How to Send Your Sermon Out on Mission

ByBrandon Hilgemann

As followers of Christ, we are sent on a mission. We are not called to sit idle in the pews. We are called to go out and make disciples. Our faith is active, not passive.

But think about this for a minute: What if we took this same thought and applied it towards our sermons?

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Way out
Photo Credit: Rob Brewer cc

What do I mean? As a pastor, you can extend the reach and extend the life of your sermons by sending them out.

Send your sermon out on mission. Don’t just let your sermon be confined by the four walls of your church. Get your message out to the world as a free gift.

Here are a few ways to send your sermon:

Email It

Add links of relevant old messages to your email newsletter. If you are sending out an email about Christmas services, for example, add a link to a video of last year’s service. This is just one additional way to take advantage of work you have already done.

Something that many popular blogs do, but I have never seen a church do before, is create a free email course. Set up automatic emails to go out periodicly for people who subscribe via your website. Use old message video or text as content. (You can do this for free with up to 2,000 subscribers with Mail Chimp)

This could be a daily, weekly or monthly automated email. You could use it for more info about the church, challenging people to read the Bible every day, teaching about marriage, teaching a Biblical method for getting control of their finances, or whatever else you dream up.

The great thing is once it is set up, the work is done. The content you have already created for sermon is living on every time somebody signs up for free to the email course. All you have to do is let people n your church and your community know it is available.

Text Message It

Use a text subscription service to send out occassional text blasts with announcements about your church. Every once in a while you could throw in a link to old message content. You could also throw in an inspirational saying from a message you preached (like mentioned here).

There are many services that allow you to do this. I have used Text Marks for years without any problems. You can try it for free, but there will be ads in your messages. I use the paid service to eliminate the ads.

Mail It

Not everything has to be digital. Don’t underestimate the power of physical mail. It is more expensive, but mailers still work.

You could attach a physical CD or a link to a webpage to a mailer and send it out to everyone in local neighborhoods. Many churches do this to promote their church, but what if you packaged it as a free gift to help them in an area they might be struggling (marriage, debt, their purpose in life, etc.)?

The people who take the time to check it out will be grateful for the awesome teaching you put together. Many could find it so helpful they will come to your church to hear what else you have to say.

This is more than inviting people directly to church. People get these invitations all the time. This is showing your community that your church has something of value to add to their lives with no strings attached.

One word of advice: What I have seen and all the stats I have read say that you can expect roughly a 1% return. So don’t set your hope too high sending out 1,000 mailers. You will most likely only get 10 people to pay attention. You have to weigh the cost and ask if reaching those 10 is worth the price.

Give It to Visitors

Do you give anything to first time guests at your church?

Put together a “Greatest Hits” message DVD or CD and give it away. Maybe put some of your best stuff on a custom USB drive for them.

If someone is interested in baptism, give them a free message on baptism to help them learn more.

If someone just gave their life to Christ or is interested in learning more about Christianity, give them a free message about the basics of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

If someone is interested in learning more about volunteering in your church, give them a free message where you cast vision about why serving is important and all the ways volunteers make your church awesome.

Give It for Friends

Why not put together some of your best stuff and give it to your people as a free gift for their friends. Equip your congregation with resources as a tool to reaching their non-christian friends. As mentioned in the examples above, it could be help with a specific struggle or a greatest hits series of messages, etc.

Many people in your church want to reach out to their friends, but they simply don’t know how to do it. Help give them some easy and practical ways to take the first step.

Give It to other Churches

Post your sermon video, audio or transcript on your website for any other church to download as a free resource. Do you have custom graphics that go with the message? Give them away too!

This is Kingdom minded thinking. A lot of churches could probably benefit from what you do. Rather than letting your message and all the work that goes into it die with your church, give it the opportunity to spread and live on in other ministries.

For a list of great churches already doing this, check out The Free Church Sermon Series Graphics Toolkit.

More…

I have written more extensively about other ways to that could be considered sending out your sermon in some of the other articles in this series. You can find them all below.

Other posts in the Increase Your Sermon’s Lifespan series:

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