An Evening of Challenge

On Tuesday night, our Office Manager Kate Hoing and I went down to Calvary Baptist Church in DC to hear Nadia Bolz-Weber and Amy Butler. You may have seen the article in Monday's Washington Post on Nadia. She's the weight-lifting, tattooed Lutheran pastor who often uses very down-to-earth salty language. She is also a recovering alcoholic and former drug user. She grew up in a family that attended the Church of Christ, a very conservative denomination that does not allow women to teach boys over the age of twelve. Her recently published book Pastrix is a memoir.

I first heard Nadia in May of 2012, and have quoted her in a couple of sermons since then. She would never claim to have all the answers or to get everything right, but she seeks to be a real and faithful follower of Jesus.

Following are some of my tweets from Tuesday night. If there are typos, just know that it's hard to type accurately while following someone's talk. For more, see here.

• making it hard, challenging, not crazy posturing
• We want God's answers but what we get is God's presence
• my job is not to worry about why my people believe, but it am responsible for what they hear
• Don't tone down the Jesus!
• there is welcome to anyone who wants to be there, but not the LowestCommonDenominator theology.
• a lot of folks are not really into denominations. nadia: I'm not post-denominational.
• Theological particularity is important in a missional sense. Don't give up on that,
• How do you define success for yourself in terms of your congregation?
• Success does not look like numbers, but moments of holy grace.
• Filling out a mission church report: "how many doors did you knock on this month?" Nadia's answer: "Zero. That's creepy"
• corporate American values--have to be good in every single area--BS. We don't have to awesome at everything.
• So not into consumer church. That is not success.
• faith is a gift. Stumble in and out. Stumble in and stay. Never stumble in. Who knows why?
• in urban setting , how do you let people know that this is a place they might find a home?
• Out and about in the community. Not outreach strategy. Not a means to an end. Marketing is resented.
• thinking about the building--our mission, open the doors. Calvary Baptist
• liturgy has it's own integrity; it doesn't depend on my integrity.
• listen to your external sense of call before you emphasize your internal sense of call which can be kind of sketchy.
• don't spend or waste your authority defending it; you will end up losing it.

Esther 4:14

“Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”