Sunday Morning Matinee is a podcast about movies and ministry for pastors, preachers, and Sunday school teachers. For each episode, hosts Matt Gaventa and Adam Hearlson invite a guest to suggest a movie relevant to the work of the church. Their conversation begins with discussing the film but often expands to questions about who the church is—and who it is called to be—in this time and place. If you can recognize the power of film to inspire our theological imaginations, Sunday Morning Matinee is for you.
Matt Gaventa is senior pastor at University Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas, and a Victory Rewards cardholder with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. He took his fifth-grade crush to see The Hunt for Red October and, later on, turned his attention to parish and campus ministry. He is a semi-occasional contributor to the Christian Century and Working Preacher, and his Netflix habits include old episodes of Parks and Recreation, the slow decline of the Marvel universe, and documentaries about fonts. He lives in Austin with his wife Sarah and their son Charlie.
Adam Hearlson is a film school dropout who found a second chance serving the church as a minister, writer, and scholar. He once saw Leonardo DiCaprio at an after-hours club in London. Leo is short. Adam is tall. He also thinks that movies are magic and that at their best they conjure a mysterium tremendum. He contributes regularly to the Christian Century and his first book, The Holy No: Worship as a Subversive Act, was published in 2018. He also teaches practical theology in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Adam is willing to debate endlessly about movie rankings and thinks that the Bad Boys franchise is a treasure and deserves a third movie. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife Christy and their two boys, Elliot and Eamon.