Churches Putting God on the iPod
To get their message outside of the church walls,
an increasing number of pastors are using podcasting as a new
pulpit for their sermons.
The
ability to download music and take it with you wherever you
go has made MP3 players one of the largest phenomenons
of this decade, with Apple’s iPod leading the way. To date,
over 58 million iPods have been sold.
iPods
are changing the culture, too, and major corporations are making
major product changes to keep up with the
demand. In 2006,
about 500,000 cars were sold in the U.S. with iPod-ready stereos,
and carmakers are planning to increase that number to over
28 million new iPod-ready cars each year. Even clothing
company
Levi Strauss has created a new iPod-ready pair of jeans.
Beyond music, iPod users are discovering the world of podcasting
as well, where they can subscribe to free podcast shows (similar
to radio shows) on almost any topic.
Christian
podcasts are one of
the fastest-growing genres of podcasting. Ministries and
churches are using the Internet and podcasting to get their
message out to the masses. Traditional churches are
also finding
they can put the Sunday sermon in the pockets of their
congregation members to take with them all week long.
GodCast1000.com,
the largest Christian podcast directory, includes about 200
churches with podcasts. Having a podcast
enables
a church to reach beyond their church and even beyond
their city
to reach a global audience through the Internet. The
top overall podcast on GodCast1000.com is Pastor David Legge
in Northern
Ireland, with many listeners to his podcast from the
United
States and around the world. Visitors to GodCast1000.com
have come from 31 countries including China, Germany,
Australia, India, Thailand and Singapore.
Pastors
are realizing that while only a few mega-churches can afford
to preach their message to the world through
T.V. and
radio broadcasting, almost any church can have a world-wide
podcast. And young and old alike, people are not
buying cassette tape players or even CD players- they are buying
iPods. For emerging churches, podcasting is the new medium
of choice.
But
even
though it is affordable, podcasting wasn’t
taught 10 years ago in seminary or Bible college,
so many pastors who
are not technology-savvy may not know how to get
started. Luckily, there is a service that specializes in
podcasting
for churches
and ministries. SermonCast.com helps
churches get started easily by providing a sermon
player that churches can easily add to their church
website. Through SermonCast.com, pastors and youth
pastors turn
their sermons
into podcasts without the technology hassles, so
they can focus on their message and ministry.
The New
York Times reported last year that some Christian podcasts
already have audiences of up to 10,000
listeners a week. As
the podcasting trend continues to grow, and as
more pastors, youth
pastors and ministries discover podcasting, don’t
be surprised if that small church around the corner
soon has
a global audience
of thousands of iPod users.
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