I grew up in Haleyville, AL, where my parents and grandparents still live. There my family, including my younger sister Candice, attended Haleyville 1st where I was influenced greatly by pastors John Rutland, Jr. and Will Garrett. 

Graduating from high school in 1995, I went to the University of Alabama to pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering. After about two years of being dissatisfied with what I was doing and exploring other areas of Engineering such as Civil, Mechanical, and Computer, I began to realize my discomfort was actually a call into the ministry. 

After changing my major to Religious Studies with a minor in Computer Science, I began to feel that this was what I was called to do and began the exploring process of ordained ministry. During my senior year at Alabama I worked as the summer youth director at Hamilton UMC, served as Assistant Pastor at St. Mark UMC in Northport, and was president of the Wesley Foundation campus ministry. Despite this, I continued to remain a Christian and entered seminary at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in 1999. 

While at Candler I was given the chance to experience many things that a small-town boy like me would otherwise not. From working in a second-stage recovery program for men suffering from substance abuse, to serving in a downtown church that ministered primarily to the homeless, to serving in an African-American congregation, I began to truly feel that this was what I was supposed to be doing and that my gifts of pastoral care and desire for missions were being used and developed. In addition to these experiences, I entered into another "mission field," rooming with former Trinity Associate Trav Wilson for two years. 

Candler also provided me a chance to meet my wife, Laura Stephens-Reed, who is an ordained minister in the Alliance of Baptists. We were married in October 2003 after having spent the year after seminary 600 miles apart while Laura served as Minister of Education at Wake Forest Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, and I moved back to Alabama. Laura's current ministry is working in violence prevention programs at Safeplace, Inc., which is the domestic violence facility that serves northwest Alabama. 

I come to Trinity from Weeden Heights in Florence, my first full-time appointment, which I served for four years. I was ordained as an Elder in Full Connection during the 2005 Annual Conference.

Matt Reed, Pastor Congregational Care and Missions
(256) 883-3200, extension 218