Church drive on football terraces

The campaign features four local bishops Enlarge Image

Church leaders are turning to football grounds to try to encourage more people to attend Sunday services.

Advertisements will appear in match day programmes saying that "because Jesus has already taken the penalty, you can be saved".

The idea has been thought up by the Diocese of Lichfield, which serves Staffordshire, most of Shropshire and part of the West Midlands.

The adverts will appear in programmes across the areas on Saturday.

They will coincide with Back To Church Sunday on 28 September which will feature four local bishops.

The adverts will be placed in programmes for Walsall's match with Carlisle, the Wolverhampton Wanderers match against Bristol City, Stoke City's match against Chelsea, Shrewsbury Town's game with Bradford and Burton Albion's game against Forest Green Rovers.

'Never walk alone'

Those behind the idea said publicity in the run-up to last year's Back To Church Sunday brought an extra 6,000 people to services across the diocese.

The idea of putting the adverts in football programmes was thought up by the diocese's director of communications Gavin Drake.

He said: "Die-hard football fans will often admit that you need a sense of humour to follow your team through the ups and downs - so we thought we'd help to inject a bit of humour in these programme adverts.

"Some say football is the new religion but in reality far more people go to church on a Sunday than go to football matches on a Saturday.

"So if football fans respond to these adverts and come back to church you can guarantee that they'll never walk alone."