Youth community

A youth parish is a Christian parish of young people. In contrast to a youth service, a youth congregation is more than just a service and also includes other offers such as leisure time, training, leisure activities, etc.

A youth community is a lifeworld community such as student communities that are only relevant for a certain phase of life. It differs in this from parish parishes (local parishes). The term youth parish is not the same as the youth church , since it often only refers to a room or a service. A youth church works strongly with a space appropriation concept and is more program-oriented. A youth congregation, on the other hand, works in a relationship-oriented manner and sees itself as a spiritual movement that appears independently of a building.

aims

Youth communities try to design their offer in such a way that young people feel addressed in their living environment. They see their right to exist in the fact that many young people do not feel addressed by conventional church offers. Another goal of youth parishes is to encourage young people to participate in parish life: Young people are also entrusted with leading positions, which is still an exception in many parochial parishes. In addition, youth parishes are an attempt to bring young people together under the umbrella of the regional church .

criticism

Youth congregations are criticized for doing short-sighted planning: restricting a congregation to a certain age group means that young people who grow out of the youth congregation cannot find a replacement and the youth congregation has failed to give young people a home in faith. However, through various offers, youth communities try to help young people beyond the age limit to find a spiritual home. Only the future will tell whether they succeed in doing so or whether the critics are right, since the youth community movement is still comparatively young.

Youth communities

• DOMINO youth community, Kirchheim / Teck
• Weigle House , Essen
• Jesustreff, Stuttgart