I currently serve as Associate for Internet Ministries at ST. Luke’s Church in Jamestown, New York. My responsibility is to take recorded content and make it available as a podcast. This requires a certain amount of technical expertise. Since May 1, 2007, I have been posting sermons and other church content to the Internet Archive and the podcast blog.
From the beginning, I have introduced the sermons by summarizing the relevant scriptural texts for the listeners and describing any circumstances which influence the preaching. After each sermon, I leave the listener with a thought from the sermon.
I have encouraged the senior pastor to think more broadly about the podcast content. Now the podcast includes adult forums, educational programs, interviews and on-the-scene reports.
I do not edit sermons except when off-the-cuff remarks are particularly focused on congregational matters and would be incomprehensible to people not present or intimately knowledgeable about the congregation itself. Other recordings need more editing to maintain confidentiality or tidy up audio.
When possible, I provide links in the blog posts to resources the speaker or I have identified for further study.
I have identified a file sharing solution to enable the senior pastor and me to share recorded content without sharing hardware such as recorders, memory sticks and DVDs.
I have met the challenge to provide ways for a variety of internet users to access the podcasts. In addition to high quality audio provided in an RSS enclosure, I stream the audio and provide a small zipped download for those using dialup connections.
From time to time I have been called upon to bridge the gulf between Anglican theology and my Protestant stance and between what is said casually in a podcast and what I hold to be sound pastoral care..
I have come to believe a church podcast producer is not only a technophile, but a Minister of the Gospel. pastoring, teaching and evangelizing an unseen community of internet listeners.