What are some possibilities of podcasting?

As previously stated, moving up the "coolness" or "access" ladder of podcasting requires more commitment but offers more possibilities.

Let's take the basic level. You simply put an audio file aka "podcast" on your homepage, you never have to update it. People who stop by your website can just click on it. This might be effective for an online welcome to your church. A little link that says "Click here for welcome" which opens up a 30 second welcome (with some nice choral music in the background that quickly fades out), a listing of your services and maybe some snappy Bible quote or the mission of the congregation. This took someone five minutes to make, perhaps requires no editing and needs no updating.

However, let's say you want to have people subscribe to your weekly sermons or services. Now things get a bit trickier. One might think, okay, all we have to do is put our stuff online. Well, maybe. But if you want people to subscribe, you need to make sure you can publish with some regularity (otherwise why would people subscribe?). Furthermore, if people are getting weekly copies of the sermon or service, then the expectation is that they in fact are not attending the service. This ministry then is likely for former members or distant family and friend who are "seekers." Now some thought needs to go into it. What kind of editing or introduction does this text, sermon or service require for someone not necessarily a part of this community? You can see though, the audience is starting to affect you. The same dynamics applied that were in effect when Reading and Responding to the Radio Audience.

The ante gets even a bit higher with publishing on iTunes or another directory. Here you really need to consider how your publish your content. With a subscription, you likely know the people whom you are trying to reach. Over iTunes, you have people all over the world with completely varying degrees of Christian familiarity. They likely have no personal relationship with the church or its members. What will lead them (what tags for catagorization do you use) to you much less inspire them to listen to the whole thing (with your description)? Indeed, what kind of text do you want to put in the description box? Some people might make their entire written transcript available. Another option might be to write comments on historical background that would slow the sermon down but people might get into.

As we can see, there are a lot of possibilities. But we've just started talking about sermon/worship podcasting options. How else might podcasts shape your ministry? Let's go over Some more possibilities for podcasting.