Thomas Lamar, host
Scandia Bible Church is pleased to offer recordings of our Sunday Sermons through this website and via podcast. While we still continue to have recordings available at the church on compact disc, we are excited about this new medium.
If the idea of website recordings and “podcasts” is new to you — don’t worry, you’re not alone. Keep reading….
It’s likely that you’ve listened to a church sermon on a cassette tape or compact disc in the past. Essentially, the recordings through our website allow you to do the same thing…. but it’s better.
For starters, because our sermon recordings are stored on this website, they are all accessible in an organized, searchable format and are available 24/7 from anywhere in the world you can get an Internet connection. No more waiting to have the recordings mailed to you or arranging to pick them up. Also, if you are ill or away on vacation, you can easily hear the Sunday Sermon you would have missed. Simply log on to our website, find the sermon you want to listen to in the main column of our home page, and click on the player which is located under “Listen Now.” It looks like this:
Or, by right clicking on the “Download Sermon” link, you can have the recording downloaded as an “mp3” to your hard drive to play back later or for transfer to an iPod or other portable digital media player. (Note: by left clicking on this link, the sermon will play on the your computer’s default audio player, like Windows Media Player or Quicktime).
It’s the RSS that makes our sermons a podcast.
The added dimension of of our website recordings is the “podcast.” In addition to what we’ve already described, the recordings are also automatically “podcasted” (think broadcast) out over the Internet via a process known as RSS (Real Simple Syndication). Essentially this allows various podcast directories, such as iTunes.com, to syndicate our church’s message to a much larger and global audience.
It also means is that someone can literally “subscribe” to our church’s podcast and have it automatically delievered to them every time a new one is released without having to constantly check our website. This can be done through various “podcatching” applications, such as iTunes and Zune — or even the less sophisticated standby, email. Once notified, subscribers have the option of either listening to our sermon podcasts through our website or they can choose to have them downloaded (sometimes automatically) to their hard drive to play later on their computer or, for complete portability, on their iPod or other portable digital media device. Click on our RSS icon (looks like this 
) in the upper right hand column of our website to learn more. Also, click here for a more in depth explanation of what a podcast is.
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But as convenient and exciting as podcasts can be to spread the Good News, we must be mindful that they are not a substitute for going to church. The Bible calls us to fellowship with other believers:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (KJV)
It is our hope that our podcast at Scandia Bible Church will serve to strengthen and edify your understanding of God’s Word. And, if you are not currently attending a church body, that you will be encouraged to attend a church of sound Biblical teaching.
Scandia Bible Church 