Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

So here's the thing: I grew up in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, was baptized, confirmed, and then went to high school and found nothing in the liturgy or the service to make me stay in the church.And then I went to live in Japan and had to wrestle with a WHOLE COUNTRY of folks with a 1000 year old history that has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus.So I stopped believing the church or Christianity had anything to do with me. I'm a flaming liberal, and a religion that makes outsiders of people is not for me. I wanted religion that was inclusive, and active...and so I left.But somewhere along the lines, I wanted to sing in a choir again. So I started coming back to church. And somewhere along the lines I realized I could say the words of the Apostles Creed, sing the hymns, and say the Lord's Prayer and it didn't matter one bit whether I believed it or not. It was about doing things that helped me be a better person.And then I got breast cancer and had to go through chemo and yadda yadda yadda, I couldn't be a strong, independent person anymore, and had to accept help. And somewhere along the lines of accepting help, of being weak, and needing others-- I found friendship. I found a church community.But my terrible secret remained: I'm not sure the God in the ELCA liturgy is the god I believe. I mean, I certainly don't think 1000s of years of Japanese people are condemned to a fiery pits of hell because Jesus happened to live in the Middle East. A God of love would not work that way.And that's the long way of saying Nadia Bolz-Weber's book speaks strongly to me. She writes about her failures as a person, and as a PASTOR to love the people around her, the very people who show here the most grace when she commits to speaking in Australia instead of officiating at good friends' weddings, or avoids a parishioner with halitosis and boring stories.And she verbalizes the twin sides of the "blessing" and "neediness" issue that have been a thorn in my mental side since the first time I did volunteer work in high school. If you go out to do mission and give service, it's so very easy to fall into a mental trap. Here, she explains it better than me:"While we as people of God are called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the whole "we're blessed to be a blessing" thing can still be kind of dangerous. It can be dangerous when we self-importantly place ourselves above the world, waiting to descend on those below so we can be a "blessing" they've been waiting for, like it or not. Plus, seeing myself as the blessing can pretty easily obscure the way in which I am actually part of the problem and can hide the ways in which I, too, am poor and needing care."How do we go about doing service without making a distinction between those who are receiving and those giving? I think part of the answer lies in stop giving into the sin of pride about being strong, or independent or being a go-getter or organizational maven or the one who knows where all the spoons go in the church kitchen. It's about being open to the help we all need. We are all broken in our own ways. And about this other side of the service coin, Nadia writes:"And receiving grace is basically the best shitty feeling in the world. I don't want to need it. Preferably I could just do it all and be it all and never mess up. That may be what I would prefer, but it is never what I need. I need to be broken apart and put back into a different shape by the merging of things human and divine, which is really screwing up and receiving grace and love and forgiveness rather than receiving what I really deserve. I need the very thing that I will do everything I can to avoid needing."So this is a super-easy book of anecdotes and stories and vignettes about her parishioners and people she's encountered who forced her to confront grace. And I much appreciated the down-to-earth tone.

I read it because it was on the New York Times list of bestsellers. That is not only a significant accomplishment for an author but an indication that her work resonates with a wide audience. So I read the book. And, oh my.Nadia Bolz-Weber is founding pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Denver called House for All Sinners and Saints. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People is the follow-up to her memoir, Pastrix, also a bestseller. A tremendously gifted writer, Bolz-Weber is known for her storytelling, transparency, irreverence, and excessive profanity. In this new book she describes some of her encounters with grace and she does so largely by sharing anecdotes related to her pastoral and speaking ministries.For the purposes of this review, let’s leave aside the issue of whether the Bible permits a woman to serve as a pastor—something that has long been a matter of debate among Christians. We can leave it aside for now because whether or not the Bible reserves the office of pastor for men, it undoubtedly reserves it for those who meet certain qualifications—qualifications that are laid out in the New Testament. Here is an example: “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer [synonymous with “elder” or “pastor”], he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be…” (1 Timothy 3:1-2). What follows is a list of character traits (above reproach, respectable, hospitable, and so on). We find these lists in 1 Timothy, in Titus, and in 1 Peter, and when we put them together we have a description of the kind of person God calls to the pastorate. He makes it clear: The office of pastor is reserved for those who are qualified by their character.Let me say it candidly: Bolz-Weber has no business being a pastor and, therefore, no business writing as a pastor. She proves this on nearly every page of her book. Time and again she shows that she is woefully lacking in godly character. Her stories, her word choice, her interactions with her parishioners, her temper, her endlessly foul mouth, her novel interpretations of Scripture—they lead to the alarming and disturbing picture of a person who does not take the office seriously enough to ask if she is qualified to it.Nadia Bolz-WeberAllow me the indulgence of a metaphor. In the book, and in the Q&A that follows it, Bolz-Weber refers to her obsession with CrossFit. Now let’s suppose that she pursues professional training in preparation for her next competition. And let’s say that she is introduced to a trainer who is a couple hundred pounds overweight and emerges wheezing from his office with hands coated in Cheetos residue. She would have every reason to doubt his suitability to the task and to request a different trainer. Why would she trust him to teach what he does not live?And yet she boldly tells others how to live as Christians even while she is so obviously and braggingly deficient in godly character. See, somehow she equates transparency with suitability, as if her abundance of flaws, foibles, and outright sin serve as a résumé, as if they are evidence of godliness. But, biblically, nothing could be farther from the truth. This kind of transparency may masquerade as humility but is actually the very height of pride. She revels in the things God forbids and makes little of an office God holds sacred.Of course, her disregard for the office of pastor should probably not be a great surprise since the religion she describes bears little resemblance to Christianity, at least as the Bible describes it. And this, I suppose, is her point: She wants to recreate the Christian faith and make it palatable to the twenty-first-century culture. To do this she uses the Bible when and how it suits her, but without any consistency. She casts doubt on the miraculous and supernatural. She affirms homosexuality and transgenderism. She teaches a form of universalism. She outright denies all kinds of central Christian doctrines including, of course, Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice (which she mocks like this: “God gathers up all our sin, all our broken-ass junk, into God’s own self and transforms all that death into life. Jesus takes our crap and exchanges it for his blessedness.”). What remains in the end has only the barest, weakest, blandest hint of Christianity left.As I finished the book I realized that I have read it before—or others just like it, at least. This is yet another in a long line of books meant to appeal to those who want to bear the name of Christ but without becoming like Christ. It’s not that Bolz-Weber doesn’t have any interesting or even helpful insights into life, into sin, and into human nature. It’s just that her brand of Christianity confuses worldliness and godliness. No wonder, then, that the eager masses are lapping it up. Her God calls us to himself but then leaves us to be whoever and whatever we want to be.In my assessment, Bolz-Weber is outrageous for the sake of being outrageous and that makes for the worst kind of book. Consider this anecdote: “I dug out a scarf from my bag and made a remark about the ****ing air conditioning as we listened to the prelude for the service to follow, and by ‘listened to,’ I mean made fun of. ‘Bruce, is this prelude helping us or hurting us, you think?’ There is something about dropping F-bombs and making fun of worship music with a bishop that makes me feel warm and fuzzy.” Her schtick is not cool. It’s not funny. It’s not shocking or edgy. It’s stupid, it’s bland, it’s old, it’s boring, it has already been tried and found wanting.

Nadia gave me a new perspective of Christ’s love with her powerful, moving, funny, joyful and painful stories. I was reminded of my own imperfections and the fact that God loves me in spite of myself. I laughed. I cried. I rejoiced. And I learned to look past traditional definitions of good and bad, to see that there are lessons to be learned from everyone I meet. I needed this book. I highly recommend Accidental Saints. It has moved me in a direction of self-forgiveness and knowing that God is there even when I fail Him.

Quick read and very enjoyable

Cela donne de belles idées à essayer en paroisse... malgré un style assez direct qui ne sera pas du goût de tous, on ressent une belle réflexion chrétienne !

Die Autorin schreibt sehr persönlich, berührend und aufrichtig und hat mich oft zum Lachen gebracht. Ein absolut lesenswertes Buch und eine schöne Abwechslung in der christlichen Literaturszene .

Found the book on line and loved itWhile it may not suit every Christian I apprecia t ed theFo u ND the book onlineWhile the Book may not suit every Christian it was a worthwhile read

Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, where she ministers to many of those marginalized by society. She is also heavily tattooed, uses profanity liberally, weight trains and is a recovering alcoholic and a former stand-up comedian. In short, she's not your parents' preacher and there is nothing stereotypical about her. In Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People, she uses her own life experiences, both personally, and through the members of her congregation, to demonstrate the relevance of Christian teaching in the lives of ordinary people today. In a wonderful story-telling style, she explains how many people have it all wrong in what they imagine the purpose of a spiritual connection to be. The goal isn't to make everyone become perfect people, but rather to find connection, purpose and meaning in their lives while accepting and embracing the fact that we're all flawed imperfect beings. In an age when cable channels are full of showy preachers telling their audience to lead more perfect lives or face damnation, her message is a nice change.Bolz-Weber introduces us to a number of people in her life who encounter a multitude of life's most challenging situations that would test the patience of any saint. These include parishioners with terminal illness, complete strangers who have lost children to suicide, children struggling with cutting and other issues, victims of gun violence, and even members of the clergy fighting their own demons. Bolz-Weber shows how many of these people are able to learn and live the message of forgiveness, grace and love and to rise from the ashes of their loss, misery and imperfection. But what is even more fascinating is how, for her, these people are tremendous teachers of lessons in life and in how to minister to the afflicted. It is very educational to see how the minister is herself affected, and how her humanity and her own imperfections frequently turn weakness into strength.Those with a bias against organized religion may initially experience some resistance with this book. Bolz-Weber makes it clear that she doesn't care what people believe, or even if they believe, and her attitude in this regard will help make this book more appealing to those who are put off by its "churchy-ness." Bolz-Webber is a devout Lutheran but not a practicing guilt tripper. Whether one is a member of a Christian church, a non-practicing believer, or a compassionate agnostic, it's hard not to be moved by many of the stories that the author shares about the people who are flawed, imperfect individuals who manage to confront their challenges with unanticipated strength and grace. In the process they also help their pastor to overcome her own imperfections and character defects and become a better person.Have a box of tissue handy when you read this book and prepare for waterworks. This book is sweet, thought-provoking, funny and moving. And if you're on any sort of spiritual journey of your own, it will also be educational and self-affirming.

The language is colourful and real so be ready for that. If you want to see "organised" church differently then have a read of this fabulous book. Nadia takes you on a journey through ministry with the best of her people and what difference it makes to her.Have the courage and you will love it!