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
[correction on web address]
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Shalom to you,
I think an audio is a really GREAT idea! I've gone to several church websites that use audio and it takes no time at all to download the "blog" to my harddrive and I can pick which one I want. I'm disabled and this is really the next best thing to sitting in a Church hearing the sermon on Sunday. We all have a need to grow and we grow from hearing the Word..rather we're at home or in Church….we all have that same basic need within the Church. I'm speaking of course to Christian's but the non-Christian's are also reached with a "live" audio message to them…..I say "go for it" and let me know when they're posted…. Thanks, LeAnn aka Sparrow
thank you I want to invite you here in Tanzania Africa country to help the teaching Gospel and to work together in the prphans children for HIV/AIDS
thank you and may God bless you
Rev, Eliah Mauza
p.o.box3108
Dodoma Tanzania
Email pm********@ya***.com
This Idea sounds very good i havent yet understood but it sounds very powerful for the body of jesus christ
l zulu
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This was just awesome to receive this email about evangalising on the internet! I have been evangelising on the web for about a month now. I dug my heels in and headed for My Space…I did my best to also encourage other older wiser adults to join in there…Our Lord is busily working and has sent many who are well trained onto the site, and all praises are to HIM, amen!
I will be praying that many more join in this endeavor, in
Jesus name I pray, amen! With much joy and gladness, A sister in Christ,
Hannah Fievel or Andie Moore :o)
PS Just went onto a site where “a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit by evanglising on the internet” was brought up! How great is Our Lord…too awesome for words! Confirmations abounding…Praises be to our Lord who sits on the throne, AMEN! :o)
I had this same thought just today and was doing some googling and came across you. How has it worked. I am not sure we could go as indepth as you describe and we are a very small church but people are quite spread out. For example we travel 120miles round trip to attend church today and cannot go every Sunday so tend to miss out on what the Lord is doing. I thought blogging would work to keep community growing. Your answer would be appreciated. I have not run this by my pastor just checking out possibilities at this time.
Hi Vic, I have not personally had the opportunity to implement the concept of sermon blogging at my church or any other for that matter. If you go forward with this, at your church, please post another comment to let us know how it goes and anything you learn from your experience.
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