Sounds from the Church: More Sermon Tips

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.

Kurt Steinbrueck

OurChurch.Com Director of Marketing Services

Kurt serves as OurChurch.Com’s Director of Marketing Services, bringing over 20 years of expertise in search marketing, and has developed numerous marketing services and served hundreds of churches, schools, ministries, and businesses.

He has authored more than 500 articles on the subject, contributing to platforms like the Christian SEO Guys blog and Church Marketing University, and is an active participant on LocalSearchForum.com.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Kurt is an ordained minister, serving as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL, demonstrating his commitment to both faith and community. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree from Georgia Southern University. He also holds a Specific Ministry Pastor Certificate and a General Pastor Certificate from Concordia Seminary.