Taylor Swift, Adele, Lord of the Rings: Church communities in Germany are increasingly inviting people to so-called themed services. For example, Armin Pöhlmann: He started a “Lord of the Rings” project in 2023. Initially out of curiosity and without a fixed goal in mind, as the priest of the Nikolaikirche in Eisenach reported in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (KNA).
Tolkien’s books fascinated across generations and took up religious motifs, explains Pöhlmann. He wanted to deal with that. Seven people between the ages of 16 and 89 accepted his invitation.
They thought about what should come of their project. The result was a “fantastic church service” – with 130 visitors. Young people, older people who are connected to the community and Tolkien fans from further away, as Pöhlmann explains.
Hundreds of Swifties in the service
Such numbers are easily topped by Taylor Swift: the US superstar’s music brought around 900 churchgoers to Heidelberg’s Church of the Holy Spirit in May. In September, the congregation invited people to a service with songs by the British pop singer Adele.
“We thought Taylor Swift was a one-off hype. Now we are completely surprised that the service with Adele was fully booked after just two days,” says Pastor Vincenzo Petracca at DOMRADIO.DE. The church therefore scheduled a second service. According to the community, around 1,000 visitors came. The Adele service is the eleventh in the “Citykirche Rock ‘n’ Pop” series at the Heiliggeistkirche.
International Baseball Worship Service
Andreas Schneider, pastor of the Evangelical Church Community at Kottenforst near Bonn, also has experience with special church services: his congregation has been inviting people to a baseball service at the end of January every year for several years. Active baseball players between the ages of six and 19 also take part. The pastor gives the sermon together with a Bundesliga baseball player or a former major league player from the USA.
Schneider wants his regular congregation to see through the baseball services that there are other people on the fringes of the community who take part in church life. On the other hand, he wants to honor the athletes: “We offer church services for children, music lovers, seniors, newcomers and also for sports enthusiasts. The main concern, however, is to show young athletes that faith in Jesus Christ is important for them too can have meaning,” emphasizes Schneider, who also works as a coach for youth pastoral care in the community’s own baseball club.
Religious sociologist: step in the right direction
Gert Pickel believes themed services are a step in the right direction. Surveys repeatedly show the desire for church services to be oriented towards the present, explains the professor of religious and church sociology at the University of Leipzig. Themed services could also appeal to younger people. “You shouldn’t think that we will now gain a large number of believers who will then go back to normal services.”
Pöhlmann received consistently positive feedback from the “Lord of the Rings” service, as he says. Visitors enthusiastically told him how much new they had learned about Tolkien’s work – how much Christian it contained. It quickly became clear: one service for the entire “Lord of the Rings” was not enough. One should be created for each volume.
Some of the feedback went too far for Pöhlmann: “Someone said that I could have dressed up as Gandalf and then they could have put up smoke things to make it look right. But that wasn’t supposed to be a play, but a church service.” The priest sees boundaries in both directions: There have been people who interpret everything in Christian terms: “Frodo is Jesus; Tolkien wrote a quasi-missionary work.”
Creative interaction is good
Despite ideas that sometimes overshoot the mark, religious sociologist Pickel advises parishes to be flexible. “For many years, imagination wasn’t exactly the top product of churches.” A creative approach to the design of themed services is good.
Pöhlmann sees it similarly: He has received many inquiries from colleagues, whom he has encouraged to try something new and be willing to experiment: “You have to get young people on board and give them the space to do something.” This resulted in a thoroughly spiritual service.
What was surprising to him was that the sexton took part in the design of the church with “tremendous joy” and that the organist was involved in contributing to the film music. Something great emerged from the unexpected collaboration of many different people.
Sustainability is a matter of definition
A few of the “Lord of the Rings” service attendees were recruited to join the preparation team for the next service. A year later, around a hundred people were again attracted to the church.
Nevertheless, according to Pickel, sustainability should not be defined by better attended Sunday services or church admissions. “You won’t be able to achieve large-scale missionary work this way,” he says. In general, people are very reluctant to be proselytized. Instead, one could strive for change by making more current-oriented offers that are also attractive to younger people.
The baseball service at Kottenforst has become a permanent institution, including for the athletes. There are people who look forward to it because of the special flair, says Pastor Schneider. Last year he was able to discover how lasting these special church services have a lasting effect: a Bible group for athletes was founded. “Young baseball players get together, cook together and read the Bible together.”
