The Interpretive Path is an independent Christian educational ministry helping everyday Christians read Scripture clearly, understand it deeply, and live it faithfully.
TIP equips people to engage the Bible firsthand with greater care, skill, humility, confidence, and accountability. Its flexible framework helps readers pay close attention to the text, seek its meaning responsibly, and allow that understanding to shape faithful life. It is not a formula, a shortcut, or a system designed to produce predetermined conclusions.
TIP is not operated, sponsored, governed, or formally affiliated with a church or denomination. It is designed to support—not replace—the work of pastors, teachers, local churches, responsible scholarship, and believers learning together in Christian community.
Meet the founder
My name is Keith Barrett. I am the founder of The Interpretive Path, a lay teacher, a Bible student, and a curriculum developer. I am married to Angie, and we have three adult children. I am not ordained, I am not a pastor, and I do not work in full-time ministry. I am an everyday Christian who has spent years trying to understand why thoughtful, sincere believers can read the same passage and reach different conclusions—and how all of us can learn to interpret Scripture more responsibly.
Questions that began a journey
I became a Christian in 1981 and grew up attending Baptist churches as my family moved from place to place. When I reached college, I began meeting Christians from traditions different from my own. They loved Scripture but sometimes understood it very differently.
Those differences interested and confused me. As I participated in several kinds of churches, I began noticing patterns in how people reached their conclusions. I started asking a question that would stay with me: Why do we interpret the Bible the way we do?
After college, Angie and I moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where we spent many years in a church that gave us a strong experience of Christian community, regular Bible reading, and some helpful interpretive principles. I learned a great deal there, but I still had many questions about what responsible interpretation actually required.
Formal study and a growing passion
In 2016, I finally had the opportunity to begin formal biblical studies. I attended Grace School of Theology part time while continuing to work full time, completing its 60-credit Master of Arts in Biblical Studies program in 2023.
One of my first courses was Hermeneutics—the study of biblical interpretation. That course gave language and structure to questions I had carried for years. For the first time, I saw more clearly that responsible interpretation involved principles and practices that everyday Christians could learn. Some parts of the field are highly academic, but many foundational habits are understandable, practical, and immediately valuable.
That realization ignited a passion: helping people who may never attend seminary become more skillful and confident students of the Bible.
From learning to teaching
I began developing and teaching my first hermeneutics class in 2019. Four of us studied together for about two years, exploring the material in considerable depth. The experience taught me a great deal—not only about interpretation, but also about how people learn it.
I later shortened and refined the material for a more sustainable church small-group setting. I taught revised versions in 2024, developed TIP V1 in 2025, and continued refining the framework and curriculum as TIP V2.
That history reflects something important about The Interpretive Path: I am still learning too. The framework is stable, but its toolbox is living and growing. As I continue studying, teaching, testing, and discovering useful tools, I want to make them approachable for others. TIP is an invitation to keep learning together, not a claim that every interpretive question has been settled.
Professional experience that shaped how I teach
My professional career has unfolded outside ministry through software development, team leadership, technical consulting, teaching, public speaking, and solution consulting.
That work taught me to listen carefully, ask productive questions, understand complex situations, make difficult subjects easier to grasp, and develop practical responses that meet people where they are. Those habits are not theological credentials, but they have shaped how I teach and how I design learning experiences.
I know what it feels like to approach a complicated subject without being the expert in the room. I also know the confidence that grows when someone explains the subject clearly, gives you appropriate tools, and allows you to practice. That is the kind of learning experience I want TIP to provide.
An approach grounded in evidence, humility, and community
The Interpretive Path does not exist to defend a denomination, promote a theological system, or steer learners toward predetermined conclusions. None of us comes to Scripture without assumptions, but we can learn to recognize them, examine them, and hold them open to correction.
TIP helps people consider context, follow the evidence, explain their reasoning, listen to other readers, and test their understanding in community. Responsible practices will not eliminate every disagreement, but they can help us distinguish stronger interpretations from weaker ones and hold our conclusions with appropriate confidence and humility.
Firsthand study does not mean isolated study. Pastors, teachers, historic Christian voices, responsible scholarship, and other believers can help us see what we missed. TIP seeks to help everyday Christians participate more thoughtfully in that shared work and to partner constructively with churches and teachers who want people to engage Scripture well.
The larger purpose
The goal is not merely to understand more. Responsible interpretation should enable faithful living: becoming more like Jesus, loving God and others well, and living in ways that honor God.
What we understand shapes what we believe. Our beliefs shape our behavior, and our behavior shapes our relationships and communities.
Interpretation → Beliefs → Behavior → Relationships and Community
That is why this work matters, and why The Interpretive Path exists.
I am grateful for the people, churches, teachers, classmates, and fellow learners who have shaped my journey. I invite you to continue that journey with me.