Matthew van Maastricht

The Rev. Angie Mabry-Nauta is a name that I had heard while in seminary and learning my way around the Reformed Church in America. Many of the people with whom I had connected with well were friends with her. It was a pleasure, then, when at last year’s General Synod (our denomination’s highest assembly) I was finally able to meet her. I was there to guide and shepherd the student delegates from the denominational colleges and Angie was a delegate from the General Synod’s Commission on Theology.

Even more than simply having mutual friends, I knew that Angie was someone I wanted to get to know. She reflects and thinks with great theological depth, she has a great sense of humor, a great heart, and is very approachable and easy going. This all comes through on her blog, “Woman, In Progress…” on which she writes candidly and honestly about faith, life, motherhood, and the church, as well as themes that connect all of these topics. One thing that I always appreciate about Angie is how open and honest she is with her readers as she invites them to journey with her.

Please be sure to take a look at her blog, I have no doubt that you will find yourself wanting to go back for more.

Angie was gracious to extend an invitation to me to be a guest on her blog, an invitation which I was humbled and excited to accept.  If you read my post, be sure to look around her site, if you don’t read my post, be sure to look around her site, you will not regret it.

Here is a snippet of my latest post:

The Fatherhood of God and the Reflection of God’s Image

I’ve always been bothered by the concept of the fatherhood of God.  I understand that, in several locations, the Bible refers to God as “Father.”  In the doxology we sing, “Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”  When we baptize, we do so “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we begin, “Our Father…,” and when my family prayed at the dinner table, our prayers almost always were addressed, “Heavenly Father.”

I’ve always been concerned about the image of God as father, because if God is a father, then God is masculine…

Come on over to “Woman, In Progress…” to read the rest of this post.