State of..the Church

This is something that I've been wanting to post about for a long time, but I wanted to make sure that what I thought was actually a true representation of Germany, and not just one small area. But after living with 3 host families and listening to their views on religion, I think I can now comment on it (ok yeah, I don't have a huge sample size, but I guess I can include kids from school in the mix too, because I hear a lot of their opinions during religion class..and every other class. They tend to tie subjects in together).

Germans, are for the most part, not very religious. Sure, lots of people associate Europe with Christianity--they have big, old, gorgeous churches, but what does that matter when peoples' hearts aren't actually for God? Most teens in Germany only go to church whenever they want to get baptized/Confirmation. It's like part of their culture--but when that's over, you won't ever see them in the church again. The young people  think that church is boring with those old hymns and droning pastors.

Overall, Germans only go to church during Christmas and Easter. It's the "festive" time of the year, and I feel like they do it just to get in the mood. And of course, they care, but I don't think they care enough about the true meaning of these two holidays. Heck, if you don't believe it, you definitely shouldn't try to fake it. There's just no point in doing so. But of course, it's all about the atmosphere these days.

 This is not to say that German teens don't go to church at all, though. Usually, there is Teens Group, but they mostly don't meet up very often. For example, the teens in my town's Hauptkirche (main church) only meet once a month. And even so, they just meet up for games and chatting.

Yesterday, I went to a special kind of church, the type that's only for teens, called the Jugendkirche. Ok, well, it's not only for teens, but it's geared towards young people (meaning more upbeat music, use of media and arts). And yeah, this is where you will find teens in church :) Of all days, yesterday was the day that I decided to go..and yesterday was also the day when they invited an England (I think) based band to perform. Her name was Judy Bailey, and she has pretty awesome songs. So, yesterday was actually pretty good because I understood what was going on.

I'll leave you with some pictures, and now I'm going to sleep :)