Catholic Techie Bryan Murdaugh

As I was preparing this post, I started thinking about when I was first "introduced" to Bryan Murdaugh. I'm pretty sure--though I can't say for sure--that it was through someone's podcast, maybe even one of Father Roderick's podcasts back in the day when it was a daily show.

I knew him as a singer/songwriter with the vague notion that he did parish work somehow (youth ministry? something!).

Then we "met" on Twitter (he's @murdaugh). As it turns out, we have kids who are often up to similar things. At one point, I'm pretty sure Bryan was plotting to have our various kids join into a band of some sort (for all I know, he still is), but there's the distance between our two states to contend with.

Just recently, through some work I've been doing with New Evangelizers (a site Bryan helped design, I might add), I found out that Bryan Murdaugh is so much more, and, in fact, a Catholic Techie of the Highest Order.

Not only is he hot to trot for all things Catholic, but he writes code and builds beautiful websites and does some amazing projects related to the Catholic world (check out the Charleston Office of Vocations site and Catholics Called to Witness).

What was a distant admiration, a sorta-kinda "hi how are ya" became full-fledged admiration. I mean, how can you not read about the people in his company and not want to learn more?

Well, here you go, an exclusive Catholic Techie interview.

Tell us about yourself in five words or less.

I'm a nerd.

Of your pursuits, what's your favorite?

This one is difficult. What I really love doing is spending time with my family - especially on spontaneous road trips. After that, I really just love helping our clients implement really creative solutions. I'm also known to pick up a guitar every now and then.

When you think of the New Evangelization from your approach as a "Catholic Techie," what excites you? What makes you want to continue?

I think what excites me the most is that there's so much work to be done. I'm a firm believer that we need to start by evangelizing the people in the pews. Helping them to understand that the Life of the Church is more than a "Sunday Obligation" - that there's a massive amount of Joy to be found in the Body of Christ.

I feel like we're at an exciting time in the history of storytelling. And you can find good stories everywhere. True ones.

What's the most rewarding aspect of your work?

I think it all comes back to the stories. Even in our secular work, it's great to hear how someone has been positively impacted (even in small ways) by an organization's work or by a cool new product.

Last fall, we did a round of interviews with seminarians, some of which hadn't started seminary yet. A few weeks ago, we were able to do another round with these same young men; one year later. They are unstoppable witnesses to joy. It's a huge reward to work on projects so radiant with God's glory.

In your spare time, what are we likely to find you doing? Do you have a gadget in hand or do you go native and screenless?

Admittedly, it's pretty difficult to pry my eyes away from a screen 100%. I do enjoy that freedom when I get it, though. I love the mountains and the ocean, boats and bicycles.

I'm a musician - I love to write, I love to play, I love to listen. An iPhone, iPad, or MacBook Pro is never far away.

My children have definitely inherited the nerd gene. I play a lot of Wii with them and we like to have guitar and drum jam sessions which sound like a cacophony of insanity.

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Copyright 2012 Sarah Reinhard