Over the past couple of weeks we have been addressing the hows and whys of putting sermon audio on your website. As I was writing those blogs, I was reminded of a blog article Paul wrote a couple months ago entitled “Supercharging Sermons with a Blog.” I thought it would be a great addition to our theme for this month (and an easy blog for the week;) Putting sermon audio on your website is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many ways you can use your website to enhance your congregations experience and understanding as well as the effectiveness of the sermons. In Paul’s article he addresses several ways you can do this. So without further adieu:
As I was lying in bed at 5 this morning half-conscious trying to decide whether to sleep for a few more minutes or get up and start my day an idea hit me. My mind drifted to a conversation I had with my pastor a couple weeks ago about the general trend of church websites. I told him I see church websites fulfilling three general purposes: to help people looking for a church home, to assist people already attending the church to know what ministries and activities are available for them, and to help people grow spiritually by providing additional resources that complement the services and ministries. I expressed how great I thought it would be to put audio of his messages online along with additional resources for people who wanted to go deeper on the topic.
That’s when it hit me and I got up and started writing…
A blog is the perfect format for helping people go deeper and apply sermon messages to their lives!
Imagine a sermons blog that would be updated each Sunday shortly after the services. It would include…
- A brief sermon outline.
- An audio “podcast” of the message.
- A “Going Deeper” or “Additional Resources” section that would recommend books, websites or other resources on the topic.
- An “Action Steps” section that would list possible action steps depending on circumstances, including a link to an online presentation of the Gospel on those Sundays when the Gospel is presented.
- A section where people could leave comments (anonymously if they like) about the service and how it impacted them.
- A “Contact Us” section where people could send a private message to the church if they wanted help or prayer, or wanted to let the church know how the service impacted them but not publicly on the website.
What struck me is how perfectly a blog lends itself to this purpose. A blog is easy to update weekly, it facilitates the posting of comments, it automatically archives messages by date, topic, and sermon series, and it’s searchable. Awesome!
So, I thought to myself… this makes way too much sense to be an original idea, and I went off to see if I could find a church that is already doing this. I went to BloggingChurch.com because it has a list of about a dozen churches that have blogs. I checked every one of them. Many of them have audio or video of sermon messages, but as far as I could tell the only church in their links that comes close to using its blog in this format is Watermark Community Church in Dallas. It includes a sermon outline and audio podcast, but no resources for going deeper or action steps.
I tried Googling “church sermon blog” and after going through about a page and a half of results I heard, “Daddy! Daddy! Juuuuuuuuiiiiice!” It was 6:45 AM and that’s my two-year old son’s way of letting me know he’s ready to get up.
As of now I haven’t found a church that is using a blog in this way. If you know of one, post a comment with a link. This would be a very powerful way to use a blog to help people grow spiritually. What do you think?
In His Service,
Paul Steinbrueck
OurChurch.Com
To read the responses from when this Blog was originally posted click here.
7 Comments
More Information About Blogs
Totally agree. I think more churches should use blogs and some type of podcasting of the sermons. Further insights, additional resources, etc. It just makes sense. I think the church is setup to really use this kind of technology.
Pingback: » Sounds from the Church: Podcasting Sermons
Pingback: Sounds from the Church: Podcasting Sermons | dipnoi
Pingback: » Evaluating Modes of Communication
ONE IN CHRIST,
GOD HAS GIVEN ME THIS VERY GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO WRITE TO YOUR MINISTRY THIS HUMBLE LETTER. MY NAME IS DANIEL ADJEI SIKA.I AM A CHRISTIAN IN GHANA WHO WILL LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOU . I WILL LIKE YOUR MINISTRY TO SEND ME SOME ITEMS AS IT IS IN THE BIBLE THAT DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WANT OTHERS TO DO UNTO YOU. THESE ITEMS MAY INCLUDE A BIBLE, MAGAZINES GOSPLE TRACTS BOTH ON CDs, CASSETE PLAYERS, AUDIO AND VIDEO CDs AND IF POSSIBLE ON MP3 OR MP4. IF POSSIBLE I WILL LIKE YOUR MINISTRY TO SEND ME AN MP3 OR MP4 PLAYER TO DOWNLOAD SONGS AND PREACHINGS OR SERMONS ON TO CHANGE ME FOR THE BETTER. I IWLL LIKE YOU TO SEND IT THROUGH MY ADRESS WHICH IS:
I just found your site while looking for ideas on incorporating video podcasting of sermons into a church website. I’m surprised that it was hard to find more churches that use blogs as supplements to their Sunday messages. I agree with you that the idea seems like a no-brainer.
http://www.PittsburghNewChurch.org is one such site that has been mixing blogs and audio podcasts to distribute and supplement sermons for more than a year, now. Further enhancements have been talked about, but so far are not on the site, yet, except for a recent inclusion of a “weekly task” in conjunction with an eight-week campaign currently underway. Next up will probably be video, and also “further reading” supplements.