Churches Putting God on the iPod
by Lee Raney
August 21, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Pastor Andrae Bailey was preparing to launch a new church in Orlando, Florida. After Bible school and preparation working on staff at a large church, Pastor Bailey began the planning process for a new church plant somewhere in Orlando. But there was a problem."I was driving down the road one day and realized there was a church on almost every corner," he recalls. After some time in prayer, Pastor Bailey felt led to launch his ministry on the Internet and use podcasting as the primary means to reach people. Today the audience of his daily video devotional Cyberpastor.com is growing rapidly, and people from around the world watch on-line and download the daily video onto portable video players.
The ability to download music and take it with you wherever you go has made MP3 players one of the largest phenomena of this decade, with Apple's iPod leading the way. As of July 2006, 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 will be 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 announced they are coming out with 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.
Religious podcasts, or "godcasts," are one of the fastest-growing genres of podcasting. Ministries such as Cyberpastor.com are using the Internet and podcasting exclusively 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. One of the top overall podcasts 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 this month 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 TV and radio broadcasting, almost any church can have a world-wide podcast.
Even though it is affordable, podcasting wasn't taught ten years ago in seminary or Bible college; consequently, many pastors who are not technology-savvy may not know how to get started. Fortunately there is a service that specializes in podcasting for churches and ministries. SermonCast.com helps churches get started easily by converting audio tapes and CDs to podcasts. 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.
Lee Raney is president of Christian Web Network.
