I did not always live here. That is probably why I write about it the way I do.
I grew up a Marine Corps kid — Mission Viejo, California; Gabon, Africa; Alexandria, Egypt; Jacksonville, North Carolina. My father's recruiting work brought us to Oxford, Alabama when I was a teenager, and then I went to Jacksonville State for college and something clicked. The JSU campus in that small city, the music department in Mason Hall, the Men's Chorale, the stone buildings and the long Alabama afternoons — something clicked that has not unclicked since.
I earned a B.A. in Music at JSU, voice concentration with a drama minor. I sang in the Men's Chorale. I performed lead roles in the Jacksonville Opera Theatre under Dr. Nathan Wight — the Father in Hansel and Gretel (January 2007), in The Pirates of Penzance (May 2007), in The Mikado (2008), and the title role in Sweeney Todd (2008). Heather was in the audience for Sweeney Todd. We were dating. We were about to get engaged. I sang the murder ballads and she was out there watching, and then I came home and proposed, or she proposed, depending on who tells the story.
I met Heather in music theory class. That is also a true thing.
Hansel and Gretel, January 2007. Jacksonville Opera Theatre. The poster is covered in cast signatures — held for a decade by Paul Sefcik, returned in July 2026. Jason Wright designed it. Matt played the Father.
I left Jacksonville, Alabama for Muncie, Indiana in 2009 — ministry position at First Baptist. I went to Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois for my M.Div. I rode the Megabus from Indianapolis to Chicago's Union Station and took the Metra west to Lombard on class days. Wade Allen drove me to Indy for staff meetings. Heather was pregnant with our second kid. Hannah was a toddler. We were young and trying to be faithful with what we had.
Then we came back south. Weaver, Alabama. Associate Pastor at Weaver First United Methodist. Nineteen years of ministry across five congregations — FBC Muncie, Northern Seminary years, Weaver UMC, then Anniston First UMC as Associate Pastor and Music Director from 2021 to 2025.
We also built a flower farm. Nine acres near Chief Ladiga Trail. Heather's business — Heather Florals, Bloom Bar. Four kids in the rows with us. A 1832 farmhouse. A trail porch retail kiosk. It was everything we had said we wanted, and then in 2025 it ended. The farm is gone. We are still here.
I resigned from Anniston First UMC in March 2025. I had a manic episode that I did not recognize until the damage was done. I have bipolar disorder — a diagnosis that came later and explained a lot. The months after the resignation were strange. I was simultaneously more creative and more lost than I had ever been.
I started Gather Studio in the middle of all that. And I started writing more seriously for Southern Legends.
Gather Studio is a one-person web design and strategy firm. I build websites for small businesses, churches, nonprofits, and clients across Northeast Alabama who can't afford an agency and don't need one. The credential is the wreckage, not the podium. I know what it's like to build something and lose it. That is the foundation.
Southern Legends is the other thing. An editorial platform for Northeast Alabama — profiles of people, essays about place, the kind of coverage that local newspapers used to do and mostly don't anymore. I write about the people doing the real work in this corner of Alabama, and I try to tell those stories honestly.
Ecclesia Community is the fresh expression of church I founded in 2025. We meet in homes and coffee shops and borrowed spaces. There is no building. There is a Tuesday morning prayer gathering at Jacksonville First United Methodist at 6:30am. Coffee after.
I am pastor of Ecclesia Community, a fresh expression of Christian community, and a flower farmer in Northeast Alabama. That is the canonical sentence. The farm is gone but the sentence stays because the farming is not over — it is just in a different season.
I live with Heather. We have four kids: Hannah (13), Noah (12), Soren (10), and Sage (10 — twins). The twins were in a running stroller at the Woodstock 5K in Ohatchee when they were seven months old and their cheeks bounced on the hills.
I have twenty years of this. I am still here. Still in the room.
Matt Headley is the editor of Southern Legends and the founder of Gather Studio and Ecclesia Community. He writes about Northeast Alabama and the people who are here.
Jason Wright · Jacksonville Opera Theatre · The Woodstock 5K
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