10 Ways to repurpose your sermon video (and attract guests to your church)

The best way to increase the impact of your sermon is to repurpose it. This blog post will share ten ways to use your sermon video for evangelism and attract guests to your church. From reposting the entire sermon in different ways to leveraging key points, you’ll be able to do more with your message and carry it beyond those who heard it during your worship service.

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1) Level up the traditional video posting on your website

Website/Search
This idea serves two purposes. Posting your sermon to a sermon archive or blog isn’t new. With a tweak, you can take it to the next level and reframe the sermon video title.

Sitting at your computer today, it makes sense to title or label your video as “Sermon – April 11, 2021.” However, most people outside your church will likely need clear guidance on what your message addresses.

By instead framing your sermon message as the answer to a problem, need, or question people have, your message will more likely resonate when found on social media, search, or anywhere else.

For WordPress sites, Series Engine helps manage sermons and provides excellent details for people to find the right message.

Curious about SEO? Check out Why isn’t my church ranking on Google?

PRO TIP: Delegate any of these to a staff member or volunteer. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to. While these points often say “you,” it’s in the spirit of you delegating each task out.

2) Share your entire sermon on YouTube

Search
Fun fact: YouTube isn’t a social media platform. It’s a search engine (owned by Google) that serves up videos instead of websites. While there are some community aspects, it functions very differently from Facebook, which requires a slight shift when posting your video.

Take the same title you used on your website, where you framed the video’s title around the question it answers. Include relevant topic keywords (#friendship #conflict, for example) to help users find your video.

3) Sermon highlights and the main takeaway 

Social Media
If someone only had 30 seconds to watch of your sermon, what would you show them?

Highlight a moment that will stop the scroll by posting a powerful yet brief video to run on Facebook or Instagram.

Use the post text to invite people into a conversation, encourage them to attend an upcoming service, watch the whole video on your website.

Take it a step further and turn it into an Instagram Reels or TikTok video, or delegate it to a staff member or volunteer to can.

Read: Why can’t my church get more likes on Facebook.

4) Flip your sermon highlight post into an ad 

Social Media
After your post goes up, leverage the loves and comments from your organic audience and turn that Facebook or Instagram video post into an ad to reach people within your local community.

5) Sermon highlights on key webpages 

Website (Visitors page, Plan Your Visit page, etc.)
When a potential visitor checks out your church website, they will likely go to the pages you made just for them.

As they get to know your church on your Visitor’s Page, you can show these interested people that sermon snippet from a message you gave recently.

You should also include an internal link to the entire sermon housed on your website. This helps with SEO, keeps them on your websites, and guides them along should they want to hear more.

6) Pull audio and create a podcast or other streaming audio

Website (and podcast platforms)
Chat with your team member who sends you the live stream file and talk with them about pulling out the audio file so you can post your sermon as streaming audio. This can be posted on your website or use a service like Anchor.FM.

Take it a step further and provide context through an intro. You can also have another leader within your church to serve as co-host and make it more compelling.

7) Sermon highlights within a guest follow-up message

Guest follow-up
If you’re partnering with someone like Text in Church, send a brief message and your sermon highlight as a part of your follow-up with guests. Whether they missed the service or you want to remind them of the power of the Gospel message, you can incorporate this into your regular follow-up workflow.

8) Entire sermon video or podcast within a guest follow-up message

Guest follow-up
If you know that your guests like longer content, swap out the sermon highlight video for links to your entire message or your podcast.

9) Include your podcast as a social media post…

Social Media
Some people like video. Some people want audio. As with the sermon highlight video, you can leverage the audio version on social and encourage people to listen.

For the visual aspect, check out these resources to include a graphic or photo to ensure it grabs attention.

10) And then turn your podcast-focused social post into an ad.

Social Media
As with the sermon highlight posts, flip these into a social media ad and broaden your reach into your local community.

In closing, remember: keep your audience in mind and seek to minister to them through these ideas on how to repurpose and share your Sunday sermon video. When you recognize what questions or needs they have, where they spend their time, and how they prefer to connect with your church, you run with the above ideas that align best with your community.

Not sure you know what your guests are seeking or if your digital presence is connecting with them? Stop playing guessing games and get an action plan that allows your church to reach more people with Church Secret Guest! Check it out here.