One of UK's most respected insurers of homes and churches is launching a competition to find the nation's best slogan, hoping to revive an often-overlooked form of church art and creativity.

Congregational & General Insurance will host the first ever nationwide 'Church Poster of the Year' competition to find the best piece of church poster advertising.

According to British author Phil Creighton, churches are using the advertising methods of the 1950s to try to reach a 21st century audience.

Says Creighton: "With scruffy posters, meaningless or naff slogans, and dated information, many of our churches are promoting the church as boring, hopelessly irrelevant, out of date and amateur."

The winning entry for the competition, as judged by a panel including a leading UK copywriter, and the General Secretary of Churches Together in England will receive a £500 donation to their church or chosen charity, plus the coveted title.

Margaret Slater, Congregational's marketing manager, said: "We see so many churches a year throughout the UK and it never fails to amaze us how many interesting posters there are - some of the puns really make you smile and we've seen some great examples of creative copywriting too.

"There's definitely a lot of hidden talent out there and some unsung heroes, so we'd like to reward their creativity through this new award. We hope this will become an annual event to showcase creativity within the church and demonstrate the impact their work often has on the local community, without people realising it.

Owned by the Congregational & General Charitable Trust, Congregational regularly gives a proportion of the company's profits to the Trust for disbursement to church and community causes.

The closing date for entries is 31 May, 2007 with the winning slogan and recipient of the £500 donation being named on Monday 25 June, 2007. There is no limit to the number of entries submitted. In the case of duplicate winning entries, the prize money will be split equally between entrants.