By Jan Brunow (Immanuel, Brookfield)
A blog is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for the general public. When Rev. Dr. Karl L. Barth began his musings, blogs were just gaining popularity. And because he was among the "computer-challenged" of his generation, he wrote by long hand, on a typewriter and eventually a word processor.
Last fall he decided it was time to fine tune the many short commentaries he had written over the years and put them together in a volume to be published for others to read. He decided on the contemporary title “Just a Chip Off the Old Blog.”
“I know it isn’t a blog in the true sense of the word,” Barth said, “but I wanted the Christian community and other readers to gain a nugget or two that would be helpful for their spiritual journey.”
After months of editing, proofreading, seeking and finding a printer/publisher, the book has been published and is for sale. It can be purchased at the bookstore at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon and at Northwestern Publishing’s retail store in Wauwatosa. The cost is $14.95.
The book contains short essays on people, places and events written from 1998-2006.
The people mentioned are as diverse as President Theodore Roosevelt and NBA Hall of Famer George Mikan. Sophia Lauren is discussed, as are the members of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. Some pages will give the reader a look at life in a Cincinnati parochial grade school; others tell about what goes on in a small village in the Alps above Montreux, Switzerland.
Many of the pieces, especially the earlier ones, have to do with Christian doctrine, worship and life; and some are directed primarily to the Christian pastor and his office.
Barth also includes a few family references to his father's ministry and also to both sets of his grandparents. “But,” he says, ”central to all we do, say or think is the mercy of the triune God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.”
From 1970-82, Barth was president of the South Wisconsin District. In 1975 he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Ill. He served as president of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Mo., from 1982-90.
Barth served 16 years on Synod’s commission on theology and church relations and was its chair from 1974-19. He has also been a member of the LCMS board of directors, the board for mission services, and represented Synod on the division of theological studies of the Lutheran Council USA. In 1997 he directed the 150th anniversary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and has served on various boards of the church. His duties for Synod have afforded him the opportunity to travel extensively to partner churches and seminaries in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Today Barth and his wife, Jean, reside at Harwood Place in Wauwatosa and are members of Mt. Calvary, in Milwaukee. They have been married for 61 years and have five children, four of whom live in the Milwaukee area, 10 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren, with another one due in June.