In the Midwest, Luther is as relevant today as 500 years ago. It is also unusual in that the “Stars” of the Church such as the pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber. In the reformation year, many of US Lutherans look to Germany.
“We all believe in one God” sounds to the morning prayer by the Auditorium of the Luther College in Decorah in the U.S. state of Iowa. The confession of faith as a Church song written in 1524 by Martin Luther. Here, in the Protestant Midwest, the reformer, as present now as ever. And pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, as a guest preacher and lecturer celebrations of one of the “attractions” of this year’s Reformation of the Christian University, emphasized the topicality of the message of Luther in the present time: “The grace of God is the core of our faith. This is as important today as it was 500 years ago.”
Sin, forgiveness, second chances
Bolz-Weber is a Star among the Lutherans in the United States although or precisely because it does not correspond to externally to the usual image of a Christian spiritual: From neck to foot with tattoos, she stands in the semi-long Jeans-skirt on the stage of to the last seat filled auditorium, and talked to the students about sin, forgiveness, and second chances – and the pressure to be good and perfect. “We too often forget that God loves our real I, and not some Ideal,” says the 47-year-old in the DW-interview.
No ordinary pastor: Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Star in the Lutheran Church
The unusual pastor feels authentic when she speaks about these topics: growing up in a fundamentalist Christian parents rebelled, they, as young adults, against the strict beliefs of their parents. She led a life on the edge: “Too much alcohol, drugs, Sex. I felt as an outsider of society,” describes itself this time. After ten years, she came to rest, was “dry”, got married, worked as a Stand-Up Comedian. And finally found her calling: she studied Lutheran theology. In 2008, she was ordained as a pastor.
Why Luther?
“The Lutheran Church has given me the words for what I have experienced in my life,” explains Bolz-Weber is your decision to decide in the Land of the unlimited diversity of the denominations of all things, for “Luther”. Your use of alcohol and drugs, you can overcome addiction just by “completely unmerited grace of God”, “because I didn’t have the strength to go out of myself this way,” says the pastor.
Here you will also find Nadia Bolz-Weber’s books: book shop Luther College in Decorah
About their experiences at a young age and make their way back to Christianity, Nadia Bolz-Weber has written several books: Two of them ended up even on the best seller list the New York Times: “Pastrix – the crazy, beautiful Faith of a sinner and righteous,” and “Random Saint: How to find God in all the wrong people”.
“House for all sinners and saints”
In her home state of Colorado has created a very special community: The “house for all sinners and saints” in Denver wants parents, especially social on the outside and Desperate to offer a home to people and the world struggle are unsettled in the Faith, and of the “unconditional love of God”, Bolz-Weber in the center of your Ministry, now new.
Not quite a simple Church. But a very creative group, which is achieved with the unusual actions of people far beyond the usual clientele of the Lutheran Church – such as with the T-Shirts, with the help of your community for Luther and his message advertises: “Lutherans – Nailing shit to the church door since 1517”, it says. Even the Bishop of the “Rocky mountain Synod”, Jim Gonia, have a tightened, reports Nadia Bolz-Weber with a satisfied Grin.
Advertising with Playmobil reformer
500 years of the theses in Wittenberg 500 years of Reformation – that is also the reason why Stefan Buchwald to Decorah came. As the head of the Germany information center in Washington, the Diplomat is responsible for the project “Campus weeks”. Thus, the Federal government promotes since several years the German language and trying to inspire young elites at American universities for studying in Germany. This year, with a particular focus on Lutheran Colleges is happening in the Midwest.
Advertise for Germany and the German language: a Diplomat Stefan Buchwald with students
A great success, emphasizes Buchwald, who has travelled with an almost life-sized “Playmobil” – Luther as reinforcement: “We have managed in the last few years, in fact, to increase the number of American students in Germany. And we have succeeded in many of the Partner universities, to receive English as a subject of study – in spite of the strong competition from Spanish and other languages”, stressed the Diplomat.
Home game for Germany
In the Mid-West, the Germans have something like a “home game” In Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota,North and South Dakota, many Americans have German or Scandinavian roots. Here also most of the nearly eight million Lutherans in the United States live. They shape the culture and mentality of the Region: “at The heart of our faith, the grace of God,” says Campus Pastor Mike Blair, “but there are of course other elements, such as the Protestant work ethic and a certain straightforwardness, which belong to our self-understanding.”
Decorah Campus Pastor Mike Blair
Even if the Lutherans are only a comparatively small minority among the approximately 230 million American Christians, and their influence the country was widely felt, for example, Blair: “There is a network of Lutheran universities, hospitals operated by the Church and many social institutions in the areas of refugee assistance, with which we can make an impact and our view of things heard.”
The Church Congress at a glance
Just on the subject of refugees, the Lutheran churches in the United States, the Position of the German government significantly closer than the one in Washington. This applies not only to the leadership of the Church, but also for the young at the base: “I have here in my conversations a lot of positive Feedback for the Germany, dealing with the refugee crisis,” reports the Diplomat Stefan Buchwald. The interest in Germany is very large; the Lutheran universities, many student would have been this year, students asked stays to opportunities for study and work.
Not only will the students want to 500 years after the theses in Wittenberg back to the origin of the Reformation – pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber grabs these days your bags: at the end of may you will be speaking at the Kirchentag in Germany, Luther’s Vision of a “merciful God”.