I’m adding a new feature to the blog this year where I highlight smart and inspiring people to follow on both social media and in life. 

Today I want to make sure you’re keeping up with April Fiet, another great writer and faithful pastor whose blog has really picked up momentum in the last few months.  What I love about April’s work is that it is deeply rooted in real-life community as she serves as a pastor to a rural RCA (Reformed Church of America) community in Iowa. On her About page, April writes: 

During my time in seminary, my husband and I traveled to be with his extended family for his mother’s funeral service. Following the service, we were able to spend time grieving, hugging, and talking with family members we hadn’t seen in quite some time. Then someone asked me what I hoped to do once I graduated from seminary. I answered, “I don’t know. I don’t want to be a trailblazer.” She responded, “Oh, honey, you already are.”

And that frustrated me so much. I never wanted that. In elementary school, I was painfully shy, and even as an adult I’ve had to fight against a deeply-ingrained desire for everyone to like me. But for some reason, God kept calling me. I keep on preaching, speaking, and writing, and by the grace of God the whole thing holds together.

I think the first post of April’s that really caught my attention was “When God Calls a Complementarian Woman Into Ministry.”  But since then I’ve been drawn back again and again by her unique point of view, as exhibited in posts like “Growing Into Authority,” “10 Reasons Rural Ministry is Great,” and “The Reality of Rural Poverty,” I’ve even been reading her series on Reformed Theology! 

People make a lot of assumptions about women pastors—that they have to be aggressively ambitious, that they can only survive in a liberal and urban environment, that they can’t serve in Reformed churches, that they must devote all their work and writing to defending their call. April shatters all these myths with both her writing and her example. I'm so very glad I found her! 

Be sure to subscribe to April's blog, follow her on Twitter, and find her on Facebook.