The Rev. R.A. Mathews, an acclaimed theologian, has been published over 6,000 times in newspapers across the U.S. and overseas. She graduated from the highest-ranked Baptist seminary in the nation with a Master of Divinity degree and four years of graduate study. Thereafter, she completed extensive Bible research from 2015 to 2024, and in 2026 she will begin additional seminary studies.

Mathews is also an award-winning writer. Her Reaching to God series contains Bible studies to strengthen the soul. They include both inspiring moments in Scripture and misunderstood Bible passages. As with her newspaper articles, all of her statements are supported with Bible verses and footnotes.

Mathews completed her university education at 21 and began seminary that same year. She then sought ordination and was examined and approved by a panel of pastors and the Association of American Baptist Churches to which her church belongs. She is perhaps the first Baptist woman to receive such an ordination in the South.

The Rev. Mathews subsequently worked in Christian broadcasting and local churches, preaching and working with children and youth. 

Like the Apostle Paul, she is bi-vocational, having graduated from a top-ten-ranked law school with an American Jurisprudence Award. She mediates disputes and represents children and the mentally challenged.

Mathews is also the author of multiple volumes of fiction, drawing from her experiences as an attorney and as a state legislator. "Jesus taught with parables like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son," she says, "but there are many more that few remember. He believed in the power of a story!"

She is the granddaughter of the Rev. Cora Hughes, an ordained Nazarene minister. 

"I was reared in a family that dearly loved the Lord," she says, "and I gained a deep understanding of Him early on. I definitely had a head start on my spiritual path.

“The Lord is my all, as you will see."