SERMONS ONLINE
Cyber sermons
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___GREENVILLE--Chris Follett believes his pastor works much too hard to prepare a sermon for it to be heard only one time by those who are able to attend church that Sunday.
___And he feels the same way about your pastor.
___While surfing the Internet one day, he had an inspiration for how to extend the influence of any pastor's sermons. He kept finding things you could listen to on the
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CHRIS FOLLETT does another kind of sermon preparation at WordAudio.com.
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Internet, which prompted him to say, "It would be neat if we could get our pastor's sermons on there."
___Follett began checking with companies that digitize voice files and could not find anyone who did pastor's sermons. He continued his quest and finally found a company that would do it, but for nearly $1,000.
___Then he learned that with a little hardware and software, he could do it himself. He made the investment, leased a server, and WordAudio.com was born. The ministry now offers Texas churches a chance to spread their message into a new arena and at a low cost.
___"The original plan was to do just my church, but I thought if we could get a few more churches on, then it might help pay for the server, and help them to get into the Internet world without a great deal of expense," he explained.
___Follett charges about $10 for digitizing and uploading a 30-minute sermon, plus a minimal storage fee. He estimates a church can have a new sermon digitized and about 10 past sermons archived and available for about $15 per week.
___Follett looks at a church's existing website, constructs a similar page and places the sermons on his server. The church then places a link to the listening page. This allows the church to have the sermons stored on Follett's server and available without eating up any of the church's storage space for its webpage.
___It may be that the cassette tape ministry of many churches will soon be transitioning to an Internet variety, Follett said. "With the proliferation of the Internet, everybody will soon have access, and then it will be far more convenient."
___David Stubblefield, Follett's pastor, said people appreciate this ministry.
___"Some of our members are not able to drive at night or live too far away to want to make a second trip in on a Sunday. A number of them have commented on how nice it is to have this available to them," said Stubblefield, pastor of Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Greenville.
___The church also has a number of missionaries who are able to listen much more quickly than international mail would allow the shipment of cassettes.
___One member of his congregation is an airline pilot, and he told the pastor he appreciated being able to listen to his sermons during a layover in Tokyo, Japan.
___Start up costs are minimal. No cameras or special equipment are necessary, and no special technical expertise is needed at the church. All the church needs is a cassette tape recorder. The sermon cassette is mailed to Follett, and that is the end of the church's work.
___Harold O'Chester, pastor of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin, said the ministry has been well received in his congregation.
___"It's the wave of the future," he said. "I'm closing out my ministry, and before I did that I wanted to make sure everything was moving along and the church's ministry was expanding to reach more and more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ."
___Jeff Herrick, director of media ministries at First Baptist Church in Sherman, said the dispersal of sermons over the Internet also can be an effective means of outreach to those looking for a church. "This is just one more way to get God's word out."
___Among other Texas Baptist churches already using the service are Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington and Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.
___WordAudio.com also has partnered with the Baptist Standard to enhance the services offered to churches through Good New Texas, an easy-to-use website creation and hosting program for churches.
___For more information on WordAudio.com, go to www.wordaudio.com, or call (903) 455-0712.
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The Baptist Standard
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