Background
Bolz-Weber grew up in Colorado Springs with a fundamentalist Christian family.
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Nadia Bolz-Weber
Edit ProfileEducation
Bolz-Weber briefly attended Pepperdine University before dropping out and moving to Denver.
Career
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.
At age 17, she started getting tattoos, and the ones on her arms mark the liturgical year and the story of the Gospel.
She says that she became an alcoholic and drug abuser and often felt like one of "society"s outsiders." After 10 years of that, she became sober and has remained so for twenty years. Prior to her ordination, she was a stand-up comedian and worked in the restaurant industry.
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.
Bolz-Weber also speaks at religious conferences and is a guest speaker at other churches.
