Written by:
11/16/2010 9:02 AM 

When I was in college, I went to a local church with fantastic teaching. At the back of the sanctuary, there was a audio cassette rack where you could pick up a copy of a previous sermon for a one-dollar donation. I loved this cassette rack. I loved that if I had to miss a week of church I could grab the cassette from the rack and play it in my car on the way home. I loved that if there was a sermon that I thought a friend or family member would especially enjoy that I could grab a copy of it and hand it to them.

The days of the audio cassette are over (in most places, I'm assuming.) Most churches made the jump to CDs several years ago and then to the internet. With the technologies available today, sharing a sermon with those you love is easier than ever.

If your church is not already recording and sharing your sermons through your church website, here are four quick reasons that you should start right away:

1. It's a helpful way to archive sermons - I'm going to teach a 3 week series on Luke 15 this coming summer as our pastor will be on Sabbatical. I know that our church did a series on Luke several years ago and instead of simply wondering what the focus on the series was, I can simply listen to it. Brilliant.
    
2. It's an easy way to make a sermon available to a church member who had to miss the worship service for some reason - My wife and I have three kids under the age of 5. For the past 5 years it has been very common for one or both of us to miss at least some of the sermon each week as we've either been standing in the back of the room rocking a baby or hanging out with kids in the Sunday School classrooms. Having the sermons available online has been an amazing way that we can stay a bit more plugged in to the life of the church.
    
3. Sharing sermons is easier than ever - when I have a sermon that I think will bless a friend, I can go right to my churches website and click an email button. My default email app will open with a pre-populated message that says "I thought you might like this…" Then there will be a link to the sermon. I can add a quick note, my friend's email address, and click send. Just like that, the conversation has started. There are also Facebook and Twitter sharing options so I can share with all of my friends and followers with a simple click. It's been my experience that this doesn't replace face-to-face conversation about the messages. Instead, it's simply an easy way to open the door for these conversations to take place.
    
4. It's an introduction to your church - When you move to a new community and you begin looking for a church, it's very helpful to be able to listen to a sermon online. Granted, it certainly doesn't tell you everything about a church (far from it) but it will at least give you a glimpse into the teaching life of the community.

There are lots of other reasons, I'm sure. Add comment with some of your own. That's it for the "why podcast." Stay tuned over the next few posts for the nuts and bolts of how to pull it off.

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Tags: podcast , podcasting , sermons , First Impressions , audio , subscribe , archive

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