Listen to Karl Barth: Engage the World with Both!

I want to share a quotation that sort of influenced the naming of my CROSS + PEN website and this coaching initiative, and that is this quotation on my about page from Karl Barth, a Swiss theologian from middle of the 20th century. He said this about how Christians should engage. Our world.

Take your Bible, and take your newspaper. Read both, but interpret newspapers from your Bible.

What does he mean? And why is this relevant to you as a Christian creative, especially a Christian writer? Well, I think as Christians broadly, but especially creatives, and when I was pastoring, I also took this to heart as a pastor trying to engage my culture.

With the gospel, the good news of God’s crazy love in Jesus Christ. The point that he is making and that I took as a pastor and now as a creative Christian writer is that we need to move through life holding both the newspaper and our Bible in both hands. As we walk through life, we’re called to engage both the text and our culture together, to marry both.

Create for Christ,