The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber discusses forgiveness in a video on her website. Video screen grab
Posted on 08/23/2021 6:20:33 PM PDT by lightman
(RNS) — The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber was installed this weekend as the first pastor of public witness for the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
Bolz-Weber, who has often attracted controversy, is perhaps best known for her New York Times bestselling books, including “Shameless: A Sexual Reformation” and “Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint,” the prayer- and profanity-filled memoir of her journey from alcoholic stand-up comic to Lutheran pastor.
She was called to the role of pastor of public witness by the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose bishop, Jim Gonia, she said has supported her ministry since she first applied to seminary.
Pastor of public witness may be a new position for the ELCA, but other denominations have called clergy to similar public-facing roles. For instance, the predecessor to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ordained Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” as an evangelist for television, noted Gonia during Bolz-Weber’s installation service Friday (Aug. 20).
Bolz-Weber laughed at the comparison to the beloved children’s TV host, calling it “counterintuitive.” But, she said, it works.
She’d seen “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” the popular 2018 documentary about Rogers and his show, the day after she left the church she founded, House For All Sinners and Saints in Denver, to pursue her current work as a public theologian. The film brought tears to her eyes, she said. It also made her believe maybe it was possible for her to do the new ministry she had upended her life to do.
“The motivation comes from having a pastoral concern and wanting to have a broader reach than a single congregation,” she told Religion News Service.
That work, which is self-funded, won’t look any different from what she has been doing since leaving House for All Sinners and Saints.
“I still pay my health insurance,” she said. “It’s not like I got a new job. I get to still do my job, and have my denomination say, ‘This work is pastoral in nature.’” The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber discusses forgiveness in a video on her website. Video screengrab
In addition to her books, Bolz-Weber’s public ministry includes hosting a podcast from PRX and The Moth called “The Confessional,” in which people confess their worst moments and the pastor offers a personalized blessing in return. She will also continue speaking, writing an email newsletter called “The Corners” and leading an “experimental gathering of spiritual misfits” online called “The Chapel.”
Her work often centers on a message of grace and compassion — a message, she said, she herself needs to hear. She’s referred to her style of leadership as “screw it, I’ll go first,” sharing her struggles so others feel comfortable admitting their own.
That message is grounded in Lutheran theology, she said, which is why it’s important for her to remain connected with the ELCA.
“Almost everything I say is just a translation of really basic Lutheran theology, and they’re the ones who gave me that language in the first place,” she said.
Bolz-Weber also offers quarterly messages at several ecumenical ministries in Denver, which issued her call alongside the Rocky Mountain Synod. They are St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Denver; New Beginnings, an ELCA worshipping community inside the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility; and Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Denver that hosted Friday’s installation service.
“We give thanks for our friend Nadia, who is bringing us together. She has a way of doing that in the world,” the Rev. Clover Reuter Beal of Montview said during the service, which was livestreamed by the church.
In his message, Gonia noted this was Bolz-Weber’s second call to ministry in the ELCA and “a long time in coming to fruition.” The entire conference of bishops of the ELCA had to sign off on the newly created position, which he said he has discussed with the pastor since she left House for All Sinners and Saints.
“Certainly for our Rocky Mountain Synod — one of 65 synods in the ELCA — we’ve never had a calling like this one before, where we are acknowledging that Nadia has a ministry that goes far beyond the walls of any one church,” the bishop told RNS afterward.
That ministry brings a “particular articulation of the gospel” to people who may not otherwise be connected with Christianity, he said. Not so unlike Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
The Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber discusses forgiveness in a video on her website. Video screen grab
* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.
Be rooted in Christ!
Always beware of women with hyphenated names.
Yeah. No. ELCA has been a dead church walking since, oh, about whenever they were founded by the fusion of 3 predecessor bodies. I was there at the time as a synod delegate, and it was a sad sight to see. Idiot pastors walking round saying stupid things to each other.
She’s a far cry from Mister Rogers.
Quit the Lutheran Church years ago. Broke my hearf what they turnex into
If you want to worship sjws might as well cut off the superficial christian trappings.
“Public witness” to what!!!!
She’s a far cry from the original—and true—”public witnesses”—the Holy Twelve Apostles!!!!
She’s more s witness to freakiness!! PHOOEY!!!!
Try the LCMS. not all Lutherans are apostate
She apparently worships the same fertility gods as the priests of Jezebel.
I remember when Charles Hendrickson did a parody song called ELCA to the tune of YMCA by the Village People.
Yep. LCMS is solid, at least for now - who knows what happens in the fullness of time.
ELCA is apostate. Been there, left that.
Major US Lutheran church bodies, from most conservative to most liberal:
WELS - Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin
LCMS - Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
NALC - North American Lutheran Church
LCMC - Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ
ELCA - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Leni
Holding the line against female clergy is ESSENTIAL.
There is absolutely no indication that the LCMS will cave on that.
LCMS for me too.
Left the clown show years ago.
“If you want to worship SJWS’ might as well cut off the superficial christian trappings.”
It seems,like so many,if not most of today’s main line youngerpastors/priests/???? are more interested in being SJWS’s instead of being good shepherds for their church’s Members/flock.
They end up driving away the younger good sheep and the older good sheep eventually die off. That leaves these SJWS’s with a dying church. Then, they leave and go off to kill another church as their previous church closes its doors.
Maybe that all most dead church can afford to hire a retired cleric to hold a once a month service. If they are lucky, there are some funds donated into a reserve fund by dead/former members to keep the church open for a few years.
The aging members do their best to keep the church clean and open. Then, they leave, die or go else where, and their church closes and locks the doors forever. We, know a few retired clerics who could hold services every Saturday/Sunday if they wanted to do that in dying churches.
She deliberately Showing her tats is all I need to know.
I’m still not convinced. Saw too much of that self-righteous yet self-flagellating presumption last year from our local LCMS and the national level “letters” on it when the riots…I mean justified demonstrations for good causes….broke out all over.
It’s a long way from Fred Rogers to “Pastrix.”
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