Saints, sinners, smartphones
Bishops and church-growth gurus have been closely following Nadia Bolz-Weber's church plant in Denver, the House for All Sinners and Saints. An outreach innovator, Bolz-Weber is a traditionalist when it comes to matters of liturgy and theology. She appears to have a special attachment to the doctrine of original sin.
"She often taps her chest and says, 'It's dark in there,'" notes Century contributing editor Jason Byassee in a lively report on the congregation written for the New Media Project at Union Theological Seminary.
Byassee captures Bolz-Weber's theological style while observing the omnipresence of social media in her ministry and in her congegation. Texting and Facebook-updating are just "part of the air Millennial culture breathes," he says. Bolz-Weber tells him that she is never offline.
