ULCMA

Eyes roll when Rabbi Hayim Herring tells his fellow clergy that theyshould spend an hour a day on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Listeners at his seminars exchange smirks when he says blogging should be considered mandatory. They look aghast when he recommends posting short  video clips from their sermons on YouTube.

It's a lot better than the reaction he used to get.

"They used to look at me as if I'd just said a four-letter word," said Herring, the former senior rabbi at Beth El Synagogue in St. LouisPark, Minn., and now the executive director of STAR (Synagogues:Transformation and Renewal). But in its seven years, the organization has seen more converts to what many call one of the dirtiest words inreligion: marketing.

Across the country, religious congregations have turned more to marketing to keep the members they have and attract others to their emptying pews. The trend is accelerating as the Internet and its explosion of social networking sites add entirely newways to connect on spiritual issues.

They're catching on to what the ULC has done for years. Read the rest of the story here.