Church of the Redeemer in Linden-Süd becomes a popular music center

The Hanover Regional Church is increasing its support of Christian pop music and is planning to expand the gospel church in Hanover into a “popular music center”. The initiators announced on Thursday that the Protestant Church of the Redeemer would be rebuilt by February 2025 for around 400,000 euros. The neo-Gothic building from 1880 will have, among other things, modern underfloor heating and flexible rows of chairs instead of the historic benches.

Church of the Redeemer or Gospel Church Hanover in Linden-Süd

Regional Bishop Petra Bahr explained that the Church of the Redeemer should become a “learning place” for a variety of popular music styles. Volunteers who make pop music in the church can find a wide range of training courses here. Quality is crucial: “Music in church can only move people if it is not perceived as disturbing but rather opens the heart,” says Bahr. Good pop music will have a lasting influence on worship culture, preaching styles and types of prayer, she emphasized. It’s not just about “musical decoration”.

The head of the new center will be the musician and composer Hartmut Naumann, who previously worked as a professor at the Evangelical Pop Academy in Witten. Hartmut Naumann (62) emphasized the diversity of popular music, which includes styles such as jazz, rock, pop, gospel, blues, rap and techno. “I would like to develop this diversity further,” he said, adding that a techno service was also conceivable. “The musical language itself is value-neutral, what it conveys is then a different question,” explained Naumann. “I can also praise God with a punk song – why not?” So far the church here has been very one-sided. Since 2016, Naumann has helped set up the Popular Church Music course at the Herford-Witten University of Church Music.

The Church of the Redeemer has served as a gospel church since 2002 and offers numerous concerts and services, a band and a gospel choir and, since 2017, its own gospel cantor. The focus on gospel will remain even after the expansion. The building already has a sound and lighting system as well as other technical equipment, which is now being modernized. For monument protection reasons, some of the old pews in the side aisles are retained.