Fewer church members do not mean fewer Christians

Bonn/Hannover. For decades the pattern has repeated itself annually. On a carefully coordinated date, the Catholic dioceses and the regional Protestant churches publish their respective statistics on membership trends. In Germany such figures exist because, in legal terms, the churches are recognised as public-law corporations. The state records who belongs to one of the major churches and who does not. Anyone wishing to leave – except in the city-state of Bremen – must formally declare the step at a government office rather than with the church itself, another peculiarly German arrangement.

Churches in decline

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No new record figures were reported this year. Even so, the two major churches together lost 1.2 million members. Germany has a population of 83.5 million, meaning that the country’s 36.3 million Christians no longer constitute a majority. Around 350,000 people left the Protestant regional churches, roughly 5,000 more than the year before. About 307,000 turned their backs on the Catholic Church, almost 14,000 fewer than in the previous year. The overall trend, however, continues. Far more people die each year than are baptised or newly admitted to the churches.

In Germany 1.3 million people attend Catholic Mass on an average Sunday. The Protestant Church is far behind, with roughly 400,000 worshippers. Put simply, in a country culturally shaped by Christianity fewer than one in 50 residents attends a Christian service on Sundays. For Catholics participation in Mass is formally a religious obligation, yet almost 95 per cent of the baptised do not attend. If attending worship is a positive profession of faith in Christ and his Church, then staying away is a negative one that should not be dismissed lightly.

Faith still attracts

While such figures put pressure on church leaders – every departure also removes a potential payer of church tax – other numbers are perhaps even more striking and reveal a different side of Christian life in Germany. As public-law corporations the churches are allowed to levy a church tax, which the state collects on their behalf. The dioceses are therefore financially well provided for, even as people drift away from them.

Other paths of faith

Numerous ecumenical initiatives are also attracting growing interest. One example is the House of Prayer in Augsburg. Its founder, Johannes Hartl, has 139,000 followers on YouTube and his videos rarely attract fewer than 100,000 views. Every two years Augsburg hosts the Christian MEHR festival, which draws between 12,000 and 13,000 participants. Other festivals, pilgrimages and Christian gatherings likewise attract large crowds.

It is difficult to argue that the Christian message no longer interests people. What appears to be losing its appeal are the established churches with their structures, committees and tax-funded bureaucracies.

That is precisely the point. A church that, like the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) and in part the Catholic dioceses, speaks more about gender, climate and migration, and whose reform debates increasingly revolve around itself rather than placing Christ at the centre, is unlikely to inspire enthusiasm. Young people in particular are often deterred by such debates.

By contrast, Christian influencers on social media reach audiences in a different way. There the message is delivered plainly and directly, discussing Christian anthropology and moral teaching. Such content attracts attention.

The Catholic broadcaster k-tv, for example, is currently reporting on the Encounter School of Ministry in Vienna. Young people enrol in programmes of discipleship, receive training and are prepared for everyday life. Similar initiatives are multiplying. Communities offering discipleship training can now be found in Salzburg, Passau and elsewhere. The crucial point is not how many there are, but how deeply people commit themselves to Jesus.

There are always reasons to leave

That is the essence of the matter. What counts is not nominal Christians listed on a baptismal register but those who openly profess their faith in Christ and try to live accordingly. From that perspective, the question of how many Catholics will leave the Church next year becomes almost secondary. Reasons can always be found.

Another report on sexual abuse, disputes over the church tax, frustration with a parish priest – or the absence of one altogether. That absence is itself reflected in a striking figure. In a country where 19.2 million people still belong to the Catholic Church, only 25 men were ordained as priests last year. In a church where both ministry and pastoral care are sacramental, such a number amounts to a warning signal. Faith within the institution has weakened to such a degree that scarcely enough young men are interested in the priesthood. The profession has also been damaged by the steady stream of reports about sexual abuse behind church walls.

The problem may therefore be less that faith itself no longer interests people. Rather it is the Church – both locally and as an institution – that increasingly puts them off. Religious life always takes root where faith is authentically taught and lived. Under such conditions even a tiny rural parish can become an oasis in the middle of a spiritual desert.