Youth church
A youth church is a facility in a church building that is used as a profile church by this specifically for church events with young people .
The aim of the youth churches is to give young people, to whom the traditional forms of worship often seem alien, spaces in which they can shape community and worship with their music and their forms of youth culture. The participation of young people in the concept development and in the design of the program is constitutive for most youth churches. The offers of the youth churches can usually be freely designed by the youth.
The youth church and youth congregation often overlap, the earlier mutual demarcation is hardly practiced anymore; A youth church is primarily defined by the building in which the congregation is to establish itself, the youth congregation arises from a community of young people who want to be a congregation together.
Germany
In Germany there are over 180 youth churches, but only about 5 meditation churches by comparison . They come in roughly equal proportions from the Catholic , Evangelical-regional church and Evangelical- free church background.
For example:
- The Catholic youth church Leverkusen - Opladen was opened on December 3, 1995 in the Aloysius Chapel, the former school chapel of the Archbishop's High School St. Aloysius, but was initially not explicitly designated as a youth church.
- At the same time, the Protestant St. John's Church in Chemnitz was used more and more for youth events and from 1997 was often referred to as a youth church, but was initially rebuilt.
- The Tabgha youth church in Oberhausen , which opened in December 2000, was the first large Roman Catholic youth church in Germany. She was instrumental in developing the beginning youth church movement in German-speaking countries and coached numerous newly emerging youth churches, including Protestant ones.
- The Protestant youth church in Hanover has existed since September 2004 . It is based in the Luther Church .
- On May 21, 2005 the Catholic youth church Jona was opened, which is located in the parish of St. Bonifatius in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen .
- On June 24, 2005 the Gmünder Jugendkirche was founded as one of the first ecumenical youth churches. It is located in the Catholic Johanniskirche on the central market square of Schwäbisch Gmünd .
- On June 26, 2005 the Catholic youth church Kana was opened in the parish Maria-Hilf in Wiesbaden .
- On July 17, 2005, the Catholic youth church Crossover opened its doors in St. Hildegard's Church in Limburg an der Lahn .
- In October 2007, the Soest youth church opened with a youth service in the Wiese parish hall.
- On February 10, 2008, the youth church Osnabrück was also held with a youth service, in the ev. Ref. Peace Church Osnabrück opened.
- On April 18, 2008 the youth church opened in Hamburg .
- On June 28, 2009, the Crux Church of St. Johann Baptist was inaugurated in the southern part of Cologne .
- On September 4, 2009, the Rheydt Youth Church opened in Mönchengladbach .
- The Lux Young Church in Nuremberg has also been in existence since 2009 and has since been one of the largest active youth churches.
- The youth church Koblenz (X-Ground) in the parish church St. Elisabeth in Koblenz has existed since October 2012 .
- Further youth churches are u. a. in Aalen , Aachen , Achern , Bad Segeberg , Berlin , Bielefeld , Blankenheim (Ahr) , Düsseldorf , Einbeck , Genthin , Hanover , Karlsruhe , Kirchheim / Teck , Krefeld, Leonberg , Lippstadt , Ludwigsburg , Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Mannheim , Münster , Peine , Rostock , Rückeroth , Saarbrücken , Stuttgart , Werl , Würmersheim , Mühlhausen (Thuringia).
Austria
Austria's first youth church is located in Vienna . The Vienna Youth Church was opened on October 9, 2005 by Archbishop Christoph Schönborn of Vienna as part of a youth service. It shares the church space with the parish of St. Florian in the 5th district . There are now other Catholic youth churches.
Switzerland
Several catholic, evangelical and evangelical-free church youth churches exist, z. B. the Evangelical Reformed Streetchurch in Zurich.
Luxembourg
A Catholic youth church was established in Esch s. Alzette, then youth church campaigns took place in Luxembourg City.
Ecumenical Network of Youth Churches
At the end of 2006 there was the Ecumenical Network for Youth Churches , which was founded in Frankfurt am Main and was an association of youth churches from Germany and Austria. It dissolved again two years later because expectations and performance could not be reconciled. The youth church portal continues this work in some areas.
Youth church symposium and youth church regional meeting
Every two years an ecumenical youth church symposium takes place, which is organized by the catholic afj and the evangelical aej.
- 2005 in Oberhausen
- 2007 in Vienna
- 2009 in Wuppertal
- 2011 in Mühlhausen and Leinefelde
- 2013 in Nuremberg (October 20-22)
- 2015 in Berlin (October 21-23)
Confessional nationwide youth church meetings usually take place in the years between the major symposia. There are also numerous regional youth church meetings.
literature
- Petra Dais, Robby Höschele (ed.): Youth churches spaces. Magazine for more youth churches in church rooms. ejw, Stuttgart 2013. ISBN 978-3-86687-089-5 .
- Michael Freitag, Ursula Hamachers-Zuba, Hans Hobelsberger: Habitat for the youth church. Institution and practice. Luth. Verlagshaus, Hannover 2012. ISBN 978-3-7859-1075-7 (in youth church circles this book is considered the standard work on youth church work, Volume 2 ).
- Michael Freitag, Christian Scharnberg: Innovation Youth Church. Concepts and know-how. Luth. Verlagshaus, Hannover 2006. ISBN 3-7666-0742-1 (this book is regarded in youth church circles as the standard work of youth church work, Volume 1 ).
- Jochen Schmitt: Jugendkirche - a critical analysis from a liturgical and religious didactic perspective , in: Theologisches 45 (7-8 / 2015), Sp. 377-390.
- Elisa Stams, Hans Hobelsberger u. a. (Ed.): Experiment youth church. Between event and spirituality. Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 2003. ISBN 3-7666-0500-3 .
- Elisa Stams: The Youth Church Experiment. The first years of the youth church TABGHA in Oberhausen. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008. ISBN 978-3-17-020519-2 (Practical Theology Today, Vol. 94).
- Rolf Ulmer (Ed.): One of us. Youth service & youth church. Stuttgart-Vaihingen 2004. ISBN 3-932595-63-7 .
- Anne Winter et al .: Youth churches and youth parishes: The youth church project in Württemberg. Final reports. ejw , Württemberg 2006 ( PDF file, 2.41 MB ).
- Hildegard Wustmanns: different places - youth churches. New places in pastoral care . In: Diakonia . Volume 38, No. 1 , January 2007, ISSN 0012-1967 , p. 65-71 .
- Werner Otto: Wow , that's nice - not at all like in church. How youth churches approach young people who are distant from the church. In: Theological-practical quarterly . Vol. 3, No. 159 , 2011, ISSN 0040-5663 , p. 285–292 ( bistumlimburg.de [PDF; 125 kB ]).
Web links
- Youth Church Network
- Non-profit and ecumenical youth church portal
- Youth church list and youth church search of youth churches in Germany
- Oliver Demont: Looking for disciples In: Züritipp December 16, 2010, report
Individual evidence
- ^ Jona youth church. In: Website youth church Jona. 2018, accessed February 17, 2018 .
- ^ Youth Church of Cana. In: Website of the youth church of Kana. 2018, accessed February 17, 2018 .
- ↑ CROSSOVER - Limburg Youth Church. In: Evangelical Infoportal Childhood - Youth - Education. Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Evangelischen Jugend in Deutschland eV, accessed on February 17, 2018 .
- ^ Youth Church Crossover. In: Website Youth Church Crossover. 2018, accessed February 17, 2018 .