As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
OK, you put a lot of time and effort into constructing and presenting a powerful sermon. You have crafted the language in such a way that the theologically sound message comes through very powerfully. The preaching moment is now over. Many of these sermons live on through audio CDs or video DVDs, but there are a growing number of preachers who are leveraging the internet to gain a greater hearing for their sermon. In addition, these methodologies can increase the length of time that people rmember the message. Finally, it allows visitors to experience a little bit of the worship hour at your church.
OK, So what can A preacher do?
Post Your Sermon To an Audio Podcast
This is simple. You already have the audio of your sermon. Why not post it in its entirety to an Audio Podcast. Surprisingly many people, including preachers, listen to these sermons that are available online. Now there are paid services that bring together a number of preachers and there are free services that will require a little more technical expertise.
My suggestion would be to take your audio and get ahold of someone in your congregation who has a bit of technical expertise and have that one upload your sermons online. Then let your congregation know that sermons are now available. It shouldn’t cost much and it will allow your sermon to be heard beyond the four walls of your congregation.
Blog Your Sermon
Now you could simply post your sermon in text. You can do this to a service like SermonCentral or you can post it to your own blog (website). The nice thing about either option is that it allows your sermons to show up in Google search results. You can post a full text version of your sermon, summary, or perhaps an outline.
Again, grab ahold of a technically savvy individual in your congregation and get your sermons up on line.
Put your sermon up on YouTube
Everyone uses YouTube. You can put your sermons up on YouTube. There are a number of powerful preachers who do this today. Go into youTube and simply type in preachers and you will see a number of them. If you already have a video recording of your sermons, then put them up there now!
Send a Sermon Summary to an Email List
In my internet consulting work, I always emphasize the necessity of getting an email list. You want to grow a list of people who you can contact at any time with inspiring and powerful messages. Sending a sermon summary (or outline or full mansuscript) will definitely help you to grow such a list as well as bless the people who are reading.
Get your congregation to sign up and then start sending messages to the congregation. An email list can be a very powerful way to “meet” with your congregation outside of the church.
UStream
Did you know that you can stream your worship service for free? Head on over to Ustream.com and check it out. Some stream services as well as many other kinds of things. Again you will probably need some technical person to help you, but more than likely you already have an audio/sound team that can handle this.
Twitter and Facebook your sermons
Everyone is on social networking sites. Even pastors, preachers, and evangelists make use of these pwoerful platforms. Why not create a “Facebook Fan Page” for your ministry and post links to the sermons as well as maybe summaries. There are text limits to Twitter and Facebook messages, but that only forces you to be succinct. Check them out and use them in your ministry.
You have put a lot of effort into the sermon, use the web to magnify them. If you have any questions do not hesitate to send me an email or write them in the comments. If you have used or plan to use the internet to magnify the power of your sermon, I would like to hear bout that as well.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.
I have used the social networks to journal the last 90 days before retiring. I count days and post the scriptures from my morning prayer time. I am so blessed when someone tells me that the scripture was just what he or she needed. I also give excerpts from my ministering for Grief workshops or my book compilation. Thank you for this opportunity to share.
Thank you for this article. This is right on time for me. I had a meeting with my senior Pastor and I was telling him that I feel like I need to do more with my ministry. I send out text messages once a week to love ones to encourage them with a scripture. But I have been wanting to go further in this ministry. Thank you so much for posting this article.