How to Find and Listen to Sermons Online

As promised from yesterday, in this post I will give you a head start to listening to free sermons online.

1. Find a podcast reader.  For many, this is iTunes.  I have stayed away from the Apple product because it is too "heavy" of a client to have running on my PC while I am doing other things.  Besides which, I am a fan of open source solutions for computers.  After using a half dozen different podcast subscription software, I finally settled on Google Reader.  This free solution collects all the feeds into one place, and I don't have to download all the sermons just to try them out.  And I don't have to install it on my PC.  If you are looking for different options, I suggest searching for "aggregator," and look at the choices.  Don't look too far - sometimes an email client you already have installed has an aggregator included.
2. Search for sermons.  This means a little bit of work, but it's worth it for the wealth of audio that is out there.  Start with your favorite preacher, author or church, and put the word "podcast" with their name in the search.  And for heaven's sake, don't pay for anything.  Some feeds require registering with a website, which is OK in moderation.  Many Bible Colleges will podcast their chapel services, which is sometimes hit-or-miss in quality, but there are some terrific messages by students, faculty and guests that are worth a little work looking for.
3. Get the link for the feed.  It is usually an internet address that ends in ".xml."  Look for the "RSS" link. It looks like the image at the top of this post.  This image usually links to the feed.  Just put your mouse on the link, right-click, and then click on "Copy Link Location," or something similar.  You have just copied the feed's link to your clipboard.
4. Subscribe in your podcast reader.  Then, in your reader, click on "Add Feed" or "Add Subscription" and paste the link you just copied into the field provided, click [OK], and you're done.  The reader will either bring the links up immediately, or at the next scheduled time to do so.
5. Select the sermons and listen.  From here, you can pick-and-choose the messages you really want to hear.  Sometimes you are listening to a certain preacher, or there is a Bible passage or topic that really jumps out to you.  Download these sermons to your laptop.  I have a folder in "My Documents" called "My Received Podcasts" that helps me keep them organized.
6. Copy some to your MP3 player.  Again, I like the off-brand MP3 players that seem so much cheaper and simpler to operate than the "Big Brother" name brands.  I will queue up dozens of sermons to listen to while I exercise or while I go grocery shopping alone.  Check out the documentation of your MP3 player to find out how to get the audio to your player.  I will jam as many as I can fit on my player.
7. Delete as you go.  As I listen to sermons, I delete them.  This is so that when I return to my laptop, I can find out quickly how much free space I have for new sermons.  Sometimes, I know right away that I'll be bored with a message.  I will delete them before they are completed.  After all, why waste time when there is so much good stuff out there.  At other times, there are sermons that are just fantastic that I decide to keep and listen to again. 

I hope this is helpful to you.  I definitely think that listening to other people preach has helped me improve as I minister from the pulpit, and I hope it will for you too.

Leave a comment and let me know how this is going for you.

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