It is safe to say that all ministry endeavors begin as an experiment. An idea arises and, eventually, materializes. Such was the case with New College Berkeley’s Barmen Retreat held earlier this year in Benicia, CA. This three-day gathering attempted to answer, “What could happen if a diverse group of thoughtful and concerned Christ-followers came together for a deeper dive around a particular topic of gospel import?” For this retreat, the subject at hand was the Theological Theses of Barmen, the seminal document of the emerging Confessing Church in 1930s Germany during the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi agenda. What might its implications be for the current moment? Many rich reflections emerged (see related articles). My goal is to share about the retreat as a third space experiment, an important idea that has informed our 47-year-old organization’s current iteration, which we call NCB3.0.
The language of third space is derived from the work of sociologist Ray Oldenburg, author of the book Celebrating the Third Place, in which he argues that the key to a healthy society is “the habit of association, and essential to informal association are places where people may gather freely and frequently and with relative ease.[1]” He goes on to describe such “third places” as those settings that are “beyond home and work…in which people relax in good company[2]” and can meet others with whom they otherwise would not have occasion to meet and have meaningful conversation with. Oldenburg thus frequently lauds pubs, cafes, and especially the old-time soda fountain as quintessential “third places” where birds of differing feathers can find each other. One needs only to think about the somewhat proverbial town hall where citizens come together to engage in issues, challenges, and potential solutions for the sake of the common good. Hence, many social movements, reformations, and revolutions can locate their genesis in such third spaces. And conversely, why totalitarian regimes fear them and have sought to obliterate them throughout history.
Inspired by Oldenburg’s helpful societal paradigm, we see NCB as a “third space,” not between home and work per se, but primarily (but not exclusively) between the Church and the Academy. In this vein, we mean “Church” to be local congregational institutions (whether traditional or “emergent” varieties) and “Academy” to be traditional seminaries and secular universities. Now, one might make the case that churches are “third places,” possessing in equal parts diversity and connection. However, institutional churches and denominational seminaries continue to maintain bounded habits (cultural, theological, or ideological attachments) that tend to undermine a third space posture and existence. It is worth adding that, increasingly, Christians (especially younger generation believers) do not characterize American church culture as “relaxing” but rather as toxic or even traumatizing.
Such an analysis is not meant to be negative or critical of the traditional church as much as to contend that we find ourselves as a society in a liminal space where institutions of all kinds are currently under interrogation. There is a crisis of trust and an overarching question of purpose: “What is Church good for anyway?” What seemed to flourish and work for decades, if not centuries, is no longer operative today. Leaders of such institutions, including church leaders, are recognizing there are no “magic bullets” and that significant reform is needed. For the Church, the questions are simple: What does it mean for the Church to be faithful to the gospel in the current moment? What is required of the Church? What must the Church repent from? And lean into?
We believe that these questions must be engaged collectively, not from within long-hardened silos. Put another way, a more whole gospel requires a coming together of perspectives from the whole of the Church. What this means practically is the intentional gathering of saints across lines of culture, tradition, and generation. As my good friend, Rev. Bill Betts, asserts, the Church needs “biblical, theological roundtables” to fully understand God and His purposes in the world.
Toward this end, the Barmen Retreat represented an essential step for NCB. Practicing the apostle Paul’s admonition that the church is one body but many parts, each in need of the other (1 Cor 12), we purposefully invited Christ-followers from a diversity of ecclesial traditions, including Reformed (Presbyterian, Episcopalian), Lutheran, Anabaptist (Mennonite), Pentecostal, Orthodox (Greek). With regard to gender, half men, half women. Racially, half white, half POC (Asian, Latinx, Black, Indigenous). Age-wise, we had representatives from Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, and Boomer generations. Vocationally, there were 8 pastors, 4 academics, 3 parachurch ministry staff, and 5 laypersons. Half had a long-time affiliation with NCB or Radix, while the other half were relatively new to either ministry. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a spiritual director was included to center the retreat activities in contemplative practices (more on this topic in columns to come).
Suffice it to say that the diversity gave rise to rich and theologically textured conversation. Some revered the theology and legacy of Karl Barth (the principal writer of the Barmen theses) while others much less so, as would be expected with Lutheran, Anabaptist, and Reformed believers in the same room. Some understood the work of the Confessing Church as a courageous and prophetic stand against racist and murderous fascism, while others cast the synod’s deliberations as largely self-serving, i.e., fundamentally about ecclesial freedom and autonomy. Regarding present-day response to rising Christian nationalism, some leaned heavily toward the need for theological proclamation while others favored creative, embodied resistance. The secret sauce, however, was the genuine humility and mutual respect that every participant, with no exception, demonstrated with one another throughout the duration of the retreat.
With receptive ecumenism as the prime modality of NCB’s third spaces, the prime objective is to discern gospel faithfulness together as a community. In a very real way, the Barmen Retreat was a third space about a third space, each being concerned about what fidelity to Christ means within each respective context. The former met in a Benicia-based AirBnb in 2024, while the latter met in a parish hall, Germarker, in Barmen (now a district within Wuppertal, Germany) in 1934. Granted, the participants of that 20th-century third space were all Protestants. However, there was plenty of diversity within that, given representatives from Reformed, Lutheran, and United Churches.
Ecclesiastical differences notwithstanding, the participants in this historic synod meeting came together for one purpose: to discern what the Church of Jesus Christ must affirm at this particular moment in German history. Therefore, the resulting theological theses of the Barmen Declaration are replete with ecclesial affirmations, an unswervingly communal prescription. Theologian Wolf Krötke points out that at least four of its six theses explicitly declare what the Church is to do and be. He asserts, “The church is to be understood as a community of people constituted by the presence of Jesus Christ…this community is to be a witness. In a world that is still determined by sin it has to show what changes the presence of Jesus Christ brings about in the community of humankind. Not just the church’s message but its very existence speaks for itself.[3]” Krötke’s observation provides a helpful picture of the communal nature of these confessions: behind each document exists a cadre of Christians who share a deeply held concern for the health and fidelity of the Church, grieve the destructive consequences of the Church’s adultery, and sense a collective and urgent call to do something about it.
Barth himself was committed to communally produced confessions as a non-negotiable, even if he was the principal writer. Derek Alan Woodward-Lehman explains Barth’s understanding of the “confessional praxis as a democratic mode of disputation, deliberation, and decision in which the members of the Christian community stand in a relationship of mutual authority and reciprocal freedom. Their mutual authority means that each member must listen to the interpretation and application of scripture given by every other. Their reciprocal freedom means that every individual must speak their own interpretation and application of scripture.[4]” For the writers at Barmen, this meant listening intently across at least three distinct traditions.
Woodward-Lehman’s articulation of confessional praxis goes a long way to paint a picture of the third space vision we believe to be necessary for the renewal of the American Church, especially given the rise of anglo-protestant religious nationalism, a growing appetite for authoritarianism, the spurious promises of artificial intelligence, the continuing polarization and disintegration of the American polity, the climate crisis, and the seeming inevitability of widening conflict (if not all-out war) among the world’s empires and their proxies.
In summary, the Barmen Retreat represented a crucial third space experiment for NCB in that it was an exercise in (1) gathering diverse Christians across culture, tradition, and generation, (2) gospel discernment of the times, both theologically and contemplatively, and (3) the cultivation of spiritual friendship. In a word, we practiced being a “think tank” among gospel friends. This, we believe, is what the Church needs now.
Dr. Craig Wong is the Executive Director of New College Berkeley (NCB), a theological “third space” to help the Church discern and contextualize the gospel in the San Francisco Bay Area. He recently completed a DMin at Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI, also having completed an MA at the same institution. Prior to NCB, Wong served on the staff of a Presbyterian church in San Francisco’s Mission District where he formed and led a congregation-based, community nonprofit that served immigrant families from Latin America and Asia. He also served for over 12 years on the board of the Christian Community Development Association and the corporate board of Dayspring Partners, a gospel-centered technology company in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. He and his wife Tina have raised four children (now adults) in San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood.
[1] Ray Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities (New York: Marlowe & Company, 2001), 15.
[2] Ibid, 16.
[3] Wolf Krötke, “Historical Overview of the Barmen Theological Declaration of 1934,” in The Legacy of the Barmen Declaration: Politics and the Kingdom, ed. Fred Dallmayr (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010), 46.
[4] Eberhard Busch, “Democratic Faith: Barth, Barmen, and the Politics Of Reformed Confession,” in The Legacy of the Barmen Declaration: Politics and the Kingdom, ed. Fred Dallmayr (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010), 30.