough, and daring enough, and maybe a little crazy enough, to try it.

And, as Tony Evans likes to say, this was the point the Lord created an intersection between my need and an opportunity.

Will I be working this job the rest of my life? I don't know. My dream is to eventually go to seminary and receive the training I need to enter full-time Christian work. I do know that I can take the skills I learn here and hone them, adapt them, to whatever the Lord is calling me to do. Plus, in the meantime I know I have a valuable skill set which I can market for a steady profit over time.

But my point in all this is to say that the Lord provided for me, and He did so at precisely the right time. I did not have a job for the year and three months after graduation ultimately because He did not want me to have a job. I was instead to spend that time studying, reading, and contemplating great truths in secret. I was to come away and be with Him, and wrestle, and fail, and learn, and grow.

And the whole time He had this job up His proverbial sleeve.

And He knew it.

And I didn't...

And I often failed to trust Him for it.

But I have learned through this year-long walk that the Lord indeed is in control, and He does look out for me, and most of all His wisdom, timing, and ways are higher and better than mine could ever be. I often gave into the temptation of unbelief over the last year -- because the Lord was not doing things when I thought He should, then it must follow that He wasn’t doing them at all, or that what I wanted was wrong. Cue morbid introspection.

We like to say, “If I knew then what I know now…” and then fill in the blank with a litany of mistakes we wouldn’t have made.

But the truth is that we don’t need to know then what we know now. The only thing we need to know is that God is in control and He provides for His children.

I knew that then. But I know it better -- by experience -- now.

It turned out the one thing I always knew is the only thing I needed to know.

Makes things a lot simpler, doesn’t it?

Burden and Purpose (Or, In Which I Take a Shameless Cue from Nancy Leigh DeMoss)

What makes Faith Today tick? Why is it here? Why do I do what I do, as sporadically and falteringly and bumblingly as I do it?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Initially, this was going to be a permanent page on the side of the blog, right under "Doctrine." Since this is my online condominium I can do exactly as I please with it, and so if need be I may repost this there. But I decided this was too important to risk sidelining to a section many readers might not even notice.

I decided it would be a good idea to share with all of you why I am writing this blog, and to do that requires something of a history lesson wrapped within a (only seeming) rabbit trail.

In 2001, Nancy Leigh DeMoss founded Revive Our Hearts, a women’s radio ministry which was to succeed Elisabeth Elliot’s Gateway to Joy program. (ROH also functions as the women’s outreach of Life Action Revival Ministries, which Del Fehsenfeld founded in 1971 and with which Nancy has been closely involved in speaking, counseling, and revivalist capacities since 1980.) Having traveled extensively as a women’s conference speaker and women’s revival summit leader for several years, Nancy became increasingly concerned with the spiritual devastation gripping the lives of multitudes of professing Christian women who came to hear her speak. They were dissatisfied, demoralized, desperate, flirting with immorality, proud, frazzled, contentious, drained, depressed, resistant to God’s Word, enslaved to everything from food to shopping to memories of past sins, and more than a few were quite literally suicidal. 

They did not believe God, and they were in bondage.

While I have none of the graciousness, multudinous published books, or hard-won Biblical insight after 50 years of walking with Christ that Nancy does (and which makes her teaching ministry immensely attractive – or should – to men, as well), I too have an increasing burden as I watch the decline of American Christianity today. I, too, am extremely distressed at the unbelief, autonomy, Biblical illiteracy, carnality, pride, and resultant fruitlessness and spiritual devastation that haunts the vast majority of evangelical churches and ministries today.

I grieve for the teeming millions of evangelicals who have no idea they are lulled into spiritual lethargy, benighted immaturity, and mediocrity because everyone around them is similarly mediocre, carnal, and lethargic, so they have no idea anything is amiss. I am angered by the seemingly endless Christians who find themselves proudly indifferent to -- if not incensed by, and opposed to -- to the inflexible and all-consuming authority of Scripture; who resist having the confining weight of Biblical standards placed upon them, too blind to realize that therein is the only path to freedom; and who resent being expected to be and do anything higher because their weak preaching and insipid spiritual lives have never created a genuine brokenness or a longing for accountability and conformity to Christ’s narrow way…and who think they’re spiritual in doing it.

I am distressed at the theological culture which perceives discerning and Biblically-faithful people as killjoys, enemies, Pharisees, and basically all-around dreadful people who inexplicably have the audacity to insist -- worse, with anything approaching earnestness and force -- that professed Christians actually subordinate the entirety of themselves to the imperial authority of God through the Word. I am angry that vast numbers of evangelicals vilify and savage the motives and methods of such people, instead of doing such the carnality and unbelief they rightly expose, and from which they seek to sever us, that we might be even wholly captive to Christ.

I am disheartened at the dearth of truly Biblical preaching, replaced as it is with shallow, man-centered, topical, psychological pep talks which fail to grasp the depth of the heart of God and truly transform and break sinners. I am horrified at the seemingly endless willingness for virtually every stripe of spiritual harlotry to be aided and abetted by professed Christians, either attempting to use Scripture to do so, or simply asserting what they want to believe and do regardless of Biblical prohibitions.

And while I have not been around long enough to see the demoralized, drained, and depressed end-result, I know both from Scripture and sanctified common sense that it will indeed come, absent repentance.

To best understand the burden and purpose of Faith Today, I reached back into the hidden vaults of the Internet to find several articles Nancy wrote in the early days of Revive Our Hearts. I have tweaked these snippets just a tad, primarily in the pronouns, so that they might apply more readily to both men and women. However, I have yet to find a better non-inscripturated statement of the very thing I am attempting to do by creating this blog.

“Several years ago, God began birthing in my heart a vision for wide-spread personal and corporate revival and reformation among Christian men and women. I pray that God will use Revive Our Hearts to help that dream become a reality. Here, in a nutshell, is my burden for this ministry:

• To help Christians experience spiritual freedom and fullness through practically applying the Word of God to every area of their lives and relationships. To help them discover biblical answers to the root issues that keep them from being all God created them to be.
• To help Christians become spiritually fruitful.
• To call believers to a life of surrender, sacrifice, service, and Spirit-filled living—that they might be life-givers and instruments of revival in their homes, churches, and communities.
• To mobilize a "counter-revolution" of holy, humble, surrendered, thankful, praying Christians who will reflect to our world the wonder and the beauty of His heart and His ways—believers whose lives will advance His Kingdom and His redemptive purposes in the world.” (Source; emphases mine)

When asked what led her to take responsibility for ROH:

• A growing burden as I looked into the eyes and listened to the stories of thousands of Christians who are living defeated, barren lives and who are in perpetual bondage.
• An irresistible sense of the call of God to speak the Truth to believers and to call them to respond in surrender, obedience, and faith.

And, later in the same article, when asked what she hoped to accomplish with ROH:

I am believing God for genuine revival among Christians. I pray that He will raise up a movement of surrendered, trusting, joyful, wise, praying, fruitful disciples who will reflect the beauty of His ways in their homes, churches, and communities. (Source; italics mine)

I, too, pray that God uses this simple blog written by a flawed, frail kid to produce impossible reformation and revival within His people...especially me...as He gives me voice and platform to proclaim with bold, brokenhearted  authority His precious, transforming Word.

Amen.

Piper on the Sluggard

This is a 1998 article from the Desiring God website.  John Piper wrote it for the Bethlehem Star, the bulletin of his (now former) church in Minneapolis. It dovetailed nicely with some of the themes I have been exploring here at Faith Today over the last several posts, and so I wanted to link.

Perhaps one of the best lines is the following: "Doing the evil we love makes us hostile to the light of truth. In this condition the mind becomes a factory of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions and lies—anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction."

I pray the Lord grants all of us discernment as we seek to know and uproot the subtle, hidden desires which influence our thinking and which blind us to the liberating Truth of God.

“We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the [flesh] and the mind…you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 2:3, 4:17-24, ESV, emphasis mine).