Rev. Mat Goodrich

My Story

Hello, I am Mathew! I started attending church at age 2 with my mother and grew up in faith. I regularly started attending church camps at age 6 and was baptized at age 8. I was very involved in church until I was 18. When I left home and came to Missoula for college at UofM (Go Griz!), I began to experience a bit of a disorientation of who I was. It was during this time that I realized I am Gay. Through this process, I struggled with my faith as the church I grew up in started to say (around Middle/High School) that there were issues with being Gay and a Christian. This caused me a lot of struggle with if I could actually be a Christian anymore and kept me away from church for a few years. During this time, I was engaged with church camps as a leader and through the passion of the faith of the campers and through the acceptance of who I am, I came back to a church community at FCC Missoula.

I began as an attendee of FCC Missoula in Summer of 2015 and was fully a member by that fall. In 2016 I was called by the congregation to serve as an Elder in the church community, and in 2018, I started to get the call into ministry. I discerned this for a while but began my seminary journey in 2019 as a Certificate in Pastoral Ministry student at Lexington Theological Seminary (a hybrid theological institution and the DoC's oldest seminary). After completing my certificate in 2021, I was accepted into the Master of Divinity program and graduated with my M.Div in Summer 2025. 

I continue to be curious about faith, ministry and theology, which has led me to engage in the Master of Sacred Theology program at Chicago Theological Seminary, which I hope to complete in 2026. The focus of my research in this degree is in Queer Theology. This journey is also starting to spark my interest in exploring theology for college aged men in the world today.

While these are just a few areas of inquiry that I am exploring as a theologian, my work as a minister is for the Church, for everyone. I believe we are all called by Jesus to seek transformed lives in him, and it is my hope, honor, and privledge to journey with people as they seek what that means to them. So even if my academic interests are not your cup of tea, I believe that we can learn and grow from being in community together. 

My Ministerial work outside of FCC includes serving as Chair of Faith Formation in the Northern Lights Region, Vice President of Cane Ridge West Conference & Retreat Center, Communications work in both Missoula Lions Club and the Missoula Ministerial Association, and serving on the regional Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team.

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Outside of Ministry, I do volunteer work as a Firefighter/EMT with Frenchtown Rural Fire District, I drive School Bus, and I enjoy things like Hiking, Reading, Exercise, Swimming, Dancing, Cooking, and Theatre/Movies.