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’m thrilled to feature Rev. Tiffany Thomas, a twenty-eight-year-old pastor who is new to blogging and Twitter, but whose ministry I have admired for a while now. 

Tiffany is the Senior Pastor of South Tyron Community Mission Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. She answered her call to ministry at the age of 15, and has been preaching, teaching and pastoring in the local church ever since. A graduate of Spelman College and Duke Divinity school, she molds her life after the strong belief that we are called to be agents of social and spiritual change. 

To get a sense of Tiffany’s point-of-view, check out one of the first entries in her blog, “Shouting From the Front: Reflections of a Disorderly Woman Pastor.” An excerpt: 

There are many books written that expound on the topic at length, some great some not so great. But you know what I think?

I think it is out of order for a woman to be a pastor.

There. I said it. It is entirely out of order for a woman to head the institution of the church. It goes against everything that we believe and affirm about the ideal distribution of power. As a female pastor, I am out of order.

But you know what? I worship a God who is out of order. We worship a God who constantly disrupts our boundaries of what is normal, correct, ideal. A God who constantly confused all by favoring the younger son over the elder son…that disrupts everything that we understand about power. A God who calls out that the first shall be last and the last shall be first…That disrupts everything that we understand about place. 

You can read Tiffany’s blog here. Follow her on Twitter here. And check out this 2013 video from the UMC about Tiffany’s work.