"Numbers are rapidly plummeting": Evangelical Church in Freising is fighting against a decline in membership

Changes are imminent not only in the Catholic but also in the Protestant Church.

In order to remain sustainable, the dean of Freising wants a new structure.

District

- Not only are the number of members falling, fewer and fewer people want to take up a church profession.

The finances are developing accordingly: like the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church is also facing profound changes.

Setting the course for the future was recently discussed at the Dean's Synod in Markt Schwaben under the motto “Shaping upheaval”.

Dean Christian Weigl is combative: "We are not cheering, but we accept the challenge!"

(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

40 percent fewer employees in church professions by 2030

39 synodals and ten other guests, mainly pastors and representatives of the surrounding communities from the districts of Freising, Erding and Ebersberg, took part in the half-day meeting.

Dean Weigl then summarizes the essential points.

The overall situation is currently troubling those responsible: As far as pastors, but also other church professions, the forecast looks bleak: "The numbers are rapidly plummeting, by 2030 it will be 40 percent less than today." Weigl emphasizes that jobs are being cut in the regional church - not only for reasons of economy, but also because no staff are available.

For the dean's office in Freising this means in concrete terms: “We have to reduce 2.5 positions by 2024.” It is not yet clear how this will be done.

However, it is important for Weigl to create awareness of the problem and to take all committees and the basis with him so that the final decision is supported by as many as possible.

Specialists in various subject areas

In order to master the upheaval, the synodals decided to continue to pursue the strategy called “Profile and Concentration”, or PuK for short. It is a matter of organizing the work differently, said Weigl. “The question is whether this model pastor plus congregation is sustainable.” New functions should also be created. Weigl can imagine that there are specialists for different subject areas - for example senior work - who take care of several parishes in parallel in order to relieve the parish priests. “We have to establish a new system, because the way we are currently working is slowly becoming obsolete,” the dean is certain.

But whether this will solve the basic problem - the increasing number of people leaving the church?

In the whole of Germany, the Protestant Church recorded 266,738 withdrawals (1.26 percent) in 2019, the highest figure in 30 years; in 2020 there were 220,000 withdrawals.

“It is questionable whether it will be possible to get more people into the church again.

The trend is completely different, ”Weigl confirms at the decant level.

What is clear to the church staff on site: "Our main task is the relationship work, the pastoral care." At the latest when there is no more time, you have to ask yourself what can be changed.

The pastor can no longer be the proverbial "egg-laying woolly milk sow".

“We simply have to deal with our tasks more clearly.” This is exactly what the PuK process is for.