Nadia Bolz-Weber: Lutheran Pastor & Author

Nadia Bolz-Weber is the author of two New York Times bestselling memoirs: "Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People" and "Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint." Her most recent book, "Shameless," is a raw, intimate, and timely look at harmful and antiquated ideas about sex, gender, and our bodies. The founder and former pastor of a Lutheran congregation House for All Sinners and Saints, she speaks at colleges and conferences around the globe.

Bolz-Weber created a spiritual home for people who feel like they don’t fit into organized religion. A place where people can admit to their mistakes and bad choices and still find acceptance, love and grace. “My transparency about my failings and all of the things that make me seem not ‘like a pastor’ are what allow me to be certain people's pastor,” she says.

The Evangelical Lutheran pastor was in her 20s when she first saw a woman in a religious leadership role. “To see a woman up front in religious leadership completely changed how I saw myself and what I thought might be possible for me," she said. When a group of friends asked her to lead a memorial service for a friend, she agreed. “I looked out and I saw these comics and academics, recovering alcoholics and queers, and I just thought, these people don’t have a pastor. And then I went, ‘oh s**t, I think it’s supposed to be me.’”When Bolz-Weber started blogging, she faced haters who wrote negative comments about her and firmly believed that women shouldn’t be pastors. Trolls gave her the nickname “Pastrix” as an insult, so naturally she turned it into inspiration: It became the title of her first New York Times bestseller. And it’s her rebel attitude that continues to be Bolz-Weber’s saving grace. “To me, it felt really defiant to say, no I think we can be part of organized religion and do it on our terms,” she says. "I have seen grace change me and change people in my congregation in a way that just telling them how to be good never would.

This free event is open to the public and sponsored by the TLU Jessie S. and Jack Harold Upton Brown Cultural Enrichment Endowment Fund. There will also be a book signing after the presentation where copies will be for sale.