The United Methodist Church in Western PA has started a new service this Christmas season. They have an advertising campaign involving huge billboards that say "BELIEVE" in giant letters. The full message of the billboard says "text BELIEVE to 44636." When you text it, the following message appears:
"Hope is reason 2 believe.It lives in each of us.Share this xmas w/ people of PGH United Methodist Church.Reply ZIP for church or later visit UnitedMethodist.org"
When you reply with your zip code, you receive a text with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of a couple of the closest UM churches to that zip code. It's not the most accurate enterprise -- when I used the zip code my church is located in, it didn't come up with West Newton UMC. It gave me Herminie UMC in Herminie, and Greenock UMC in McKeesport. There are at least 3 or 4 churches closer to 15089 than Herminie.
I'm disappointed in the accuracy of the system, but it's a pretty neat idea. Who knows if it'll bring more people to church this Christmas -- I hope so. But whether or not it reaches anyone, at least we're giving it a shot. As Ricky Bobby would say, "Oh no, he didn't live, but it's just cool we're trying stuff like that."
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