Pastor in Brandenburg: With Bible and beer on behalf of the Lord

A pastor wants to get people excited about the church again. Her concept: Picking up people in their living environment, being close to them – with sermons at airports and intercessions on beer mats.

Pastor Simone Lippmann-Marsch looks at the old Borkheide airfield in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district. She is planning a biker service and wants to know if this location is suitable.

Her long black hair blows in the wind, the many tattoos on her arm are visible from afar. In addition to the piercings on her face, she also has one in her tongue – you can see that often, the pastor laughs a lot and heartily.

“Church walls are pretty thick”

There is an old Ilyushin and other vintage airplanes on the airfield – an unusual location for a church service, so Lippmann-Marsch thinks it’s appropriate. She specifically tries to reach people who are not exactly the classic churchgoers, but in whom the desire for religiosity slumbers, who have a longing for spirituality.

“Church walls are pretty thick,” she says, and for some they seem impassable – especially in the east. “I know how I felt,” she says. “Well, East socialized, I grew up completely without a church. It would never have occurred to me to go to a church because I didn’t know what that had to do with me.”

She is a passionate motorcyclist, and among the bikers there are really many people for whom faith is important – but who would not think of going to church on Sunday at ten o’clock. “What do we do then?” Meet the potential believers where they are.

Get enthusiastic about God with the Bible and beer

She has an appointment with Florian Weishaupt from the Berlin heavy metal band Sanity. A Christian band, that’s rather unusual in the genre. They set the revelation of St. John to music, says Weißhaupt proudly, so they would like to round off the biker service.

In order to open up new circles, new ideas must be developed. One such is the pub service in Borkwalde in the countryside. Under the motto “Bible and Beer” the pastor invited to the service. It is 6:00 p.m.: The church is made entirely of wood, it is in the middle of the forest, and anyone who looks through the church window only sees tree trunks.

Relaxed atmosphere instead of religious strictness

The first visitors come by bike, the forecourt quickly fills up – there are more than usual, that becomes apparent quickly. Then a goal would already have been achieved. The pastor is standing in the middle, grinning at everyone, she has a beer in her hand.

“If you want a beer quickly, you have to go to the bar!” she calls out. The note follows that the beer is free – but a donation in the basket would be nice. In the church there are individual tables with chairs surrounded by bowls of peanuts and bottles. Like in a bar, the atmosphere is cozy, the people are talkative.

Intercessions come on coasters

At the request of the pastor, they are supposed to write their intercessions on beer coasters, which, in addition to many wishes for peace and health, also contain funny things. Like, “Hops and malt. God save.”

There is prayer, there is a sermon, the “Our Father” is not missing either – in the end the visitors give positive comments. They stay and chat. It is also praised that the service was nice and late. And that you can sleep in on Sundays.

Inhibitions to church often high

Become looser, change rigid rules – some of the churchgoers that evening believe that this can help to get more people excited about the church: opening the church for new parishioners. In the Mittelmark-Brandenburg church district, only 13.57 percent of the residents are in the Protestant church. And the trend is not necessarily pointing upwards at the moment.

And sometimes simply the excessive inhibitions with regard to the church as an institution play a decisive role. For Lippmann-Marsch himself, turning to God was a process. In her first professional life she was a make-up artist, advice from a career counseling session that she followed.

Praise from young people, but also criticism

She wasn’t baptized until she was 28, and then she embarked on a theological career. A career changer with an outfit and habit that at least attracts attention in the church. She struggled with self-doubt: Maybe I don’t fit into the job after all, if I’m so different? Until she realized for herself that she can speak to other people precisely because she is the way she is.

And it seems to be going down well with young people in particular. Several community members confirm this. A few weeks ago, she had young people organize the entire service – that was really good, says Erich Schmidt, a regular churchgoer.

Lippmann-Marsch is also getting headwind, it is said. When asked what her employer thinks about the idea of ​​”Bible and beer,” she said: “We’ll wait and see. The challenge: not to scare off conservative, loyal members of the community and at the same time open up new circles.”