Sermon Podcasts: Good or Bad?

I think podcasts are a great tool for both the regular attendee and someone just exploring Christianity for the first time. I've personally used podcasts to keep in touch with my church while I was overseas, and have downloaded them if I had to miss a Sunday during a sermon series. For a newly interested person it can be an option to hear a sermon, even if they are intimidated by the idea of going to the physical building. Podcasts have so many advantages in so many different situations! 

As a pastor I love listening to sermons. First of all, it is good to hear others preach. Second, I listen when I am jogging or have a long drive instead of listening to secular music. Finally, I get exposed to a wide range of preachers and ideas and scriptural insights. What a great blessing it is to supplement my own devotional reading in this way. Shalom

I find podcasts wonderful to hear a variety of speakers and talks. I often load them on my ipod and listen to them while on vacation. Podcasts should however, not replace your regular church attendance where you are part of a community and have a pastor that knows and speaks into that community.

I listen to podcasts from West end CRC and the PKN church in Amersfoort Holland. I am bi-lingual so get first hand information from two countries. These are supplemented by attendance at out local church. I usually listen to them if the second service has a topic that I am less interested in. My preference is  to listen only to the sermon as the music is often hard to hear and singing is not always clear. West end only has the sermon on the podcast while PKN does the whole service.

The whole issue of using todays media to listen to ideas buy things is being highly under rated by leaders in churches and industry.

A recent article by Gayla Postma in the Banner mentions the recommendation to amalgamate  Home Missions and World Missions but there was no mention of the BTGMI ministry which is on the forefront of media like podcasts and internet. The article mentions changes in the world necessitate this amalgamation  I think the leadership of the church (in this case Synod) had better have a very sober look at what is being suggested here by insiders of the organization. I would like some delay in this major change as the pain to get it done will be much worse than the benefits. Other than do I we say there were no tangible benefits listed. To have quadruple bosses (2 in USA and 2 in Canada running this amalgamated ministry looks like an impossible situation to me.

Home Missions and BTGMI should get together and make sure all of our churches are set up professionally with podcasts that meet their market needs. That would be a great support to congregations rather than have Burlington and GR spend 2-5 years getting the huge ministry up and running.

I think that podcasts can be a helpful supplement to our church attendance but should not replace it. There is something about a sermon when it is delivered live that cannot be reproduced on a recording. However, I listen to several of them and produce my own at https://www.themcintyres.org/verse-by-verse-preaching-podcast/