Pastor Nadia

[Belsnickel]

I've talked a little about my faith journey on here. I've found a home within Lutheranism, specifically the ELCA, and I felt an embrace like no other when first becoming a part of it all, just felt right to me. There is a pastor in the denomination that has become a bit of a rock star among some. Her name is Nadia Bolz-Weber, and she represents (IMO) what not just Lutheranism is all about, but what Christianity is all about.

Anyway, I wanted to share a bit about her from this interview conducted on NPR. Just to share it with you all, whoever may be interested.

Quote:Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber admits that she does not look — or act — like a typical church leader. Heavily tattooed and with a tendency to swear like a truck driver, Bolz-Weber was once a standup comic with a big drinking problem.

But she was drawn to Lutheran theology, and when a group of friends asked her to give a eulogy for another friend who had committed suicide, Bolz-Weber discovered her calling.

Bolz-Weber tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that while addressing the crowd of "academics and queers and comics and recovering alcoholics" at the funeral, she realized: "These people don't have a pastor, and maybe that's what I'm supposed to do."

After going to seminary, Bolz-Weber founded a church in Denver called The House for All Sinners and Saints. She writes about the church, which she describes as "Christo-centric," in the new memoir Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong People.

Bolz-Weber's congregation includes LGBT people, people with addictions, compulsions and depression, and even nonbelievers. "Some churches might have a hard time welcoming junkies and drag queens; we're fine with that," she says.

Still, Bolz-Weber admits to feeling uneasy when "bankers in Dockers" started coming to her services: "It threw me into a crisis, because I felt like, 'Wait, you could go to any mainline Protestant church in this city and see a room full of people who look just like you. Why are you coming and messing up our weird?' "

Ultimately, Bolz-Weber says, mixing more traditional newcomers with her church's original parishioners has been good for her congregation. "I thought it was diluting the weird; now it's much weirder to have them all together," she explains.

And regardless of who fills the seats, Bolz-Weber's message from the pulpit remains the same: "My job is to point to Christ and to preach the Gospel and to remind people that they're absolutely loved ... and all of their mess-ups are not more powerful than God's mercy and God's ability to sort of redeem us and to bring good out of bad."

There is more there, interview highlights. As well as the link to listen to the entire interview, which is about 37 minutes long.

[Vas Deferens]

Really interesting Matt, I walk by that church all the time. Had no idea. You can tell she's thought about all these things at length.

Particularly:

Quote:"I would actually argue that conservative Christianity's obsession with controlling sexuality — I mean absolute obsession with it — has in fact created more unhealthy sexual behavior than it has ever prevented. I really believe that."

BINGO

[Belsnickel]

(11-16-2015, 05:23 PM)Vas Deferens Wrote: Really interesting Matt, I walk by that church all the time.  Had no idea.  You can tell she's thought about all these things at length.  

Particularly:


BINGO

Well, you know, we are talking about the faith founded by Martin Luther.