It used to be that sermons were preached once, and that was the end of it.
Today when pastors share a message, it is recorded and can live on forever.
For most churches, your past sermons are one of your most valuable assets.
But getting the most out of your recorded messages is a challenge for many church leaders.
Join us as we discuss how your church can repurpose your sermons and give them new life online.
We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow.
Table of contents
Five Ways You Can Repurpose Old Sermons and Reach People Online
Build A Searchable Sermon Archive
If your church has weekly services, you are probably recording 52 sermons every year. That means in a matter of years; you will have an impressive media library.
Your church must make that library a useable archive on your website.
A good sermon library will be searchable by date, speaker, topic, and passage of scripture.
Do this, and your library will become a helpful tool for members and anybody online looking for answers.
Use Short Clips on Social Media
Many churches struggle with creating content on social channels. Often we become paralyzed trying to think of the perfect thing to say.
In many cases, you have already said the perfect thing in a past sermon.
The problem is that a 30-minute video does not make the best social media post in most cases.
Instead, consider finding one point in a sermon, clipping that down to 60-90 seconds, and using that as a post.
Add some background music, and it can even work as a Tik Tok video.
Repackage Some As Topical Series
If you’ve pastored for any significant amount of time, chances are you have talked about some topics more than once.
For instance, maybe you have shared three messages over the last year that focus on prayer.
Consider taking those messages and packaging them as a series on prayer.
You could build a landing page on your site with a prayer form and use that to connect with people online.
Have Them Transcribed
One of the challenges with online sermons is that they are not easy for search engines to categorize. This is because most churches don’t include enough text content when they upload their sermons.
An easy way to add text content is to have your messages transcribed.
The average English preacher will speak 150 words per minute, so a 30-minute message will contain about 4500 words. That makes for a lot of searchable content that helps your church be found on Google.
Turn Them into a Podcast
One of the best ways to repurpose old sermons is to convert them into a podcast.
You can use the current week’s sermon for the podcast, but churches should consider delivering more content than just one episode per week.
If you have six years of recorded sermons, that will allow you to do three podcast episodes per week for three years.
Podcasting is one of the most significant opportunities for churches to reach a new audience. Put out content regularly, and you will be able to reach more people with the Gospel.
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