Is has been a long road and we have finally crossed the starting line. We are LIVE and accepting all comers. Tell your pastor, your youth minister, your geeky volunteer, your neighboring church -- there is an EASIER way to podcast!
PortableSermons.com was born out of a desire to build a better mouse trap. I have been doing church websites for years, and getting sermon audio and video on a website has always been a challenge. Sure you can upload it and hope for the best, but browsers, audio players and bandwidth constraints have always stood in the way of a smooth end to end solution.
Enter iTunes and Podcasting.
You have, no doubt, heard of iTunes and iPods, but "podcasting" may be a new term for you. Podcasting is really just a catchy way of saying "automatically delivering media over the internet." A "podcast" can be audio or video content that is produced on a regular basis -- kind of like a radio show. iTunes is the most common software used to "tune in" or "catch" that media and serve it up when and where you want it. You might even think of it as TiVo for your internet-delivered media -- but one better... its portable. You can listen from home or from a hotel on the other side of the globe. You can burn a CD and listen in your car on the way home from work, or sync it to your iPod and listen while you jog. Some might even grab it and listen through a web browser on their phone! The beauty of it is that technology, browsers, better bandwidth and portable media devices have all converged to create a brand new medium... podcasting.
The rest of the world is scrambling to create meaningful content to broadcast. Some podcasts are fans sitting around talking about Battlestar Galactica, some are written by imaginary Ninjas answering life's dumbest questions, some are political, some are collections of news, and others are training people to become better quilters -- anything to hit a niche of listeners looking to fill their ears with something meaningful or entertaining. But here's the twist... preachers and teachers have been faithfully preparing and delivering the most meaningful of content for centuries on end -- the Gospel message!
The Word of God is hope to a lost and dying world. God has given us His very Word and commissioned us with the task of spreading this Good News to the entire globe. Podcasting is a perfect match: regular weekly Biblical content that seeks an audience of anyone that wants to listen... delivered like clockwork... and often on a tight budget... with limited staff and resources. That's perfect!
We humbly offer up this free and easy service that saves time and money. A service that leverages the hard work that those precious, God-fearing pastors and volunteers have put in to honor God and care for the Bride.
Over the past two years, I have helped several churches do podcasting the hard way: an electronic contortion of RSS feeds, obscure services and codec-riddled back-bends. The good news is that I have heard from over-seas military, those on the mission field, people recovering from surgery at home, perfect strangers browsing the web, and distant relatives that just want to connect with their kid's church... they were all grateful for the churches' extra-mile effort to share the Gospel with them.
I know you are out there -- churches that wish they knew how, churches that are sick of the time-intensive work of podcasting... even churches who struggle to stay on the cutting edge of what secular culture is already using to relate to new audiences. Podcasting is hot.
So welcome to the club of Podcasters. We are here for you and here to stay.
Keep preachin' that Good News,
Brook Drumm
& the PortableSermons.com Staff
Posted by: Brook Drumm at 1/27/2007 10:31 PM