I came across an article the other day about a Lutheran pastor. If you were to just look at her, the last thing that would come to mind is that she is a pastor. Tattooed, buff and wearing a tank top with her clergy collar, Nadia Bolz-Weber is far from your typical Sunday morning preacher. She’s real and raw and doesn’t take crap from anyone. I love it.

I believe she is a lot like Jesus was. She’s not perfectly manicured and living the “American Dream” (whatever that is). She doesn’t just associate with the rich and ‘sinless’. She welcomes those who were burned by the institutionalized church. She welcomes the outcasts, the drug addicts and alcoholics. The same way Jesus hung out with the sinners, the prostitutes, the criminals, the outcasts.

I’ve read a lot of contrasting opinions on Pastor Bolz-Weber. Some think that her ministry is awesome, others…well.. not so much. But I think when you look at what she says, you’ll see that she is doing a really great thing for the Kingdom. She gets to the heart of the issue of the Church today when she says:

[Church]  isn’t supposed to be the Elks Club with the Eucharist,” Religion should be “something that’s so devastatingly beautiful it can break your heart. Instead it’s been: ‘Recycle.’ And ‘Don’t sleep with your girlfriend.’

Yes. Exactly.

Some people have become so caught up in not sinning that we forget to love.

So Pastor Nadia’s appearance is a little shocking at first. She talks openly about her past and the journey that she has taken to get to where she is today. She was saved by grace. But she was also one of the ‘dirty sinners’ that the typical ‘country club church‘ didn’t really accept. So she opened her heart to reaching out to the ones that are where she used to be.

What a powerful modern day testimony of God taking a person who had run so far in the opposite direction, that she seemed hopeless, and changing her life so that she can lead others to know the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Nadia looks rough. She wears her wounds and her heart on her sleeve. But  I think that if all of us did that, there would be a whole lotta ugly walking around and it would be beautiful. She doesn’t ‘clean up’ to come to church. She meets people where they are and joins them on their journey.

Click here for a link to the church website, check it out, tell me what you think!

What would the Church look like if we all stopped concentrating on being the “hip church” or the “country club” and started being what our community needs? What would the world look like if we were real, raw and honest?