Spiritual Hunger

British Christians, traditionally reliant on prayer and scripture, are putting their faith in modern advertising techniques to boost congregations and spread the word. Four thousand churches
of various denominations have contributed one million pounds to fund what they say is the country's biggest ever poster campaign, with adverts appearing on more than 4,000 church noticeboards in
addition to roadside hoardings and in regional newspapers.

The posters carry messages such as "You are born. You live. You die. End of story?'' and "Job. Flat. Girlfriend. Car. Season ticket to United. Still not satisfied?''

Church leaders believe that the kind of marketing strategies used to sell consumer goods and services can help reverse falling church attendance and feed what they see as a spiritual hunger across
Britain.

Regular congregations in Britain's Christian churches have fallen to 3.98 million in 1995 from 4.77 million in 1980, according to Christian Research, an independent research group. The campaign aims
to boost enrolment on the Alpha course, a 10-week course of informal meetings where participants are invited to 

make their own minds up about religion.

The Alpha course was set up 20 years ago by Charles Marnham, a clergyman at Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in west London, to present the principles of the Christian faith to new
churchgoers. Under the current parish priests at Holy Trinity the popularity of Alpha has grown by word of mouth. Half a million people attended the course last year, up from a thousand in 1992.

"The growth of Alpha indicates the spiritual hunger within the U.K.,'' said the Reverend Sandy Millar, one of the priests at Holy Trinity. The poster campaign is the first attempt to advertise Alpha
nationwide. It was designed by Christians in Media, a voluntary group of London-based Christian advertising executives who have formulated previous campaigns for the Church of England.

Nick Drummond, a member of Christians in Media, left the advertising agency M&C; Saatchi and spent three months on the campaign. He said the latest campaign was different because of the scale and the
Alpha brand. "What interested me was that they had developed a new product this time · the Alpha course · and made it relevant to people's lives today. In doing that they have created a church brand.
The problem before was people we convinced to try church again found that it hadn't changed.''

Drummond said the poster campaign had been kept straightforward. "We couldn't be too clever this time · we had to be challenging and interesting and bear in the mind that the churches had a very
small budget. Accountability was paramount.'' He said Christians in Media would monitor the results "as any high street retail chain would" before launching a follow-up campaign next year.