Taking advantage of the latest Internet technology, a Christian website is spreading the Word to a growing Web-based audience by offering the audio of tens of thousands of sermons for free online.
SermonAudio.com has almost 70,000 sermons on its website, all of which are available to listen to immediately or download to a computer of MP3 player for use at a later time. Over 80,000 sermons are downloaded by listeners each week.
The sermons are supplied by member churches that pay a monthly fee to upload an unlimited number of MP3 sermons to the site. Participating churches then receive reports that let them know which sermons were downloaded and the general geographic location of each listener.
According to SermonAudio.com, since its inception over five years ago, over 8 million sermons have been downloaded.
Site visitors can search for sermons by pastor, topic, church, keyword, Bible reference or date preached.
‘Live’ church at home
Besides providing online messages, SermonAudio sells a service by which churches can webcast their worship services live for anyone to listen or watch on the Net.
“Live webcasting serves the purpose of giving those who are at home (either because of sickness, infirmity or weather) a chance to enjoy the services of their home church (or any other church) as it unfolds,” states the site. “It also helps to further the church’s exposure to those who may be interested in eventually attending the church.”
For those wanting an international worship experience, regular Sunday services are webcast from churches in Northern Ireland, Germany and Canada.
David Mook is with the Phoenix Free Presbyterian Church.
“There is not a better value in outreach ministry than to have the preaching of God’s Word from our church going all over the world 24 hours a day, and the cost for broadcasting membership is, comparably, very low,” Mook testifies on SermonAudio’s site. “Our experience has been that as the number of sermons available on our homepage continues to grow, downloads are increasing dramatically. We find the site very easy to use and rejoice at the thought that people around the world have heard the messages preached in our pulpit.”
Adds G. N. Barkman of Beacon Baptist Church: “We at Beacon Baptist Church are grateful for the opportunity to broadcast our sermons on SermonAudio.com. Frankly, we have been amazed at the response. We have heard from listeners all over the world who tell us how blessed and grateful they are to have access to our sermons. We pray that God will sustain this ministry to the glory of Christ.”
The site has a statement of faith with which it requires all member churches to abide, saying members must be “fundamental in doctrine and Bible-believing.”
SermonAudio.com also features an online hymn search and Bible search service.
See a summary of SermonAudio.com services.
