How txt can help u gt the bible msg
 OCTOBER 2006: A Norwich church is trying to attract new members by advertising its services in text language.
In Biblical times, text spreading the word of God was carved into tablets of stone, but now a city church is using a more modern form of text to spread the Christian message.
Anyone passing Christ Church, in Magdalen Road, Norwich, over the past few days could not have missed the giant sign. It quotes a verse from the Bible and reads “I Hve Km So dat U Ma Hve Lif 2 da Ful”, which to the uninitiated means I have come so that you may have life to the full.
Rev Keith Crocker said he hoped the sign would help spread the Christian message to a more diverse audience than traditional methods might. He said. “We need to appeal to different sections of society and do something to make people think. There's a lot of passing traffic. The idea is to make people think we've got something going on here and to think about the Christian message.”
Mr Crocker, 57, who has been at the church for 11 years, said the church had tried to reach people in other ways before. “We do a variety of different things that get people in different ways,” he said.
The church uses the board to advertise services and events all year.
Jan McFarlane, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Norwich, said the sign was one way of reaching out to a wider audience. “I think one of the problems we have in the Church of England is the image of us is stuck in the Victorian era, but in many of our parishes the church is very modern. Young people may not see that, so to speak to them in their language, which text message is, might just help them to see that the church is there for them as well.”
Mr Crocker may have struck upon a novel way to try to attract a diverse audience to church, but it is not the first time text messages have been used in this way.
In 2005, the Bible was translated into text-speak in Australia. The Bible Society in Australia was behind the project in which the entire 31,173 verses could be downloaded for free and sent by mobile phone. It started “In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth” and took six weeks to translate the entire Bible into text messages.
Pictured above is Rev Keith crocker with his text sign.
Article and picture courtesy of www.eveningnews24.co.uk
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