Gottesdienst in der Konfirmandenarbeit

In a secular society of Germany, how to make teaching of traditional rituals of a Sunday service to 13 year old youngsters effective in a cognitive and affective way? Why are some parishes "successful" in their teaching and others not? Is there any "recipe"? 30 different Lutheran parishes were chosen for a survey with questionnaires (1900 questionnaires were analysed). Group discussions were arranged (group of 5-7 youngsters), focusing on the semantic constructions which are used to express their attitudes to the service (analysis according to the Grounded Theory). In the reconstruction of the didactical arrangement and in the analysis of the questionnaire and the qualitative results, reasons for success and failure of different approaches could be shown: Most important is the feeling of community. It marks the "key" in motivating youngsters.