The house for all sinners and saints

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. Continue reading

 

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