Why Podcast Sermons?
Posted by Anna Belle on 14 May 2007 at 05:23 pm | Tagged as: Church Websites, Content
I love good sermons and I love podcasts – but podcast sermons? Somehow that combination has left me cold. I tried quite a few early on, but could only take a few minutes of them before skipping on to something else. It wasn’t that they were the wrong sermons for me. They were just out of context, and they didn’t even have 15-second introductions.
While I’ve pushed several very talented ministers to podcast since then, you can bet it wasn’t their sermons I was asking for. I hoped in vain for something more intentional, not just repurposed content — something more like the Catholic Insider or Your Jewish Neighborhood.
Yesterday, though, my conviction about podcast sermons became less ironclad. Mind you – I’m still not an enthusiast. But I’m wondering if producing them might not be worth the effort after all. What gave me pause was a section of a book I’m currently reading: The Blogging Church, by Brian Bailey (page 142).
Bailey knows his stuff, which is probably the main reason I’m reconsidering. According to him, the reasons to podcast recent sermons are:
- Most churches have already recorded the sermon. (He’s right about my church.) And he says turning it into a podcast is relatively simple.
- A sermon is “ideal podcasting content.” It’s a talk, thirty or so minutes, and copyright shouldn’t be an issue. I was particularly reassured to hear his take on copyright. As a librarian, that’s my thinking about sermons too. I hear people worry about things like quoting poetry in sermons, but my understanding is that, as long as attribution is made and it’s not too long, that would be fair use.
- A sermon is “the focal point of the church.”
The other big issue is being clear on the primary audience for sermon podcasts. Previously I’d been thinking of a wider net (e.g., anyone interested in thoughtful religious discourse). But with Bailey framing a sermon as “a focal point of the church,” it looks to me as if the audience to develop them for is current and prospective members of the congregation.
Given my skepticism, it’s easy to guess where this task will fit in my priorities as webmaster. Also, there is only so much content I’m willing to beg others for. But the more I write this, the more I think our webmasters need to at least discuss the subject with our ministers and get their take on it. Who knows? Maybe they will be more enthused about a technology than us techies.
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I think podcasts have their place, but I doubt I’ll listen to many. For one thing, my place of work has forbidden “talk radio” – and that includes anything that sounds like talk radio, too. But that’s where I spend the bulk of my time. I don’t have a commute, more than a 10 minute walk, so no listening in the car, either. And I prefer music. Now, reading sermons online I do often.
But I’m not necessarily typical – other people love podcasts of all types. And there are those who may have missed the service that week, or can’t leave home for whatever reason, so having them available for that purpose can be important, too.
If a church is podcasting and not printing text, I’m not listening. If a church is printing text and not podcasting, others aren’t reading. So having both is good from the accessibility standpoint and the personal preference standpoint.
I listen to “God-casts” about 5 days a week:
http://uuminister.blogspot.com/2007/05/uu-ministers-are-giving-me-shin-splints.html
The way I found them — not through their church websites. I go to iTunes and search “Unitarian.” I get a nice list of UU churches that (I guess) upload their podcasts to Apple.
So, if you’re uploading a sermon podcast to your website, also upload it to iTunes. More audience. And it has the advantage that you don’t need to already know of the church.
So, what’s the benefit to getting your sermon out to people who may not live in your town? (Or country — I also download sermons from the Unitarian Church of Dublin.)
Well, apart from the obvious — getting our good message out there — you also stand the chance that the listener will forward others to the sermon/church. Maybe to friends/family who live in that town.
I’ve done it.
I have been deeply moved by sermon podcasts from several churches, but I don’t listen regularly to any church’s sermon podcasts. (I do listen to WBUR’s “On Point” program on my subway commute, however.) I’d agree, though, that sermons — printed, typed, tape-recorded, and podcast — are important primarily to a church’s membership, secondarily to potential members, and tertiarially (is that the right word?) to other UUs. I’d put a priority on making sermons available in at least some format, and then see if there are consistent ways to make them available in at least two.
Personally, I wish there were better ways to track excellent audio content — and I wish someone were blogging specifically about producing multimedia content for UU sites.
In addition to providing text and audio from sermons, some churches are providing the graphics used with the sermon. For example, see St. Michael’s CEC in Rhode Island.
http://stmichaels.wordpress.com/sermons/
I found it first here:
http://cecworship.wordpress.com/2007/03/26/st-michaels-church-cec-sermons/
Thanks, all, for the great comments. Sorry not to get back to you sooner. (I’ve been slammed by a server migration for a very large site.)
I’m wondering if this doesn’t ultimately come down to what are a given church’s priorities? It reminds me a bit of an ah-ha moment I had early on in our church’s visioning process. I came to a session gung-ho and ready to tell everyone how important communications were, But as things unfolded, I realized that they are important to me and that while I’m happy to be part of improving them, if we really want them to improve in a big way (e.g. offering sermons in multiple formats to meet different preferences), then a commitment needs to come from the larger community.
[...] Where do the different forms fit in the overall priorities? If we need more (e.g. if we should have podcast sermons), what kind of resources will we devote to this? Will we hire more staff to help with some of these [...]
I am a big advocate of sermon podcasting! Our’s is a military family, constantly on the move – and being able to download sermons online is wonderful for me for a number of reasons.
1. Past churches
I keep up with churches and fellowships I have attended in the past. One of the first churches I found the podcast for was the church I was baptized in. Because I’m not in touch with anyone who goes there anymore, and because I live on the other side of the world, it’s been wonderful to learn what’s going on with that church (new location, new name, etc.). I also know what to expect from past pastors – it’s great to be able to access their messages and still be hearing their wisdom even living so far away. I know I can trust their words to edify.
2. Future churches
Whenever we find out that we have a move coming up, one of the first things I do is begin searching for a church. We moved three times in the space of a year – and we didn’t have time to visit many churches – we just wanted to get plugged in. Many times, I can get a sense of the atmosphere of a church and style of the pastor. If there’s a video, I can get a look at the people there and get some sense of what a worship service there is like.
3. Knowledge
If I’ve been thinking about a certain topic or Scripture, I tend to search through the Internet for sermons on it. It’s a quick way for me to gain a broad perspective of a topic in a fairly short amount of time, and I can listen to them while I’m working around the house. (For example, when I was engaged, I listened to many, many sermons about marriage)
4. Broaden my perspective
I don’t know much about denominations or different ethnic churches, and can’t go visit others churches on a regular basis without skipping my commitment to my church. But I can listen to pastors from a wide variety of traditions and get a taste of what that is like for Christians from different backgrounds. It would be wonderful if there was a wider variety available – and they were easily accessible.
5. Present church
When members are on vacation/away on business (again, for a military family this is great!), are sick, couldn’t find a pen to write down that last Scripture reference, or remember that the pastor talked about that issue that they (or a friend) are dealing with NOW six months ago, it’s nice to conveniently pull that up on the computer. No fumbling through that box of church bulletins only to find the one you want was thrown away (or, what box of church bulletins?), ordering a CD, no having to remember the checkbook, it’s free, and it’s just easy to both find and remember.
I hope this is of interest to you as think about this topic.