Workshops
On Saturday, everyone will have the opportunity to attend two workshops. We have been able to attract experienced professionals who will share their knowledge and experience and present practical methods and tools. Participants will be able to try out the tools, share their own experiences and thus be inspired and inspire others.
When registering, you will be asked to indicate your workshop preferences. The number of places is limited for each workshop – the earlier you register, the sooner you can take your desired workshops. Therefore, please make a note of the numbers or titles of the workshops you would like to attend. The workshops are presented here in a random order, which is rearranged each time they are called up – so everyone is at the top at some point.
The conference language in Hannover is German – including the workshops. Depending on demand however, a small number of workshops will be offered in English. The corresponding formats are marked with ansterisk, indicating optional translation. Please note that we reserve the right to make adjustments at short notice for organisational reasons.
W16: Cooperation & Networking*
How do we win partners and form alliances? Especially when we want to learn to be helpful to people in a completely new way, it is wise to connect with others who are also pursuing this goal. In the workshop, methods of strategic networks will be taught and it will be shown how this can…
W25: Church on new streets*
New residential areas are springing up in big cities – how can the Church become present there? And why should it be there at all? This workshop invites you to methodically examine process experiences from new residential areas in Hannover and Frankfurt.
W22: Church for children
The “Religious Children’s Weeks” are considered a successful model of the Catholic Church in East Germany. For decades, they have created identity in faith and contributed to community building between generations. The workshop explores what other dioceses can learn from this model and what is needed for successful religious children’s camps.
W2: Creativity methods
How do we get out of our patterns? If we want to develop something completely new for a topic or an occasion, we cannot fall back on the familiar. Tools for finding ideas and creativity methods that are guaranteed to generate new ideas are presented.
W4: Testing & measuring*
How do we measure if we are successful? Does our project work? Does it reach those we wanted to reach? Is it having the effect we expected or hoped for? The workshop will provide practical ways of pastoral (self-)evaluation.
W18: Real estate as an opportunity*
How do we deal professionally with our buildings? Real estate processes can become promoters of Church development. The workshop will show which pastoral opportunities lie in the newly conceived handling of real estate and how they can be used.
W7: Faith communication
How do we improve our cross-media public relations? The more frequency the message has, the more contact points with the target group are found, the better faith communication works – therefore it is good to use more than one medium. The workshop will introduce the method of pastoral campaigning.
W12: Fail successfully
Who are potential partners for your project? How do you fail successfully at and with cooperation partners? Innovation needs dead ends, scraped knees, crazy ideas, new paths and for all of that allies. In this workshop you are looking for these allies, supporters, cooperation and sparring partners for your project, your idea. Get inspired and…
W13: Charisms & Team Potential
How do we recognise and raise the potential of our team? The talents that are inherent in us are manifold. The method of ‘potential coaching’ and the tool ‘fresh cell’ help to make them visible.
W15: New ways of faith
How can people live community in faith and thus shape the culture of the Church in a new way? “The Other Thursday” and #onfire are two examples of the culture of spiritual awakening in the Diocese of Hildesheim. In the workshop, these and other ways of trying out new steps on faith journeys with people…
W11: Mixed Economy
How can we use established and new forms to be church together? When new projects and congregations come into being, the question arises whether and how a partnership between established and newly tested forms of congregation can succeed. The workshop will show which questions and processes can help to lead traditional and new forms in…
W5: Brand & Advertising
How do we reach new people? If new people are to be addressed, we have to make sure that they hear about our project, remember it, like it and develop the willingness to participate in it. The workshop provides useful tools for brand building and advertising conception.
W24: Church motley
How do I reach young families for whom the traditional Sunday service is too high a hurdle? One option is Kirche Kunterbunt, a low-threshold format that has found its way to Germany from England. In the workshop you will learn how this mix of parent-child activities, shared meals and a low-threshold service could also be…
W20: Being Urban Church
The city is the epitome of modernity, the motor of social change and also a space that asks and answers questions of meaning. What does it mean for the Church to become and be part of the city? We are working out core elements of the concept of Urban Churching, thinking about cultural optimism, selective…
W6: Storytelling*
How do we use the power of stories in our project? Good stories inspire, captivate and enthral. Storytelling means aligning one’s own communication with narrative principles and thus giving one’s own project a story that touches and moves people. In the workshop, tools will be presented and tried out that will help you to develop…
W15: New ways of faith
How can people live community in faith and thus shape the culture of the Church in a new way? “The Other Thursday” and #onfire are two examples of the culture of spiritual awakening in the Diocese of Hildesheim. In the workshop, these and other ways of trying out new steps on faith journeys with people…
W9: Church fundraising
How do we get funding for our innovative project? New projects usually need financial resources to be launched successfully. So we are looking for people with time and/or money who are enthusiastic about good causes. The workshop introduces fundraising and teaches practical methods to make it useful for one’s own project.
W23: Pastoral quality
How do we ensure more quality in pastoral care? Demands on pastoral work are ever-increasing. There is more than enough work. So: should we laboriously produce paper tigers for quality management that nobody reads anyway? But working on quality does not have to look like this! In this workshop, you will learn and try out…
W17: Useful in the social space
How do we gain trust in a neighbourhood? Especially when there are hardly any people living there who can relate to “Church”? The workshop will show methods and practices of how Church can be present in the social space.
W19: Growth and diversity
What can I learn for my project from the Church in the North? Catholics in Scandinavia live in an extreme diaspora situation – and at the same time experience strong growth through immigration from Catholic countries. The workshop explores the question of which experiences from the North can be useful for Church project work in…
W1: Target groups*
Only those who know their target groups can communicate unerringly. Who are our “customers” and what moves them? What are their needs and how can we reach them? The workshop introduces the persona method, an effective way of systematically discovering and describing one’s own target groups and making them useful for strategic work.
W3: Customer Journey
How can offers be developed close to the addressees? In a “customer journey”, one steps into the shoes of the people to whom an offer is directed. Step by step, the contacts are visualised with the aim of orienting the offer empathetically and closely to the needs of the people. In the workshop, the intention…
W21: Targeting the future: The Church Course
How can I analyse my situation locally? How do I come to a vision for the future? How do we celebrate contextual liturgies? These questions are answered by the Church Course, a tool for parishes to start a process of future development. It is intended for teams from parishes that have energy for a new…
W8: TikTok & Instagram
How does good Christian influencing work? If you want to reach young people, you have to use their channels. TikTok and Instagram are currently receiving a lot of attention. In the workshop, digital cultural spaces and the functioning of the influencing channels will be explained and it will be made clear which approaches are promising…
W10: Vision development
How do we develop a vision that motivates? Studies have shown that people who have a vision act more purposefully and successfully. With a vision, I can inspire people to join in and make a difference. How do I achieve a motivating vision with my team or project – in concrete terms? What do we…
W14: Synodality in the parish*
How do we involve as many as possible in the common project? What does real participation mean and what power for change does it have? The workshop shows how the establishment of synodal elements in a parish can succeed.
* optionally: live translation