As a pastor, you invest hours over the course of a week to preach a single sermon. You pour your heart and soul into it. You want your sermon to have the most impact possible. With today’s technologies, your sermon can have tremendous impact beyond your actual preaching. Here are five options to consider:
1. Record Your Sermon
Recording your sermon provides several ways to increase its impact:
• Sharing through streaming or through on demand video.
• Broadcasting on YouTube and other social media.
• Distributing on DVD to church members or new people.
• Personally evaluating sermons to improve in the future.
Whether a basic camcorder or a high-end camera, you have plenty of options to capture your message and share it again with others.
2. Transcribe Your Sermon
Before radio, transcription was the primary way pastors shared their messages with those beyond their own congregation. The great British preacher Charles Spurgeon became legendary for his transcribed sermons.
Still today, a transcribed sermon offers tremendous value. A few examples include:
• Using the transcript as subtitles with your recorded video.
• Starting a small group Bible study based on your message notes.
• Adapting your transcribed sermons into blog posts, articles, a book, or even a commentary.
Transcription is also easier now than ever. You can find a church member who may wish to provide this service as a ministry. However, several options exist to share files online through companies such as Rev.com that offer quick, quality service.
3. Live Stream Your Sermon
Until recently, only a small number of churches could afford to broadcast their messages on radio or television. Technology now allows any church to stream live video worldwide.
StreamingChurch.tv offers churches and ministries the opportunity to stream church services that can be viewed on smart phones, computer, smart TVs, and other devices, removing the physical barrier between the location of the pastor and the location of the viewer.
In some cases, the number of people who watch a live stream of a sermon is larger than the number of people watching the sermon live at the church campus. The entire livestreamed service can be led by an online pastor or moderator.
In addition, some churches stream their services additional times “as live” for those in other time zones and locations. With only a single online pastor or moderator, people worship, learn, give, and participate in church life from around the world.
4. Podcast Your Sermons
Podcasting was once only a trend embraced by megachurches; now it has become the norm for millions of people worldwide. The daily commute increasingly consists of drivers listening to a variety of content. Why not add your sermons for others to hear?
While StreamingChurch.tv offers this option, there are many ways to distribute podcast content. The social media site Soundcloud.com offers an affordable way for any church or ministry to distribute audio content, complete with an app and analytics, simply using your weekly audio recording. You can then embed the recordings into your church website to connect your podcasts with other church resources.
5. Turn Your Sermons into Group Material
Looking for a way to better integrate classes or groups with your weekend services? Use your sermon series as the basis for small group materials. Two ways are generally recommended.
First, you can plan and create small group questions and content before preaching your sermon. In this format, your congregation’s groups can discuss the sermon alongside each week’s message.
Second, you can use small group material as a follow up for later study. Some prefer to use the sermon outline from a church bulletin for the next week’s small group. Others transcribe the pastor’s sermons and later create a fully produced curriculum with digital or printed materials, sometimes even including the video sermons or video clips as part of the lesson.
As you can see, there are many options to maximize the impact of your sermons. Most of these can be completed without tremendous expense or time. With today’s technologies, you can broadcast to your missionaries around the world while being a missionary yourself. Discuss options with your church and maximize the impact of your sermons starting today.