I have a friend at church that has asked me repeatedly about the possibility of either a podcasting or live streaming our church sermons.  Actually, Fr. Bob’s sermons.   Anyway, I told him that from all the reading I have done on the web and folks at work, it seems possible and faily straight forward.  What do we need?  Here’s the list I have so far:

  1. Willing pastor.  Gotta get the OK before you put someone’s voice for all to hear.  Especially in churches like our where other people come to the microphone for prayers and reading the Bible lessons for that week.
  2. Sound system.  Without it, you would have to get a recorder somehow attached to the pastor’s microphone or record directly to the recorder.
  3. The aforementioned recorder.  There seem to be several on the market that can do the job.  Many come with stereo and mono capabilities, MP3 recording (going for universal here), capacity and USB connectivity.
  4. Audio editing software.  This comes with every Mac sold these days.  You can also get free software for the PC.
  5. Podcasting software.  We will be using either a WordPress install with podcast plugin or Joomla with a podcast module.  Either should work, though I have not used them before this project.
  6. Willing volunteer.  Here is where it gets tricky. You have to line up someone or a group of people who are willing to be responsible for the sermoncast.  It’s easy to put the above mentioned items into place, but someone has to do the editing and uploading.

Currently, we have a church website, but it lacks a podcast module.  I can take care of that fairly quickly.  I can also purchase an audio recorder.  While a youth minister does not have an unlimited budget, he can ask the outreach coordinator about putting it into his budget.  Especially if that is the friend asking about the sermoncast at the top of this post.

I digress.

As for a willing volunteer, I am thinking one of the youth would be best.  They are on the computer often, it gives them a real active part in our ministry and they have time most adults can only dream about.  That’s my plan.  I hope to have someone lined up soon.  After that, getting the recorder and testing should be fun.

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