Comments on: Making the Most of Your Sermons

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:10:07 +0000

There is another service called http://www.sermoncompanion.com that our church uses, which has been a blessing as well. We are able to upload our sermon audio online within minutes. I just got an update that this service will be FREE starting this month for churches to utilize!!

By: Rick Rhodes

Rick Rhodes — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 08:43:16 +0000

Based on hard data, the sermon IS the “bread and butter” of church life.
According to the updated “US Congregational Life Survey”, the most important factor in newcomers returning to church is the “quality of the sermon”.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 07:58:43 +0000

Every sermon will be made available…
- as a CD and DVD
- as a podcast available through our website and through iTunes
- exerpts of the video feed is available through our website and through itunes, Google Video and youtube.com

By: Drew

Drew — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 16:39:26 +0000

Drew,
I am glad you are posting “how tos” to help point people toward a solution rather than just discrediting outdated modes of recording.
The last place that gave me a cassette…I never listened to it because I do not own a single cassette player. I think that is probably true of many Gen X/Y households.
Thanks again for helping equip churches.

By: Peter Walker

Peter Walker — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 09:41:18 +0000

Awesome resource!
I’m helping Len Sweet develop http://www.Wikiletics.com too: a free online “wiki” preaching resource that allows multiple users to edit and contribute to existing sermons so they become group projects!
Check it out! http://www.WIKILETICS.com
(not posting this for my own benefit so much as I think Len is really onto something beneficial here)

By: Russel

Russel — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 01:44:23 +0000

This is something I’ve been thinking about for probably the last year. It represents a huge potential to ‘unlock’ the excellent messages being delivered each week.
It’s not just for pastors – its for people. Everyone can learn from and use the excellent information hidden inside these sermons (what are preachers talking about right NOW? What are the trends and cycles long term?).
For me the real power however is in unlocking the information in the sermon podcasts themselves – kinda like http://www.podzinger.com or http://www.podscope.com, but those technologies aren’t developed enough yet. Then instead of just downloading sermons from known pastors, users and pastors can leverage from what is being spoken anywhere in the country. Users can search for what they need, and pastors can get a better feel for what is happening in their area/country/movelement/whatever.
Of course this creates issues. Some sermons just aren’t relevant outside their church. Some people may find a pastor the like more and hop (is this actually bad?). The upsides are overwhelming. More accountability. Unlocked information available to more people than possible before. Wider accessibility (a deaf person can get a braile reader onto the text transcription). And so on.
I can’t wait to see how the church takes a hold of this. I say embrace!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 11:24:42 +0000

A very interesting concept…seems like something churches should at least check out.

By: Brad

Brad — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:45:48 +0000

Hmmm… I would hate to think that my pastor’s messages would lose their specificity because there’s a big website looking over his shoulder. Or that we’re building ways to facilitate church-hopping (and I don’t think that’s too cynical of me to say).
To me the sermon is a pretty small percentage of the ministry of the church. The message of the church is (or should be) much larger than just the words the pastor says one day a week. While I think there is a value to posting sermons online, I’m iffy on adding to the clamour with more content (I mean, anything with “cloud” in the title…). Could be a valuable resource for pastors though.
To those wondering how to get sermons to the web, this is a great time to tap into the people you have in the pews. There is bound to be someone who would like to assist, and who has the know-how and commitment to do it. It’s a relatively simple add-on to your sanctuary’s sound system (the cheapest new computer has enough power to do it, and the needed software is cheap-to-free). If there isn’t someone, then this whole thing would probably of limited value to your congregation anyway… Just my opinion.

By: D. Goodmanson

D. Goodmanson — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:19:30 +0000

Andrew,
We’re working on a FAQ now to help people with the mp3 recording & uploading….it should be completed by next week. Check back at Sermon Cloud…

By: Andrew Jagow

Andrew Jagow — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 06:55:17 +0000

Great site! I have to admit I’m a little technology challenged and do not know how to get one of my sermons on an MP3 file. Can there be a follow-up article that gives us a how-to guide for getting sermons online?