About Me

Cliff’s Notes Version
1978 - Born

1986 - Moved from North Canton, OH to Glasgow, KY

1992 - Graduated from Temple Hill Elementary School

1994 - Converted from atheism to Christianity in the Fall

1996- Graduated from Barren County High School

1996-2000 - B.A. Psychology with minor in Religious Studies - The University of Louisville

2000-2002 - Campus Crusade for Christ (see also USCM)- La Plata, Argentina

2002 - Bi-Lingual Medicaid Case Manager in Raleigh, NC

August 9, 2003 - Married

2003-2005 - The Bethlehem Institute

2005-2007 - M.Div in Biblical & Theological Studies - The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

January 2007 - First baby born (girl)

PhD in Systematic Theology - Southern Seminary

Future Plans: Pastor, teach, form church-based training with an emphasis on training future elders.

Slightly Unabridged Version
How does one introduce himself to people he doesn’t meet? I’ll try.

My name is Matthew Wireman and I am happily married with a little one in tow. I graduated from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY in the Master of Divinity program May 2007. I hope to enter the PhD program next fall with an ephasis in Systematic Theology (cross-pollenating with Biblical Theology).

I wasn’t always a Baptist of the southern persuasion. I was raised by very good parents who had us in the doors of the United Methodist church from childhood (sometimes regularly, with long spurts of un-attendance).

I found significance and joy in making good grades and proving my intellect. But for my first two and a half years of high school I struggled with depression and contemplated suicide several times. I made people laugh during the day, but cried myself to sleep in the safety of the four walls of my bedroom - struggling with being a “husky” boy and no girlfriend prospects, I ate the sugary-sweetness of self-pity.

My Junior year of high school, a Canadian friend of mine invited me to a “retreat” with his youth group. At that time I was dabbling in eastern mysticism and a self-made smorgasbord religion. Wanting to prove my open-mindedness (and meet girls), I accepted the invitation.

From the preaching of the Scripture I was first confronted with my own pitifullness and need of redemption. I had tried to fool people into believing I had my life all together, while I needed to be unmasked in my masquerade of foolishness. I turned to James and said, “I need to change.” My humble attempt at repentance from sin.

Evidences in my life of God’s Spirit working in my life to make me more like Christ included my putting a rubberband on my wrist and asking Jerrod and Chad to pull it whenever I cussed. One time stopped that - the pulling of the rubberband, that is.

After high school I began dating a girl. We both desired to follow Jesus, but I had made an idol out of her and taking up my cross became secondary to taking her out. We broke up a year later and I got on my knees, thanked God for the relationship and asked him to make me more like his Son.

I began sharing my faith and reading my Bible.

My Sophomore year of college a man who was on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ took me under his wing and walked with me in my understanding of the Christian life.

Since then I went to Santa Cruz and Slovakia for the summer with Crusade. After graduation I went to La Plata, Argentina for two to work with Campus Crusade to lay the groundwork for a student movement.

Between my first and second year in Argentina, I returned to go to a conference to recruit students to come to La Plata to labor with us. While there I was reacquanited with the gorgeous woman who is now my bride. I returned to Argentina and we corresponded via e-mail and telephone.

I went to Raleigh, NC to see about this girl (to see how we gelled). God blessed our time there. We were married the next summer and moved to Minneapolis, MN where I attended The Bethlehem Institute.

Two years of theological training and thinking about the church, pushed me to deepen my theological training. So here we are…

I want to get my PhD to further my understanding of the text of Scripture but also with a view to pastor and teach in a church. My vision for our ministry is to plant churches and form good church-based theological training. I want to have an elder-training center where we build into men’s lives who aspire to the office of elder and send them out to plant/re-vitalize churches.

If you have a vision for this as well, feel free to drop me an e-mail.