How Churches Can Offer Online Sermons with WordPress (Easy Way)

Sharing sermons online is a great way to connect with your church members, especially those who can’t attend services in person.

With WordPress, you can easily record and upload your sermons, making them accessible to your entire congregation. We’ve helped numerous churches set this up, allowing members to subscribe and stay updated on the latest sermons.

In this article, we will guide you through recording audio or video sermons and adding them to your church website. If your church doesn’t have a website yet, we will show you how to create one as well.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Why Record and Upload Sermons?

Information like location, service times, and a contact form are essential for any church website. But when it comes to putting sermons or entire services online, many churches worry that it will take too much time or cost too much money.

From our experience, this is a common concern, but the process can be more affordable and manageable than you think.

There are plenty of reasons why putting your sermons online makes sense:

• New visitors: Many people prefer to listen online before attending in person. We’ve seen churches use this as an effective way to reach new members.
• Sick or elderly members: Church members who miss services due to illness or age can stay connected by listening online. This has been an excellent solution for many congregations we’ve worked with.
• Parents with young children: Some members may miss part of the service because they are caring for children. Offering sermons online allows them to catch up at their own pace.
• Re-listening: Even for those present during the service, providing sermons online gives members the chance to listen again and reflect more deeply on the message.
• Increased website traffic: Regularly publishing sermons helps increase website traffic. Websites that update their content more frequently tend to rank higher in search results.

The best part is that it doesn’t have to be expensive or require a lot of volunteer hours. Many small churches we’ve worked with have successfully built their websites and uploaded sermons without breaking the bank.

We will guide you through recording sermons on a tight budget while also providing options for those with a larger production budget who want more professional solutions.

Ready to learn how to record and upload sermons to your site? We will walk you through each step.

Here’s a quick outline that you can use to easily browse the article:

Step 1: Set Up Your Church Website

If you already have a WordPress website set up, then you can skip to step 2, which focuses on choosing your recording equipment.

To get started, you can watch this video tutorial or read our step-by-step guide to creating a WordPress website.

Subscribe to WPBeginner

If you’re just starting, we highly recommend using Bluehost to host your website.

They are offering WPBeginner readers a free domain name and a huge discount on web hosting. Basically, you can get started for $1.99 per month.

You might also want to see our roundup of the best WordPress themes for churches so you can customize your site design.

Once your website is set up, the next step is ensuring you have the equipment you need to record your sermons.

Step 2: Get the Right Recording Equipment

The equipment you need will depend on whether you want to record your live sermons while you’re preaching in the church or separately.

The good news is if you want to record live sermons, you may already have everything you need.

If your church already has a soundboard and a laptop available for recording sermons, you may just need to purchase a small cable like this 3.5mm to XLR Cable to run from your soundboard to a laptop.

Once connected, you can then use a program like Audacity to record the sermon (more on that in the next step).

If you don’t have a soundboard for your church, you could use a portable recorder like this Handheld Digital Audio Recorder. You can easily set this on your podium so you don’t have to hold it the whole time.

You might also want to record sermons privately by yourself instead of recording the live sermon or even record additional teaching for deeper study.

In that case, you’ll need a good microphone. You might think about using your laptop’s built-in mic to record sermons, but we don’t recommend that. Your church members will notice the bad sound quality and may have trouble understanding your sermon.

We recommend investing in one of these three mics that are popular for podcasting:

• Samson C01U (USB) – Entry-level Microphone
• Røde Podmic (USB) – Best USB mic
• Heil PR-40 (XLR connection, not USB) – This is what the pros use. You will need to buy an audio mixer as well.

At WPBeginner, we also use the Rode Podcaster kit that comes with a mic arm and shock mount.

You should also consider recording and editing your audio files using a decent pair of headphones, such as a Sony MDR7506.

How do you record a sermon video?

To record video sermons, you’ll need to use a video camera.

If you need to begin with an absolutely minimal budget, you can record on your smartphone using a tripod. This is the cheapest way to go.

The GripTight GorillaPod Stand PRO is a good tripod for any phone. Its adjustable legs allow it to be attached to any surface.

For churches with a modest budget, you can use SlingStudio’s HD Video Production Unit to create a high-quality video recording using multiple cameras. SlingStudio lets you switch between video feeds in real time from an iPad or laptop. You can add feeds from camcorders, DSLR cameras, or even your smartphone.

Once you’ve chosen your equipment, you’re ready to start recording.

Step 3: Record Your Sermon

We recommend using the Audacity app to record your sermons.

Audacity is a completely free program that, like WordPress, is licensed under the GPL. You can use it to record your sermons and also edit the files for noise reduction and enhanced sound quality.

After you install Audacity, you’ll need to open the program and click the File menu to start a new project.

Then, click on the record button to start recording your sermon.

Don’t feel you need to start over if you make a mistake. Just keep going, and then you can edit out the mistakes after you have finished recording.

You can also import music files from File » Import to use at the beginning or end of your sermon.

Since Audacity is a powerful tool, you may want to check out these Audacity tutorials to learn more about all its features.

After you’ve recorded your sermon, you can export it. We recommend the MP3 format because it creates smaller file sizes with good quality.

Once you’ve saved the file, you’re ready to upload it to your website.

Step 4: Upload Your Sermon Recording

Both audio and video recordings produce large files. You might be able to get away with hosting your audio files on your website for a short time, but you’re likely going to run into space issues after a while.

To keep it fast, you should avoid uploading audio or video files to your WordPress website.

We recommend you use a separate church sermon hosting service. If you’re looking for the best podcast host for churches, we recommend using PodBean to upload your sermon audio recordings. You can also check out our list of the best podcast hosting services for other options.

For video files, we recommend you get started on YouTube. It is easy to use, super-fast, and free. It is also the world’s second-largest search engine, which means additional chances for your sermons to be viewed by someone new.

Once you’ve recorded your sermons and put them online, it’s time to add them to your website so your own members and visitors can easily find them.

You will begin by adding the Sermon Manager for WordPress plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin.

You will begin by adding your first sermon. Simply go to the Sermons » Add New page.

First, you will need to add the title of your sermon and a little description.

Next, scroll down to the Sermon Details section. Here, you can add basic details about the sermon. All fields are optional, and you can skip them if needed.

After those two fields, many more are optional, but we encourage you to fill out as many as possible. Adding thoughtful descriptions helps search engines discover your sermon.

The second set of fields will allow you to paste the URL for your files, whether you’re adding audio, video, or both. There’s also a place where you can add sermon notes if you’d like to attach a PDF.

Fill out the meta on the right column for things like the preacher’s name and the sermon series, and then click publish. And that’s it! If you’re using pretty permalinks, your first sermon will now be available at:

https://yourdomain.com/sermons/

Submit your Podcast to Apple’s iTunes and Google Play.

Another great feature of the Sermon Manager plugin is that you can easily submit your feed to podcasts. This makes it easier for your members to subscribe and receive notifications on their phones when you publish a new sermon.

To get started, go to Sermons » Settings and click on the ‘Podcast’ tab.

The folks behind the Sermon Manager for WordPress plugin have made this section very self-explanatory, so you will be able to follow along, filling in your own data and seeing what they recommend in light gray text.

Go through each field and fill in the information so it matches your church.

At the bottom, click the ‘Save’ button.

After the page reloads, you’ll use the link for the feed validator to ensure you’ve filled out everything correctly.

When your feed validates, copy the link and submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts and Google Play Podcasts.

How Do I Live Stream Sermons?

Plenty of churches are asking how to live stream sermons, so you may also want to do that.

We recommend live streaming in addition to having sermons on your own website. If you only livestream and don’t record your sermons, you’re missing out on all the benefits we listed above.

Having sermons on your website means your church members can access past sermons more easily. It can also help you to grow your website traffic.

That said, live-streaming sermons can be a good way to reach new audiences on social media.

Two of the best ways are YouTube and Facebook. Facebook can be a good option, especially because many of your members are already there and connected to your page.

But Facebook Live isn’t always reliable. We’ve heard reports of churches having issues with their livestream crashing in the middle of the service. Using a broadcasting service instead can offer a smoother experience.

Restream will allow you to broadcast your service simultaneously on your website, YouTube, Facebook page, Facebook group, and other services.

You can also record your sermons or services in advance and schedule them to go live at the right time for a less stressful experience.

If you’re live streaming your sermon using your smartphone, you’ll want to use a tripod for the best results.

After your live stream is over, you can add the video to your site following our tutorial above.

Schedule and Display Church Services on Your Website

Displaying and sharing your upcoming services, whether online or in-person, helps your congregation easily follow and attend them.

We have seen many church and non-profit websites successfully engage visitors by simply making it easier to find and locate the events.

We recommend using Sugar Calendar to display events on your church website. It allows you to easily schedule events and display them anywhere on your site.

Here is what you can do with it and the reasons why we recommend it:

• Display events directly on your website, allowing your congregation to see all upcoming services, Bible studies, sermons, and events. They can even add these events to their calendars with just a click, ensuring they never miss an important gathering.
• Easily add recurring events like weekly sermons or prayer meetings so you don’t have to re-enter details every time.
• Provide detailed event descriptions, including important information such as topics, speakers, and links to live streams, making it easier for your congregation to join services online.
• Integrate with Google Maps to offer directions to your church or event locations, ensuring your attendees can easily find their way to in-person services.

First, you need to install and activate the Sugar Calendar plugin.

Note: The plugin is also available as a free version. However, we recommend upgrading to the paid version to unlock its full potential.

Upon activation, go to the Sugar Calendar » Calendars page and click ‘+ Add Calendar’ at the top.

Next, you need to provide a title for your calendar. This could be anything that appropriately represents the events you will be adding to this calendar.

Below that, you can provide a slug for the calendar’s SEO-friendly URL.

After that, you can add a short description for your calendar and choose a color.

Lastly, click the ‘Add New Calendar’ button to save your changes.

Now that you have created a calendar, you can add your church events to it.

Simply go to the Sugar Calendar » Add New page to add an event.

You need to provide a title for your event and set the date and time.

If it is a recurring event, simply switch to the ‘Recurrence’ tab and select how often the event repeats.

If the event is an in-person gathering, then you can switch to the ‘Location’ tab.

Here, you can enter the address. However, if it is an online-only event, just leave the address field blank.

Next, switch to the ‘Link’ tab and add the link to the event page on your website or a streaming platform.

For instance, you can add the link to the sermon page on your WordPress website or to the streaming service you are using, such as Restream, Facebook Live, or YouTube Live.

Optionally, you can also redirect users to any link by adding it here.

Next, switch to the ‘Tickets’ tab. If tickets are available for the event you are organizing, you can add those details here.

After configuring event settings, you can provide event details. You can add as much information as you like, including links, images, and rich text, to make the details more interesting and useful.

Finally, select the calendar where you want to add the event, and then click ‘Publish’ to make your event live.

To display church events on your website, simply edit the post or page where you want to display the calendar.

While editing the page, you need to add the Events Calendar block to your content area.

The plugin will show a live preview of your calendars and events.

You can select a specific calendar from the sidebar if you like.

Finally, save and publish your changes.

You can now visit your website to see your church events calendar live.

Bonus Resources:

Following are some of the resources that churches, religious organizations, and non-profits may find useful:

• Best Church Website Builders (Easy for Beginners)
• Best Church WordPress Themes for Your Church
• How to Create Peer-to-Peer Fundraising in WordPress (Step by Step)
• Ultimate Guide to Creating a WordPress Membership Site
• How to Create Your Own Private Community with WordPress

We hope this article helped you learn how to record sermons. You may also want to check out our guide on how to accept online donations or how to sell event tickets in WordPress.

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