This is the story of a devout faith community, made up of people you'd rarely see sitting in your sanctuary on any Sunday, that meets in an old warehouse (and former basement tattoo shop) on the wrong side of the tracks - founded by a self-proclaimed rule-breaking team of ""a recovering evangelical"" and ""a theological mutt."" Dirty Word is an honest and raw theological story of mission and ministry with people who are turned off by the practices and appearances of traditional church. Follow Walker's story and expect to find God in the most unexpected places. It's an uncensored look at an unapologetic way of being the church by getting out of the pews and into the streets. ""Jesus gets in the grime and muck of life,"" writes Walker. ""If we follow Christ (the Sufferer), we too are going to have to get dirty. Really dirty. All the time. Not just on the special, once-a-year mission trip to Central America, where we get to eat exotic food and touch a lizard."" God's good news is as subversive and counter-cultural today as it was in Jesus' time. Perhaps even more so as some characterizations of American Christianity have mainstreamed into vanilla-bland, glazed smiles of the ""well-dressed blessed."" It's a mixed message. What Walker saw on the streets, what he read in the Bible and what he saw heavily promoted as the Christian lifestyle in bookstores didn't match. So he decided to find another way. He reached out to the hardcore South Pittsburgh streets, gathering outcasts who wanted to live in a new way but couldn't find a place where they fit. The worshiping body they built together - Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community - is a place of loving honesty, tender care, deep hurt and great joy. Being a Christian doesn't mean you get to have it all as you pick up the cross and follow Jesus. It's a life of surrender and sacrifice, which means sometimes you might not be comfortable and happy. And, yet, you might find the most precious gift of all through your own brokenness.
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