Do you no longer record your sermons because it’s just too cumbersome?
People forgetting to turn the tape deck on or turn the cassette over?
The death of recorded sermons
I talked with some pastor friends this week.
It was like a virus had infected them all.
They said they no longer record their sermons because
ITS JUST TOO MUCH
TROUBLE TO MESS WITH CASSETTES.
Problems:
- Poor quality,
- Difficult and slow duplication, and
- People forget to flip the tape after 30 minutes and you loose your recording.
- Sermons get half recorded,
- Horrible audio,
- The machine might eat the only master.
- Can’t find people to give cassettes to after wasting time duplicating them.
People want copies of meaningful sermon audio, but for many churches, it’s just another horribly expensive task.
Get your Sermon audio on-line in under 30 minutes
I also spoke with a pastor who found a workaround that makes this
- fast,
- really easy
- (and cheap!)
So I’ve put this little video together to show you how to jump start the recording and distribution of your sermons
- in less than 30 minutes after you record it, and
- for under $100 in equipment costs.
(Rss Readers, click to see: How to Record a Sermon and put it on your website.)
Resources for easy sermon capture:
- The one I Use: Sony ICD-UX71 Digital Voice Recorder with 1GB Flash Memory
- Red one: Sony ICD-UX71RED Digital Voice Recorder with 1GB Flash Memory
Why record your sermons and put them on-line?
There are plenty of benefits of recording and putting your sermons as an MP3 at your website.
- Your members can get into the archive at any time and listen via their computer or download it to a device.
- The links to the sermon audio can be emailed and shared in social networks.
- Your members who are out of town can listen to the sermon on-line.
- Your members who have moved away can still hear your sermons online or through their downloads
- Visitors can catch up on prior sermons online in the series.
- Visitors can get a sample of your preaching style.
- The Word of God is distributed and God can use it wherever people choose to listen.
- Your archives are on-line for 24 hour global access.
- No more additions to a clumsy tape storage system.
Some programs and add-on services are available for your website like RSS feeds that subscribers will receive your new sermons automatically.
By providing fresh content for your website, you’re drawing search engine traffic.
Some of your sermons will be very evangelistic, and who knows how God will use those sermons.
Your archives are “space less” meaning no physical cassettes to store, and no CDs to stack and keep from scratching.
With sermon recording now this easy and inexpensive, perhaps it’s time to start getting the Word back out there with some low cost recorders.
Final Disclosure: If you place an order through any of these through my link to amazon, I will receive some compensation from Amazon. It’s my tip jar.
Cyber Pope says
February 13, 2010 at 6:06 pmAnother great way to get your sermons online.
Just plug the extra out from their sound board and plug it into their computer mic jack(make sure the level is low going from the board to the mic jack).
Download the program audacity. Grab a 15-22 year old from the church to set it up. If you have a board, cost is zero. Audacity is extremely easy to use.
If you do nto want to search for it, I have a link on my site.
EvangelismCoach says
February 13, 2010 at 6:26 pmGreat Alternative.
The challenge I see is a church having a spare computer available and room in whatever space they use to manage their sound board.
If they have a computer and space for it, this is a great idea to accomplish the same goal.
Thanks for chiming in.
EvangelismCoach says
February 13, 2010 at 6:29 pmAlso audacity (which I use) has to still do an MP3 conversion from the form that audacity captures it’s input.
To make that step, the user has to do a one time install of an add-on for audacity. It took me a few times to get that installed correctly once I realized it was missing.
Still its a great idea.
Cyber Pope says
February 13, 2010 at 10:57 pmAllot of churches seem to have a computer near the sound board for projecting lyrics and background visuals.
I have used the H@ Handy recorder, but for not much more money you can pick up a netbook, and I have used it for recording sermons at churched, then you can add an intro, some music and really make a pretty slick mp3 without allot of training.
I have an expensive audio interface, and pro-tools, and I actually prefer audacity.
Great Blog Post by the way.
Evangelism Coach International is now one of my must reads the last coupel of weeks since I found you. Praise God and keep up the great work.
EvangelismCoach says
February 13, 2010 at 11:03 pmI was talking with another church sound guy this evening about how they capture sermons.
They use audacity to a desktop. They’ve got room in the sound booth for a permanent computer. They managed to get the MP3 encoder installed correctly.
Netbooks / Notebooks would be another good idea for more portable setups, like churches that have to setup/knockdown every week.
Or depend on someone to bring a notebook consistently for that purpose.
I’m still learning how to use audacity — I’ve been using it to dub tapes to mp3 (with not so much good results).
Chris.
Barry Welch says
September 9, 2013 at 5:23 pmGood tips Chris.
So, I know the focus is on cost-conscious solutions here, but you do gloss over the whole automation part in your video, which, if you’re hiring a developer, can get pretty expensive up-front.
At Ambassador, we build the sermon automation portion you’re talking about (the piece that sends out emails to your congregation). So, we can handle some of this for you. We can also give you some analytics on how much of your sermons are actually being listened to, which a lot of people find valuable.
We’re a monthly-fee sort of service, so we won’t run <$100, but we do provide a great service at a good price.
EvangelismCoach says
September 10, 2013 at 7:06 amBarry,
Technology has improved a whole lot further than when I made the video nearly 3 years ago. Smart phones are going more prevalent and with the ability to record through the AUX input, they can capture straight from the soundboard, which your app can do.
I still think an editor would want to put an intro brand and exit call to action to frame each message, so that might be a great automation step to add.