A frame from a DVD called "Kickball" produced by Nooma, the nonprofit company that has sold more than 500,000 DVDs in four years.

That old-time religion of yesterday is as close today as a handheld, a short DVD or lil iROCC William's latest Christian hip-hop tune.

And that's more than good enough for a growing number of people.

The ingredients are there for explosive growth. According to research by the Barna Group, two-thirds of American households in 2005 had Internet access in their homes, 72 percent used a cell phone, 84 percent owned a DVD player and 15 percent had a palmtop, pocket computer or PDA.

A Pew study shows that 64 percent believe the Internet provides easier access to religious study and educational materials than is available offline. And 44 percent believe it provides easier access to prayer.

Scott L. Thumma, a professor of the sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary, says technology does not diminish the richness of congregational life. It does, however, alter the social dynamics.

"The implications of these changes in interacting and modes of relating are yet to be uncovered, given the reality that many of these technologies are hardly a decade old," he said.

"Only time will tell if e-mailing a prayer request to a pastor, or conducting committee business on a discussion board or even gossiping through [instant messages] or text messages will just virtually or truly alter the nature of congregational life."

At a time when church attendance is dropping, technology continues to be integrated further into church life.

Studies show that more than 60 percent of Protestant churches integrate video content into their worship, 57 percent use Web sites and 56 percent communicate with church members via e-mail.

"Today, people who are interested in religion are not divided into those who participate in traditional or nontraditional religious community activity and those who use the Internet as the source of their religious experience," said Ken Bedell, associate general secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry for the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn.

"The reality is that Internet and mosque, synagogue or church are completely mingled," he said. "Sunday school teachers search the Internet to prepare their lessons. Religious leaders connect with each other over the Internet. Even rural congregations have ministers who write their sermons with the aid of the Internet."

The newest avenue in the Christian cityscape is wireless content. If the Internet is "a vast chaotic spiritual supermarket," then Unity in Values' month-old collaboration with Alltel is a specialty provisioner offering Christian values delivered via mobile video, audio and data content, and applications such as ring tones and wallpaper.

Called The Mobile Word, it focuses on Christians ages 15-24, a cohort captivated by mobile phones. Unity in Values officials expect their product will be used by 20 percent of Alltel's estimated 13 million wireless subscribers, each at $5.99 per month.

For that price, subscribers can choose from among five hours of video content available in one- to three-minute clips, plus popular Christian music, extreme sport ministries, video Bible messages and original content from nationally known figures such as the Rev. Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., one of the country's largest churches.

Fred Clarke, president of Unity in Values, said research showed Christian youths wanted mobile phone content but shied away from the prevalent obscene videos and raunchy music.

"People make the mistake of thinking that young Christians don't want to be cool," said Mr. Clarke. "They do want to be cool. They just want to be cool in Christ."

The market appears virtually limitless. BMI predicts the music ring tone market will surpass $600 million in sales this year. By 2010, it's estimated that 24 million American mobile users will be paying for some form of TV or video content and services on their mobile devices, more than three times the number today.

And in a sublime nexus of religion, technology and marketing, the bulk of Alltel's subscribers are in the South and Midwest, two regions with high percentages of people identifying themselves as born-again Christians.

Nooma is another media ministry seeking to proclaim God's word in creative ways, but through short videos that relate the Bible to contemporary issues.

The 4-year-old nonprofit -- its name is a phonetic spelling of the Greek word "pneuma," meaning spirit -- will release its 14th DVD in November. More than 500,000 have been sold. An estimated 20 million people in 27 countries have seen them, and they are subtitled in six languages.

The reason for its success, says the Rev. Rob Bell, the 36-year-old Grandville, Mich., pastor featured in the first 13 Nooma films, is its message of finding common ground.

"I am trying to articulate and compellingly convey the deepest truths in the language the most amount of people can understand," said the Rev. Bell, who receives 100 requests a day for personal appearances. "I think that people are desperate for significant content. People are desperate for things they can sink their teeth into."

Nooma DVDs have enjoyed great popularity among U.S. military personnel in Iraq, in addition to youth and adult programs at churches around the country. Through a partnership with Zondervan, a Christian communications company and division of HarperCollins Publishers, the DVDs are available in more than 3,000 stores around the world, as well as online.

Before this summer, Rachel Stahle, an associate pastor for adult discipleship at Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church, didn't use visual components with her sermons. A friend mentioned the Nooma DVD titled "Rain," and she used it one Sunday.

After speaking for eight minutes about how people who mourn are blessed, she showed the video, which she said illustrates through an interaction between a father and his infant son how God cares for people in the midst of trials.

"We just thought that we'd use it once," Dr. Stahle said. "If it didn't work we wouldn't do it again.

"[But] people were blown away. There were people crying during the video about the way it depicted our dependence on God. I wish I'd heard about [the videos] before."

During Gregg Hartung's 25 years with the Presbyterian Media Mission, a faith-based, nonprofit media organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he has seen the entire technology parade. During that time, the mission has produced 3,000 one- to three-minute stories of people's struggles and triumphs. The so-called "Passage" stories run on more than 600 radio stations around the country, including KQV-AM in Pittsburgh and WKST-AM in New Castle.

Mr. Hartung, the mission's executive director, says the stories are the difference between a religious experience and an institutional one, as different as sharing at home with a friend and with being preached to in a church.

He believes the media ministry has just begun to explore how people can share faith. But it does have limits.

"There's no media form that can replace the gathering of God's people in a location," he said. "Part of the temptation is that we can sort of pick and choose our colors from all the different varieties of religion and come up with our own. I'm not sure that's a healthy or viable way to go at it.

"We still need the human connection and the human touch along with the technology for communication."