S4 E11 | Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewall | Navigating Difference & Unity

On this episode of The Alabaster Jar, Dr. Lynn Cohick and Kelly Dippolito are joined by Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewall to discuss her book “A Longing to Belong: Reflections on Faith, Identity, and Race”. During this episode, Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewall reflects on her journey as an Asian-American Christian and how that has shaped her biblical scholarship studying the New Testament. She also shares her scholarly insights on passages like 1 Corinthians 12 on the body of Christ and Revelation 7 on gathering believers from all nations before God's throne. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewall emphasized themes of grace, humility, and embracing both our differences and unity as the family of God and how we can build a more just and loving community within the body of Christ.

Episode Breakdown:

0:00 – Belonging, identity, and unity in the Church.
4:06 – Paul’s teaching on unity in the body of Christ.
7:46 – Race, identity, and empathy in a school setting.
13:08 – Rejections impact on identity and community.
15:53 – Love, acceptance, and connection in the Bible.
21:04 – Navigating conversations around identity, race, and unity in the Christian community. 25:17 – Cultural differences within these subjects.
30:03 – Belonging in the eschaton.

Episode Resources:

Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian: A Kingdom Corrective to the Evangelical Gender Debate by Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewall

A Longing to Belong: Reflections on Faith, Identity, and Race by Dr. Michelle Lee-Barnewall

Visual Museum of Women in Christianity

Episode Sponsor:

The Alabaster Jar is brought to you by The Center for Women in Leadership, a newly formed 501©3 nonprofit organization whose purpose is to equip women in a context that is biblically rooted, theologically robust, and ethnically diverse to thrive as leaders in the academy and the Church. Follow them on Instagram @leadershipwithoutapology. Learn more about The Center for Women in Leadership at: https://www.leadershipwithoutapology.org/.