About

About Matt Perman

I am the former Director of Strategy for Desiring God in Minneapolis, MN. Prior to that I was Director of Internet Ministries, where I led the design and launch of the new Desiring God website release in 2006. I also have an M.Div. from Southern Seminary.

I am currently in process of launching a new organization devoted to equipping Christians theologically and practically, especially in the developing world.

My first book, What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Changes the Way You Get Things Done, will be published by Zondervan in October 2012.

I’m on the board of The Elisha Foundation and Cruciform Press.

I live in the Minneapolis, MN, area with my wife, Heidi, and our three children.

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About the Blog

I blog on productivity, leadership, theology, and culture. I find these subjects interesting in themselves, but my ultimate aim is to help build up and equip the church.

Theology matters because it fuels worship and is the essential foundation for all practice as Christians.

However, simply understanding theology is not enough. We also must apply what we know. Further, it’s not enough to simply intend to do good, make our organizations and communities better, and build others up. We have to know the best ways to actually accomplish those things. Understanding productivity and leadership helps us do that.

So productivity and leadership are not ends in themselves; they are means of doing good for others. Everything we do as Christians needs to be understood in that light: as a means of serving others and putting them first, not ourselves. This perspective changes the way you think about everything.

There are four core values behind this blog:

Gospel-centered: God accepts us in Christ apart from works. Ironically, the only way to excel in good works (which is true productivity!) is to realize that God accepts us apart from works.
God-centered: God, not us, is at the center of everything. But our pursuit of joy is not at odds with the centrality of God; rather, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
Theological: Theology matters and is the foundation of Christian practice and worship.
Practical: As Christians we are to think theologically about all of life for the sake of love.

Some foundational posts that might help give you a flavor of this blog and my thinking include:

How the Gospel Should Shape Your Web Strategy, Not Just Your Web Content: This is a message I gave at the Christian Web Conference but which discusses and applies to all sorts of things beyond just websites. My main point is that the biblical command to “love your neighbor as yourself” implies doing everything in our work — whether it’s creating websites or building houses or anything else — with creativity and initiative and excellence, for the good of others.
3 Questions on Productivity: A quick post with some core tips on the main mistake most people make with productivity, the core principle of productivity, and what productivity really is.
How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day: My most popular post.
Employees Are Not Overhead. A quick post on what it means to truly run our organizations as if people mattered.
Why We Need to Give Creative and Competent Thought to Addressing Global Poverty. Productivity and leadership need to be applied especially for the sake of those who are oppressed and those who are in need. Our aim in being productive should not simply be to make our own lives go better, but to make other people’s lives better — to the point of investing ourselves radically for the those in greatest need.