RAP SESSION: MATTHEW GAMBLE

Biography: An atheist fascinated by the Rastafarian religion as a teen, Gamble was involved in drug smuggling in his early young adult years. By God’s transforming grace, Matthew became a minister and now speaks throughout the United States and internationally, sharing the Good News. He is presently working towards a doctorate in ministry with an emphasis on the emerging church, specifically looking at Gospel communicators and postmodern culture. Matthew is the teaching pastor and life coach at the 24-SEVEN Ministry Center in Seattle, Washington. His passions include skate/surf/snowboarding, photography, travel, people and golf. He is ecstatically married to the former Susan Mentges, his college sweet heart. You will find him blogging regularly at MatthewGamble.com

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How in the world does a white kid from the suburbs end up in Jamaica to follow the Rastafarian religion and get into drug smuggling??

Matthew: When I was 16 I moved from St. Louis, MO to St. Augustine, FL (I think that my parents knew that I needed to live as close to the saints as possible). Within days of moving onto the historic island (St. Augustine is the oldest city in the nation) I started hanging out with my cousins who had grown up there. One day we were chillin,’ driving around in my car and we pulled back into a “cut” and it was there that I was introduced to marijuana for the first time. I immediately fell in love with the effects that this plant gave me as it lifted me from the depression that I had been facing in my life. It did not take long before I started smoking day in and day out; before school, during school and after school. With that entire scene came listening to a lot of hip-hop and reggae. While listening to reggae I fell in love with the message, music and teachings of Bob Marley. While I was a professed atheist at the time, if there was any religion in me it was my solo times of smoking weed relaxing and listening to reggae on the beach. I know that for most people they will think that this was merely a fad that I was going through. The reality is is that I was deeply interested in life and culture and wanted to understand more about the way the world works and what this life is all about.

After graduating from high school, I moved to Orlando to start college. The marijuana habit continued throughout my year there and when summer break hit, I decided to go to Jamaica to learn more about the Rastafarian religion, especially wanting to know why they smoked marijuana for religious purposes. Within 24 hours of making that decision I was arriving in Montego Bay, Jamaica with a backpack, a tent and a sleeping bag. A day later I was walking down a street in the beach town of Negril when a Rasta pulled up beside me in his car. And so, like any smart, white, 19 year old American, I hopped in. Immediately he started telling me of how he could get as much ganja (marijuana) back to the states as I could get rid of. I told him that I could get rid of as much ganja as he could get me and so a relationship was born.

Two weeks later, when I boarded the plane to fly back to Miami, I had roughly 2 lbs. of ganja hidden in two hand carved wooden statues (this is when this atheist turned agnostic.) After walking through customs, having passed through the x-ray machine and by the sniffing drug dog, I realized that I was free and that I had not been caught! Immediately I was a believer, specifically giving praises to Haile Selassie - the Ethiopian Emperor that the Rastafarians consider to be the Messiah and God who’s birthname was Ras Tafari. I was certain that "Jah" - another name that the Rastas give to their savior - was protecting my white behind from getting caught.

That summer I returned again to fulfill a similar mission thinking that I had found the key to life and that I was going to move to Jamaica to start a large marijuana smuggling operation. God had other plans though.

Tell us about your "other" conversion experience.

Matthew: Some time went by and I kept praying and reading. I started going to the library and really doing some research on this religion stuff. For the life of me I could not find any reason why someone would worship this Haile Selassie guy as God. Then one day, while visiting my brother up in Maryland, I met his wife’s pastor, who happened to be a Seventh-day Adventist, something I had never heard of in my life. I shared with him my life story and all he did in response was hand me a Bible - The Message by Eugene Peterson. I started reading that book every day and doing some research on this guy Jesus of Nazareth. Now here was a guy who I could believe was the Messiah.

I called the local SDA Church (because that was the only thing I knew to do). I think that God knew what He was doing when he sent me to a small, all black, Caribbean based church - I was the only colored person there… the only white-colored person that is. The people of the Berea Seventh-day Adventist Church loved me as one of their own. I started studying with the pastor that very same day. That was October of 1995 and by December I was up at Andrews University because I was so on fire and wanted to be around other on-fire Christians, as well they had an aviation degree and a business management degree that was very appealing to me. By the middle of my first quarter there I had switched my major to theology, because God’s Word was the only thing that I wanted to study.

That spring break I returned back to St. Augustine, where I was baptized in the ocean on March 23, 1996. God is good!


You graduated with an M.Div. from Andrews University in 2002. What was your first pastoral position?

Matthew: I was assigned to take over a newly planted church called AnchorPointe (AP) with Pastor Steve Leddy, who came in to mentor me on church planting for the first six months. It was located smack in the heart of downtown Seattle.

After AP came your current church - 24-Seven Ministry Center. Tell us how this church plant got started and how would you describe it now?

Matthew: After clarifying the vision and mission of the ministry, we compiled a list of people who we knew from around the greater Seattle area and started meeting with them to share the vision of a new church. If their heart rate went up when hearing the God-given vision, then we extended them a personal invitation to join our core team. By September, we had assembled over 80 people on our core team and opened the doors on September 18, 2004 with over 250 in attendance.

24-Seven is accepting, exciting and real. It is a come-as-you-are church where many people are finding out that God loves them for who they are today, not for who they should be. The sad thing is that many of these people are hearing this for the first time.

Who is your target audience? What percentage of your members are generational Adventists versus new believers and the unchurched?

Matthew: It is hard for me to give you specifics as to percentages at our church. Our primary target audience is unchurched, however I would say that the largest percentage of our church attendance are ex-Adventists coming back to the church for the first time in years.

Why are they coming back? What draws them to 24-Seven?

Matthew: We don't hide the fact that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I hear it over and over again what a breath of fresh air 24-Seven is. On top of it all, because we have earned their trust and respect, we are able to preach the unique messages of the Adventist church to our people and they are eager to hear it. Maybe it is through our down to earth approach, but many people are hearing the beautiful message that the SDA Church has for the first time.

One could never guess this is a church plant with Adventist roots from browsing through the 24-Seven website. No Adventist labels. Why the avoidance?


Matthew: While I don’t have the quote off hand, Ellen White mentions that it is better for people to find out that we are followers of Jesus (Christians) before they find out that we are SDA. We are not trying to deny the fact that we are SDA. On the contrary, we believe that God raised this church up at a prophetic time and that we have a special message to share with the world. We don’t believe, however, that you must become an Adventist to be saved, rather that you are saved through a personal relationship with Jesus. The latter is our primary goal.

24-Seven is expanding. What are your goals for multiplying this plant? Will we see it go out of state?

Matthew: Our vision is to plant seven campuses around the greater-Seattle area over the next 8-10 years. We have already started a group on the campus of University of Washington and we are working towards launching a south campus. While we have been approached from people out of state to start a 24-Seven campus, nothing serious is in the works. I think that it would be difficult to do with how our structure is set up with Conferences, but who knows. God is certainly big enough to make it happen if He sees fit.

What books have influenced you recently?

Matthew: As far as church planting is concerned, reading Ron Gladden’s Plant the Future and Stetzer’s Planting Churches in a Postmodern Age are must reads. Over the past couple of months I have read through a couple of books by Brennan Manning - The Ragamuffin Gospel and The Signature of Jesus - both of which I would recommend. And I just finished a book by Andy Stanley on preaching called Communicating for a Change that is a great book outlining a simple strategy for effective preaching.

About your blog...not too many Adventist pastors have a video introduction right on the front page as to why they blog. It has a cool urban feel that captures your style. In one posting, you also openly admit to your love of secular music, and especially the alternative rock band Incubus. Explain the spiritual connection you have to each.

Matthew: I have been all over the scale when it comes to music. When I first became a follower of Jesus, I went through a stage where I destroyed all my “secular” music. Since that time, I have fasted from music for months on end (several times actually), in hopes to know without a doubt what God’s will is for me as it pertains to what kind of music I should be listening to. I have read books that argue all sides of the spectrum on what’s acceptable to Him.

My conclusion right now is that music is a medium that is more often than not an expression of a person’s spiritual journey. In other words, music is an expression of the “heart” and the “heart” expresses a person’s spirituality.

Do I think that a band like Incubus is for everyone? Absolutely not. Do I think that they are God fearing? I doesn’t appear that way. However, the Bible says that in you is the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Cor 6:19). In the context of the passage, it doesn’t limit the Spirit of God only to followers of Jesus. That being said, my conclusion is that God’s Spirit is working inside everyone to save them from themselves. With that being said, as I listen to music, I am listening for the spiritual warfare (that I like to call the great controversy) that’s going on inside someone. When that is packaged with a genre of music that I like then I’ve got a win-win.

How do you imagine the Adventist church of the future?

Matthew: I think that more people, especially leaders, are realizing the difference between tradition and gospel-truth. The outcome of these discussions will result in the progress of our denomination. We need to continually take our heads out of the sand and get more serious about the teaching of the Bible and less concerned about various traditions we came up with 100 years ago (unless they are based on the principles of the Bible). People are taking a more defined stand in their walk with God and those desiring to see Jesus face-to-face are going to become more fervent in that journey; and those who are frustrated with God and religion will venture deeper into their rebellion against God.