Nadia Bolz-Weber | |
---|---|
Born |
Nadia Bolz 1969 (age 47–48) |
Nationality | American |
Education | Iliff School of Theology |
Occupation | Pastor |
Spouse(s) | Matthew Bolz-Weber (1996-2016) |
Website | www |
Church | Evangelical Lutheran Church in America |
Ordained | 2008 |
Writings | Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People, Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television |
Congregations served
|
House for All Sinners and Saints |
Nadia Bolz-Weber (born 1969) is a Lutheran minister and public theologian. She serves as the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Denver, Colorado. She is also a two-time New York Times bestselling author.
Bolz-Weber is known for her unusual approach to reaching others through her church. Heavily tattooed, she is considered a "perfomative pastor". Her work in the church is considered part of "a new Reformation" by scholar and writer Diana Butler Bass.
Bolz-Weber grew up in Colorado Springs with a fundamentalist Christian family.
In 1986, at age 17, Bolz-Weber started getting tattoos, and the ones on her arms mark the liturgical year and the story of the Gospel. Bolz-Weber briefly attended Pepperdine University before dropping out and moving to Denver. She says that she became an alcoholic and drug abuser and often felt like one of "society's outsiders".
By 1996, after 10 years, Bolz-Weber became sober and, as of 2016, has remained so for twenty years. Prior to her ordination, she was a stand-up comedian and worked in the restaurant industry.
In 1996, Nadia married Matthew Bolz-Weber, whom she had met while in recovery. They divorced in 2016. Together, they have two children, a daughter and a son.
Bolz-Weber felt that she heard the call to service in 2004 when she was asked to eulogize a friend who had committed suicide. In 2008, Bolz-Weber was ordained as a pastor. She started her own church, the House for All Sinners and Saints, which is often shortened to just House. One third of her church is part of the LGBT community, and she also has a "Minister of Fabulousness", Stuart, who is a drag queen. Her church is also very welcoming to people with drug addiction, depression, and even those who are not believers of her faith. Bolz-Weber spends nearly twenty hours each week to write her weekly ten-minute sermon.