You Need To See This: Nadia Bolz-Weber on On Being

I’m not necessarily a fan of pastors having fans, but I confess: I’m a huge fan of Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. I pretty much read whatever she writes and listen to whatever she says, primarily because she always makes me feel welcomed by God, even when I am at my jerkiest.

This video is long, so you may want to bookmark it for your weekend recreation time, because it’s so incredibly worth it. Part of the On Being podcast, it was filmed at the Wild Goose Festival (another thing on my bucket list, except I really hate camping).

My favorite part, and the part that speaks volumes to me, is the part where she talks about how if you’re considering becoming a member of her church, she says BEFORE you join that she — or at least someone — will do something that will piss you off. And she asks you to consider that before you join, and commit to staying.

Of course you can leave, but when you leave, you miss the opportunity for God’s powerful, amazing grace to work its way through the situation.

I know this to be true, and although I think God is a highly personal God, one who is deeply involved in every single aspect of my life, I think a way he makes himself known to us is through our relationships. And there’s no better place to find a bunch of messed up relationships than in church. Relationships that get so messed up, they make you desperate to leave, to run far, far away. Relationships that can get so filled with hurt, so dysfunctional, that you can’t even speak about them.

And let me be clear about something: I know that these relationships can sometimes be abusive, and I am NOT saying that anyone should stay in an abusive situation. If you think you’re in one — get help, and get out.

But there are other times when even the most dysfunctional relationships can be healed. I have experienced the powerful grace of God that Pastor Nadia talks about in this interview. I’ve sat through really hard conversations I didn’t want to have. In fact, I initiated them. I discovered so much love in these conversations where I thought it could never be, and interesting enough, discovered that the people I thought were my posse, my tribe, withdrew from me, from having those hard conversations with me. And that hurt.

But it was what they needed to do for themselves, and I can hardly count that against them.

As for me, I stayed, and the mind-blowing grace that got all up in through me is something I will never forget, and I hope to never take for granted.

So, enjoy Pastor Nadia. I know I do.