German autobahns are now offering spiritual recharging, as well as fuel and food, at more than 44 service stations on the nation’s motorway network, it is reported.
Among the better known ‘motorway churches’ is the futuristic Autobhankirche Siegerland, on the A45 motorway between Dortmund and Frankfurt. Built as a worship place in 2013, it recently celebrated its first decade in operation with a special event.
The aim of the church building, which is next to a Burger King fast-food restaurant, is to offer ‘a 24-hour space of peace’. On its information leaflet, Psalm 91:11 stands out: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways’.
Every Friday at 6pm, an end-of-week worship service is held, led alternately by a Protestant pastor, a Free Evangelical pastor, or a Catholic priest.
Many other such motorway churches can be found by drivers crossing Germany. Some are very small chapels, but other buildings have room for dozens of worshippers, which are filled at special celebrations such as choir concerts. Frankfurter According to newspaper Rundschau, of the 44 motorway church buildings in Germany, 19 are Protestant, nine are Roman Catholic with the other 17 led by ecumenical teams.
Most visitors are men aged 50 or more, who ‘appreciate peace, anonymity, and non-commitment’. Many are truck drivers who ‘often have at best a loose relationship with one of the two large Christian churches’. They ‘stay on average about 15 to 20 minutes’ in the worship place.
