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 messags, 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
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
35 Comments
Dear Paul I wrote in three weeks ago to find out about podcasting etc because I am sure that this is somthing that many would find useful. I know of business men who are not able to go to church so often, but would love to know of good churches in the area they are in, and also be able to download a sermon for the train journey. come on, we have life coaches, whos better than Jesus for that task. I want to set this up my self, but it seems so difficult for someone with a limited computor vocabulary, even understanding what to do is beyond me, but ONE DAY soon I will do it, and attach it to my website! Go for it, this is a brilliant concept and this is the lord Im sure of it.
Great way for keep in touch. I am not very computer savvy, but I help myself. Still do not know how to set up the blog thing.
Organized blogging is a good idea if it is consistant, and if the content is worth using the bandwidth. It has potential if the teacher has time to convert his notes to blogworthy copy!
Great idea. Go for it!
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Hi Paul,
The concept sounds awesome…I am new to blogging so I don't know all that's involved but if its not too time consuming as far as posting the messages …as an out reach for the body of Christ is concerned it has great potential. We are a small fellowship just getting on our feet and need help to impliment this new tool of the good news. What are the time requirements and costs involved? I believe you heard from the Lord on this one. I know of so many people that the Holy Spirit is drawing them out of religion into a deeper personal relationship with Him than ever before. We must be a tool and instrument in His hand to fulfill His plan and purpose in this day and hour…I feel an urgency to get His message to as many as possible as soon as possible… Keep up the good work…You are making a tremendeous difference…
I too think this could be a great tool on our website, and I would love to try it and see if it would be worthwhile. My concerns would, as mentioned above, be time and cost, and would this be easy enough for those of us to do that are still learning how to put stuff on the website such as audio and video. If it were very user friendly, then I say it would be a wonderful tool for churches. I know that our members would appreciate it at times when they are sick and can't attend, are out of town, or for our part time residents who are only with us during the summer months. I say go for it! We won't know if it's a good tool or not if we don't try! thanks
Thanks everyone for your comments. A lot of people have responded saying, "Sermon blogs sound great! How do we do it?"
First, of all I'm glad to see such a positive response. Kudos to everyone who is ready to jump in to something new like this.
In the article Pam wrote last week entitled Who, Me? Blog? she explained a few different options for creating a blog. The idea of integrating the audio into the blog is where things get complicated for most people. Since the idea of sermon blogs with integrated audio just hit me this week, we have not had an opportunity to develop a service to facilitate this or even instructions on how one could use existing blog software or services for this purpose. We’ll work on that and let you know when we have a solution.
In the mean time, starting a sermon blog that had a sermon outline, additional resources, action steps, and a way to contact church staff but not audio wouldn’t be a bad way to get started. The resources mentioned in “Who, Me? Blog?” can help you do that.
– Paul
Grace be unto you and all be well with you! I think MANY people would
respond to this sort of thing. The witness which we give to Him, should be
the same which we give unto uor brothers, in truth and in spirit! God has
poured out His spirit of truth, and MANY are being delivered from sin and
oppression in these last days…just as the scriptures said they would!
Praise God! The abundant life Christ spoke of consists of hearing HIS VOICE,
so that we may all learn how to “rightly divide His word of truth”.
Let us bring our faith together in unity, for the perfecting of the saints, so
the prayers of Jesus…”John:17 ” let them all be of one mind, and of one
accord, speaking and believing the same things”. Great Idea! ManofGod
The sole purpose of a church website is to get the soul-saving truth out about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Every church website should give the reader an opportunity to learn who Jesus is, and give an opportunity for the reader to accept Jesus into their hearts and lives. If any church website is not offering this opportunity, it is strictly in existence to "sell" the church itself to the public as a "business" and to offer the church service as the product!
Jesus and His Church are not for sale, and should not be "marketed" as such. The soul-saving message is that Jesus Christ wiped your sin slate clean and marked it "Paid in Full" with nothing owed but for you to accept Him as your Lord and Savior. The best part of this is that He still leaves the choice to us! We can choose to continue to serve Satan and his world and live eternally in Hell, or serve Jesus and live eternally with Him in Heaven. We can walk in the flesh in constant fear, worry, frustration, financial misery, etc. or walk in abundant blessings in the spirit. You choose this day whom you will serve.