Her church follows the ancient liturgy of the church, yet during Easter Vigil, for example, members are asked to tell the resurrection story in teams. People have made films, written original pieces of choral music and acted out scenes with Barbie dolls.
"We'll call that ancient/future church and different stuff like that, but I find that's what people are drawn to," said Bolz-Weber, who earned a master of divinity degree from Iliff School of Theology.
She has become a leading voice of the emerging church after a hard-drinking life as a stand-up comedian and restaurant worker, and has been described as a "6-foot-1 Christian billboard" for her tattoo-covered arms.
Bolz-Weber spoke with Jesse James DeConto for Faith & Leadership about communicating a historic doctrine in today's culture and holding on to something old in an identifiably Christian way.
Q: For those clergy who want to be doing what you're doing, what do they need to know?
That they should figure out who their people are and try to be their pastor.
Older folks from the church will say, "What do young adults want? What do they want so that we can do it?" I'm like, "I've never had to ask myself that question."
I get to be in ministry in a context I'm native to, so I've never had to second-guess, "Will they like this?" or, "Will they get this joke?" or, "Would they enjoy doing X, Y or Z?"
There's something about doing ministry as the person you are that ends up making a big difference, and who you are is going to be different than who I am.
I know a lot of pastors, if you ask them, "Do you feel like you can really be here in your work?" they'd say no. I think that ends up being really key.
