Photo: jerichobooks.com

Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber took the stage of the Chester Fritz Auditorium on Thursday night, suffering from what she described as the worst head cold in human history.

The illness did little to mar her enthusiasm for speaking.

More than six feet tall and covered in tattoos, Bolz-Weber doesn’t look like the typical Lutheran pastor. She informed her audience of UND students, students from other colleges and community members that she doesn’t preach like a typical pastor either.

“Oh yeah, disclaimer. This is not the national youth gathering, and I did not sign a contract saying that I would not use profanity,” Bolz-Weber said. “I’m hoping you will be gracious enough to allow me to be who I genuinely am and speak how I genuinely speak, and not have to pretend to be something I’m not.

“Some people think pastors shouldn’t swear, I think pastors shouldn’t pretend to be people they’re not.”

Her appearance at the Chester Fritz was part of an event called “Outrageous Faith: A Night of Great Music and Honest Talk.”

The event was presented by the Lutheran Campus Ministries of North Dakota.

To kick off her talk, Bolz-Weber read certain chapters from her book, “Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint,” which debuted at No. 17 on the New York Times nonfiction best sellers, to familiarize the audience with her past and her life now as a pastor.

She addressed a range of topics from doubting faith to the future of the church.

“There’s a lot of anxiety in our denomination and other mainline denominations because it’s an aging population, we’re on the decline,” Bolz-Weber said. “The cover of the Lutheran magazine every other month is like, ‘We’re Almost Dead!’”

Grand Forks resident Karen Grainger enjoyed Bolz-Weber’s honest talk.

“I was blown away. Honestly, I was in tears, I was laughing,” Grainger said “I have struggles with my own faith, and things I’ve gone through, so I totally related to Nadia. I hope that the next time something like this is offered, the whole place is full — that it’s shoulder to shoulder. It was such a wonderful event.”

Before Bolz-Weber took the stage, Rachel Kurtz and her band opened up the event with a few soulful, folksy songs.

Kurtz also introduced a special guest, one of the nation’s top beatboxers, Bjorn Hunstand, also known as Bloomer to perform.

The group was later joined on stage by the rapper Agape who brought the audience to their feet, singing and dancing along.

The University Programming Council and Student Government helped with the setup of Outrageous Faith and made the ticket free of charge for students.

“What a good way to support students who don’t have the funds to see something like this,” Grainger said. “I think it’s great.”

Paula Kaledzi is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]