As of: February 6, 2024, 5:30 a.m
By: Andrea Kästle
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It's not just the Pope who uses social media, more and more parish associations and parishes in the district are also using digital platforms and offering unusual events or varied activities.
© Arno Burgi/dpa
Whether podcast, Instagram or disco: the churches in the Munich district are using increasingly modern ways to reach people.
District
- Just recently, 50 children demonstrated in the St. Wilhelm Church in Oberschleißheim.
Their posters read “We can't move forward without working together!” and “Future for everyone!”.
They shouted into the megaphone: “We want peace for the whole world!” The young believers did not protest against the church.
On the contrary: it was an attempt to make the church modern.
The worship group had long thought about how they could represent Jonah's protest in Nineveh.
In the Bible, God tells the prophet to warn people about bad behavior.
In Oberschleißheim, too, the children wanted to wake people up at the family service.
“That was probably the largest unannounced demonstration,” says Pastor Ulrich Kampe and laughs.
“Church is where the people are.
It is an invisible net that carries us.”
Sermon Podcast
Pastor Kampe from Oberschleißheim is not alone with this type of service.
More and more Christian communities are experimenting with devotions in the park, with sermon podcasts or Bible quotes on Instagram.
The goal is obvious: in times of resignations and negative headlines, they want to reach people with the Christian message.
The clergy in the district agree: Change only occurs where people stay on the path.
Talent box
Ute Heubeck (49) has been a pastor at the Protestant Cantate Church in Kirchheim for five years.
She says: “For me, a modern church is a networked, open church in which everyone can get involved.” There is a talent box in the community to find the right job for volunteers.
The centerpiece is a list of skills that are needed in the community.
Cake bakers, photographers, seamstresses and musicians tick their talent on the list and throw it into the box.
Ecumenism connects
The exchange is important to Heubeck.
The community works with neighboring communities and associations.
The confirmation candidates visit the fire department, meet those caring for the dying from the hospice association and build birdhouses with the horticultural friends.
Peace prayers, Taize devotions and, for the first time this year, a Palm Sunday procession are an ecumenical project.
“We need to expand ecumenical cooperation,” says the pastor.
She is particularly looking forward to the program in the “Holy Garden” during the State Garden Show in Kirchheim.
This year, ecumenical devotions, concerts and art exhibitions will take place in the sacred garden.
Active online
Many churches are now active online.
The homepage of the Oberschleissheim Parish Association looks like a Facebook page.
Every event is listed.
Between the service bulletin, the Bible group meeting and the parish newsletter, there are spiritual impulses for the onset of winter and a travel blessing.
“We want to pick up people,” says Pastor Kampe.
“God’s message can be anywhere.” The youth helps him create an Instagram profile.
The 54-year-old wants to share activities and biblical thoughts with the community.
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Disco in the church
Kampe has been dean for the Munich-Northwest pastoral care region since last year.
He doesn't like standing still.
There is something he wants for the church: flexibility.
He himself likes to experiment.
“Church is modern when it is where the people are,” says Kampe.
“God is not only noticeable in church services.” Before the pandemic, there were activities that are now slowly starting up again.
“Dance with Joy” was a complete success.
With a DJ and disco lights, the church was transformed into a dance floor.
A joint start to the day is planned for this year.
Under the title “Pray and Breakfast”, young people gather to have breakfast together with prayer and music.
“The community is the center of the church,” says Kampe.
“It’s a source of strength that a lot of people are looking for.”
Tightrope walk
Growing up in the people's church, it's a tightrope walk for Pastor Wolfang Fluck (65) from the Pullach-Großhessellohe parish association.
“The modern church tries to translate the traditional into the here and now,” he says.
There are parts of the church that are rigid in rules and are not open to discussion.
“I want to do my part to change something,” says Fluck.
Celibacy and ordination of women are issues of the universal church.
He is happy about the blessing of homosexuals.
Move something
It is important to bring life into the church.
“The people make up the modern church,” says Fluck.
Society needs church communities that work for good in the world.
Meaningful activities in senior citizen work or parish youth would give believers the feeling of making a difference.
Fluck says: “We go through life together in the church community and encourage each other.”