Kelley Mathews (ThM 00)
I currently serve as the Christian Living Editor for FaithVillage.com, an online social network designed to help churches and individuals share their faith experiences. I use social media to evaluate and interact with great bloggers and writers, then create engaging pages inside FaithVillage that will feature their content and broaden their reach to those who tend to "live" online. I also moonlight as a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly and as an online GTA for DTS. When I'm not on the computer, I help my husband (John MA[BS] 98, MA/CE 04) lead our family—that includes four children (ages 13 to 4)—and the Young Marrieds class at our church in McKinney, TX.
I started at DTS as a young single and ended as a married mother-to-be, so I have to say that my fondest memories involve meeting and dating my husband, who was also a student at the time. After we were married, I began working in the Alumni office as Dr. Doug Cecil's assistant, where I learned and laughed a lot! Doug encouraged my writing dreams, showed me how the "ministry of presence" —more than knowledge—was vital to comforting the hurting, and was a great example of day-to-day joyful living.
As a new student, I didn't have a clear ministry goal in mind. But I knew I wanted to learn the Bible, and that desire was realized in spades! Six years at DTS also honed my ministry direction of empowering writers through my editing skills (special thanks to Dorian Coover-Cox and Sandra Glahn), and serving women and families through teaching and writing. DTS gave me the tools to handle Scripture with both confidence and humility because while I know how to get around the Bible very comfortably, I also know that God remains mysterious in many ways. And I'm OK with that!