Service Video & Audio Available…for FREE!
Here’s the big announcement: Beginning with the launch of the Unlocking the DaVinci Code series that began this past weekend, you can now view or listen to the previous weekend’s service on GCCwired.com. And, here’s the better news–it’s FREE. If you go to the series page, you can watch the entire service, listen to message download, view the message notes or download the small group discussion guide. Messages from prior weeks and other series resources will be available on WiredChurches.com. If you’re subscribing to podcasts through iTunes, that feature is coming soon.
Dial it in and give us your feedback. I’d love to hear what you think. If you’d like more details on how we’re doing the video, check out Jason’s blog.
Why don’t you make all your sermons free?
Well, Jason, we are giving all our sermons away for free. You can check back and view the most recent week for free. And, soon, you’ll be able to subscribe to our podcast and get every message for free that way. We also provide our small group discussion guides and our message notes for free. Every week.
We make some of our other message resources available for purchase. Those sales help us hire staff, pay for web development and hosting expenses, design and distribute our weekly enewsletter and our annual Specific & Practical magazine (both of which are free) and continue to make new resources available. In other words, if we didn’t charge for our other message resources, we couldn’t make those additional resources available either. So, under that scenario, everything would be free, because nothing else would be available.
Every dollar we make through WiredChurches.com goes back into providing resources and training events to equip church leaders throughout the country. It appears that leaders must see some value in those resources, because more and more people are taking advantage of them.
In the mean time, many of our staff and volunteers are also giving away their knowledge for free. At least a dozen people on our team are sharing their insights about ministry through blogs just like this one. And, there’s a bonus, in addition to getting my wisdom on ministry strategy, you also get a taste of my charming personality and my witty sense of humor–both of which are also free. Of course, you need to remember; sometimes you get what you pay for.
tony
Tony
Beautiful move for the video on demand of the services at Granger. I watched a few snippets already but plan to take in the whole series. great stuff.
Of course I understand what you’re saying, Tony, but the internet is different. Sermons that I can listen to for free at your Sunday service should be free if you post it online. Why should it be free (for a limited time) with strings attached? If it’s freely released for download on the internet today, it should be free forever existing at the same URL.
Some churches have a full, online archive of their Sunday sermons over the past couple of years in .mp3 format. It has probably helped its churches mature spiritually and grow in number. The equipment, web hosting and bandwidth to do this is insignificant. Tech-savy churches, unlike my small church, should really take advantage of podcasting and the many hours that people spend wearing their headphones.
Church members should be educated to understand how easy and inexpensive it is to do this, and know much value it can bring to people.
Cheers,
Jason
Jason, I’m sorry we’re not able to meet your expectations. You have to remember, our primary focus as a ministry is to reach the people in the South Bend region for Jesus. Equipping church leaders is secondary for us. So, yes, there’s probably more we could do if we devoted staff time, money and energy to helping other churches, but we’ve decided to focus most those resources on helping our community.
The good thing for you, though, is that there are more and more churches doing things to assist small churches like yours. As an example, you may want to check out LifeChurch.tv. They just opened up a new website to help church leaders with free resources. Let me know if you need more help finding resources from other churches.
tony
Tony,
I love this! The video stream is a great idea, but I’m just as excited to see that the MP3 is now free for download (and soon Podcast.) I think this is a huge step for the church and I’m glad that GCC continues to offer “cutting edge” ministry tools.
A small testimony here: A friend of mine attended GCC until he had to move for a job a few hours away. When you started offering the message audio for purchase, I would buy them and email him the messages. While he is a member of a local church, he really loves listening to the weekend message via headphones at work. This is a quote from his email to me:
“I just wanted to write you a quick e-mail to say that I really appreciate you sending me the Sunday services while I am at work. I listened to the message Rob gave and beyond the content, which is important to me as well, it made me remember what it is like to be part of a church that believes God to do great things. Every time Rob would make a point about what the church should be and then say “Welcome to Granger Community Church”, I could see his face and I still know his heart.”
This is only one example of the benefits of an innovative church!
This is great news. Do you have anything online from your week-night services?
You have no clue how much a blessing this is to offer on your website! Thanks be to the Lord for having VIDEO of the sermon… let alone the ENTIRE SERVICE!
I remember back Easter 2004. When Fellowship Church did the Passion series. Easter Sunday the entire service was posted online. Music and Message. I was so blown away by the SIGHTS and sounds of Fellowship. This is what led me to Fellowship where I discovered Fellowship Connection and then C3 conferences. FBC Richlands is now a part of Fellowship Connection and I have attended C3 for 2 years now. FBC is now in a creative mindset when planning services and has transitioned from a 125 year old institution to a thriving creative body. We even buy stuff from creative pastors…
All of this is because of Fellowship put one entire service online.
God Bless,
Brad Christian
Richlands, NC
Peter, we don’t currently offer streaming of our mid-week services. Sorry about that.
tony