Articles by M. Craig Barnes

Faith Matters

Eavesdropping

Aug 27, 2010 by M. Craig Barnes

I noticed a disheveled and unshaven man in his early fifties a few barstools down from me. Something about him seemed uninviting. Soon an attractive 40-something woman arrived in a crisp little black dress and perched on the stool next to him. She seemed nervous.

Faith Matters

Cloud and fire

Discernment and the will of God

Jul 27, 2010 by M. Craig Barnes

Martha Tidwell sat before me wearing a blue pants suit and a weary face. Four years ago she left her high-paying job as an accountant after having discerned, with her church’s help, that she was called by God to begin the process of becoming a pastor. Her husband, Ted, was supportive and quit his job as well so that they could come to Pittsburgh to begin her studies.

Faith Matters

Lovers' quarrel

Arguments and intimacy
Jun 01, 2010 by M. Craig Barnes
When Moses is on Mount Sinai he offers the gutsiest prayer of all time. I’m in awe of it because it doesn’t sound at all pious; it sounds like an argument. The Lord says, “Your people, who you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely. . . . Now let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them.”
Books

Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ

Eugene H. Peterson

Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ

May 04, 2010 reviewed by M. Craig Barnes
Eugene Peterson writes often and clearly about spiritual theology, which has helped greatly to define a discipline that can be vague and fuzzy. He did this particularly well in his previous book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.
Faith Matters

Doctors of the soul

Bedside prayers

Apr 06, 2010 by M. Craig Barnes

I have long envied the white coats that physicians wear in hospitals; they’re simple, no nonsense and authoritative. Drape a stethoscope around the neck and the coat is perfectly accessorized.

Faith Matters

Our life story

Creedal relevance

Feb 09, 2010 by M. Craig Barnes

Tom walked into my office looking glum. He tossed his backpack on the floor, fell into a chair by my desk, sighed, and then rummaged through his bag for the registrar’s form. Tom is a first-year seminary student, and I’m his counselor. We walked through the courses he would be taking, most of them part of our core curriculum. Tom’s lack of enthusiasm was screaming at me. Finally I took the bait: “So, Tom, what’s the matter?” His hands went up in the air as he shot back, “What’s the deal with all of these required courses? When do we get to study things that are relevant?” Ah, I thought, the old “Let’s make thousands of years of inherited tradition relevant to me” argument. I’d just had a similar conversation with a woman in the congregation where I serve, who wondered why we repeat the “same old creed” each Sunday.

Features

Demoniacs have names

A challenge for ministry

Nov 17, 2009 by M. Craig Barnes

Jean sits down with the rest of the committee members, and the meeting gets started. She's in her familiar light blue cashmere cardigan sweater, her reading glasses hanging from a thin black woven cord around her neck, her gray-streaked hair pulled back into an efficient bun. She is as proper as always. But tonight her face is completely blank, as if she doesn’t dare reveal anything. She says nothing. “What’s up with Jean?” I wonder.

Features

Holy ground

A pastoral call

May 19, 2009 by M. Craig Barnes

It had been almost three months since I made a pastoral call on Jack Matthews, who is one of our elderly parishioners now living at Pittsburgh’s West minster Residences. He mentioned this to an elder, who might have said something to a few other church members.

Features

Poet in residence

Listening for the sacred subtext
Feb 10, 2009 by M. Craig Barnes
In a time when people are profoundly confused about fundamental identity issues and desperately trying to construct life as best they can, it is critical that pastors recover the poetic dimension of their ministries. What the congregation needs is not a strategist to help them form another plan for achieving a desired image of life, but a poet who looks beneath the desperation to recover the mystery of what it means to be made in God’s image.
Features

Seminary 2050

Parish-based education
Feb 21, 2006 by M. Craig Barnes
As denominations continue to devolve into loose confederations of churches, the seminaries will find themselves in direct relationship with congregations.
Living by the Word

Crying shame

John 20:19-31

Apr 06, 2004 by M. Craig Barnes

When I was in grad school, my family moved into an apartment in South Chicago. When we saw that the door of the apartment had four locks, we wondered why we needed so many. I soon discovered that the benefit was mostly emotional. When we got inside at night, after being worried about whatever, we could shut the door on the world and turn lots of little levers. “Click, click, click.” I think of that door when I’m listening to people describe how they cope with their fears.

Living by the Word

We’re all terminal

Luke 24:1-12
Apr 06, 2004 by M. Craig Barnes
Early on Easter morning, some women from Galilee went to the tomb where they had left Jesus. They came because they had been up all night, as people in grief often are, and because it is somehow easier to grieve at the grave site.
Living by the Word

On the wild side

Isaiah 43:16-21

Mar 23, 2004 by M. Craig Barnes

Isaiah knew his congregation. His word from the Lord spoke into the chaos and confusion of a people who had suffered not only a disruption of life, but also a disrupted understanding of God. Their cherished expectations of what it meant to be the covenant people had crumbled along with the destroyed Jerusalem. God had allowed this destruction of their naïve theology, and now they were exiled from both the land and the notion that God would protect them. It was this befuddled congregation that assembled to hear Isaiah’s sermons.

Living by the Word

It's in the details

Luke 19:28-40; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Mar 23, 2004 by M. Craig Barnes

Life is details—phones that keep ringing, e-mail that has to be returned, computers that crash, copy machines that jam, and children who are sick when we need to be at work. We struggle with the details of bodies that don’t work as they should, with doctors, specialists, medical tests and pills. Our children juggle homework, athletics, orthodontists and piano lessons. Then we all go to church on Sunday, and what do we find but more details?

Living by the Word

Savior at large

John 20:1-18
Mar 13, 2002 by M. Craig Barnes
John begins the Easter story with the words, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark . . .” This is always how our discovery of the risen Christ begins—in darkness. While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to a tomb because earlier in the week Jesus had been killed. With him, her hope died.
Living by the Word

Resurrected hopes

Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11

Feb 27, 2002 by M. Craig Barnes

When the promising young Hebrews were dragged into exile in Babylon, they were not kept in prisons or even camps. They were free to marry, build homes, plant crops and exchange goods. Some became quite wealthy. They were also free to assemble, elect leaders and worship.

Living by the Word

The Judas chromosome

Matthew 26:14—27:10

Feb 27, 2002 by M. Craig Barnes

We don’t know a lot about Judas, except that Jesus and the other disciples trusted him a great deal. No doubt that is why they made him their treasurer.

Living by the Word

Sheep on the run

Psalm 23

Feb 13, 2002 by M. Craig Barnes

The 23rd Psalm has led us in the paths of comfort all the days of our lives. But sometimes we have trouble hearing the things that are closest to us. Psalm 23 was a cherished hymn for the Hebrews. So when we read and sing the psalms as Christians, we are to some degree also in Jewish territory. It is wise to remember the nature of the Jews’ history with God.