Online Sermons Provide Podcasting Push

Though pastors deliver Sunday sermons from the pulpit, 45 million Christian and non-Christian American adults – approximately one in four – are racing to the World Wide Web to download these messages 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A recent Barna Group technology survey shows that 38 percent of evangelical Christians and 31 percent of other Christians download digital audio recordings, or podcasts, of sermons. Among non-Christians, the number understandably dips to 17 percent, a statistic that signals a modest-but-mentionable contingent of the unchurched who look to hear preachers online.

Perhaps the most notable facet of podcasts is that Web users can choose to subscribe – just as they would to a magazine or any other content – and software will automatically download the digital audio file to a person’s computer when it becomes available.

Surprisingly, the so-called generational technology gap did not exist in the survey. Older adults were just as likely as younger adults to download sermons. In regional terms, 31 percent of residents of the South downloaded a church podcast in the past week, compared with only 14 percent in the Northeast. Among Protestants, 32 percent of members of both mainline and non-mainline denominations downloaded sermons, with non-mainline denominations owning a sizable edge. Only 18 percent of Roman Catholic respondents said they have recently sought out online sermons. Ethnically, the most loyal podcast subscribers were African-Americans, with 50 percent of Christian African-Americans listening to sermon podcasts.

Survey results also reveal that Christians are just as likely as non-Christians to maintain and to visit regularly an online social networking presence, such as Facebook or MySpace. Christians, however, are not quite as adamant about blogging as non-Christians. Among all adults, 10 percent regularly keep a blog, according to the survey, and in the blogosphere, atheists and agnostics outnumber Christians.

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, added perspective to the results. “Having the means of reaching the masses – for instance, through podcasting – is a good thing,” he said. “Yet, nothing matches the potency of life-on-life discipleship. In this respect, social networking and blogs can be effective tools to intimately connect with a small, natural network of relationships. The key is using the technology in a way that is consistent with your calling and purpose, not just an addictive self-indulgence.”