The latest cell phone technology is being used to hear God's call.

Media-savvy ministries are adapting their message for a new generation of phones, which have memories capable of holding entire books and playing videos and music.

The result: missionaries in Asia beaming testimonials onto a two-inch screen; a three-day, 100,000-person crusade boiled down to a two-minute video sermon; a Christian punk ring tone.

"We believe everyone lives very rushed, harried lives and like to think of the cell as your sanctuary on the go," said Martha Cotton, co-founder of the Christian media company Good News Holdings, whose customers get videos of Christian extreme athletes and talks from Christian motivational speakers on their phones. She calls the pieces "short-attention-span theater."

Using a phone for spiritual purposes raises unique questions: Is it rude to watch your phone in church — if that's where you've downloaded your Bible? Can text-message blessings be spiritually enriching? Is there a sense of religious community on a cellular phone?

Cell phones actually might be well suited for spiritual communication. Carried everywhere by their owners, they are the most intimate piece of technology many people own. They are emblazoned with personalized "wallpaper," have ring tones meant to advertise their owners' very essence and are loaded with personal information.

These palm-size gadgets "can take on a mystical significance," said James Katz, who studies the cultural and social impact of cell phones at Rutgers University, where he is the director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies.

In focus groups and interviews around the world, Katz has noted evidence of what he calls a "talismanic" connection many people have with their phones: screens adorned with spiritual scenes, Catholics who text-message their atoning Hail Mary prayers, Muslims who carry "Islamic phones" loaded with a Global Positioning System function that points them to Mecca.

Fundamental questions remain about how far people will go in using their phones for data. People send text messages, but how long will they watch a tiny screen? Long enough to watch a gospel video? A religious service? A meaty subject such as religion might be a good test in the data market, which is dominated by such relatively simple things as ring tones, sports scores and games, industry analysts say.

Americans spent $6.5 billion on data products in the first half of this year, according to CTIA, a wireless industry group. Although that is only a fraction of the total wireless revenue for that period — $60.5 billion — it is up from $3.8 billion in the first half of last year.

Since launching in September, www.themobileword.com has gained thousands of subscribers who can watch on their phones two- to three-minute video sermons by Greg Laurie, pastor at the country's eighth-largest church, Harvest Christian Fellowship, or snippets of Christian comics and hip-hop artists.

For $7.99 a month, they can open their phone and get a quick reminder from Laurie, wearing a black, short-sleeve shirt on stage at his evangelical megachurch in Riverside, Calif., that "you serve a smiling God. ... God has never been disillusioned with you because he never had any illusions about you to begin with. You think he didn't know he was getting a flawed, sinful person?"

The Mobile Word is owned by Unity in Values, the Christian mobile content creator whose chairman is Rowland Hanson, a former vice president at Microsoft who established the branding strategy in the 1980s for Microsoft Windows.

And just last month, Sony BMG Music Entertainment partnered with Christian media provider Integrity Media to launch MWorship, which sends text prayers to users who request them, among other things.

A group of high school students at Broadfording Christian Academy in Hagerstown, Md., are already familiar with products like MWorship's "send-a-blessing." Ethan Reynolds, 16, said his older brother uses his high-end phone to read his Bible in church. Brittany Suder, 17, uses her phone to get an online version of Brio, a Christian magazine for girls from Focus on the Family, and to hear updates from missionaries working with the group Gospel for Asia. She also uses it at the movie theater to check Christian film reviews.

"A lot of people have a hard time sitting down and reading the Bible because their attention span is short, so this might be better for them," Reynolds said. Although noting that cell phones would never replace going to church, he characterized the draw: "Anything technological is more interesting than a book."

Suder — whose ring tone is the Christian rock song "Loser," about seeking comfort in God's love even in a society many Christians see as intolerant of them — said she did worry about religion getting watered down. The industry places religious content in the "infotainment" category.

"This could be a way to reach people, and I agree with that. But I kind of wish it wasn't about entertainment, that it would just be about God," she said.

The wireless industry is waiting to see how quickly people will adopt the cutting-edge phones that have the memory and ability to display an easily searchable Bible or high-quality videos of overseas missionaries.

At Harvest Christian Fellowship, pastor of media ministries Paul Eaton creates content for radio and TV stations, as well as for podcasts and CDs. cell phones, he said, might be a bit different because they are so personal.

"We can contact people immediately and say, 'We're giving out 100,000 Bibles. Would you like to sponsor that?' This is a great tool to mobilize the Christian community," he said.

In the end, said Cotton, of Good News Holdings, the faith-based cell phone might just be another piece of self-identifying paraphernalia.

"I don't know if anyone will have a conversion experience after listening to a 90-second audio clip," she said. "But they will be reminded of what they believe or who they are."