The Marist Brothers, like so many religious orders, have been seeing their enrollment plummet, so they decided to try something both creative and catholic (small c).

They asked themselves: WWJD?

And they found their answer on the computer screen:

The brothers hired an advertising agency to help channel their efforts online and meet their target audience on their turf.

“I often think, ‘Where did Jesus go?’” considered Brother John Klein, head of the U.S. Marist congregation. “Jesus went where the people were and the people are on MySpace.”

The Marist Brothers, who run St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville, launched their multimedia campaign in late March, first redesigning their Web site to make it more interactive and opening accounts on Facebook and MySpace, the popular social networking sites online.

They also placed a promotional DVD about the order on YouTube, started a brother blog about teachings and vocations and they have future plans to further distribute their message via podcast.

Though still early in the process, initial response has been positive.

In the nine weeks since launching their online campaign the order has had 16,500 hits on their homepage and 1,300 viewers on YouTube.

Personally, I just know if Jesus did this sort of thing, he’d have a Mac.