Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, Jesus told us. It's valid to continue that thought that out of what's in our hearts is what will come out in our communications.
If our hearts are filled with God and his words, that will be reflected in our church communications.
It doesn't mean that we will only write devotionals and Bible lessons—though that might be part of it. It means that the tone, the attitude, the images and examples we use will be reflective of our Lord. The best way for that to happen is to so saturate your mind and heart with God's Word that his way of looking at life and reaching out to people will become second nature to you.
There is only one way to get that perspective and that is to spend time in God's Word and we now have a new and exciting way to do it through PODCASTS!
The excitement of the changing ways we can do that
Before I was a church communicator, before I used a computer, then and now and I pray until the day the Lord calls me home, I've been a Sunday School/Bible teacher. When I was in third grade I started helping the kindergartners in Sunday School; when I was in sixth grade I had my own little class of fourth graders in a tiny community church in Marina, California; when I was in high school, my high school sponsors had to move and no one else wanted the job (again, a fairly small church, Ivywild Presbyterian in Colorado Springs, CO). So at age sixteen I took over the youth group and since then in a variety of situations, I've taught the Bible.
And though teaching the Bible has been a constant, the ways I've done it have changed dramatically over the years:
- I started with Sunday School quarterlies and crafts
- Then Flannel graphs were a joy of my life (many of you have no idea what they are—you attached cut out figures to a flannel background as you told a story and painting the backgrounds on flannel was so much fun! )
- Then overhead projectors made illustrations come alive
- PowerPoint and video projectors added more possibilities
- The Internet, and web video allowed me to expand in ways I never imagined
And now podcasts
Who knew such a relatively "old" technology would suddenly become THE way to communicate!?
Podcasts are one of the fastest growing forms of communication today and though I've done various forms in the past, my latest adventure with anchor.fm (see article on this HERE) has given me a whole new way to distribute them.
I leaned how to create them some time ago (and will share in future posts as I have a super simple way to do it), but I couldn't figure out how to get them out to people or how to finance them. Anchor (again, click here for that part of the story) solved it.
Why do this now
There are several reasons why creating the podcasts is important and that's based on the audiences for them:
Church Communicators: as I said above, I truly believe you need to have the Bible saturate your life if you are going to communicate in a way that pleases the Lord and accomplishes his purposes. There are many resources to help you do this, but this may be useful as a new voice.
My previous and current church students: again, as I said, I've taught for a long time and recently a number of students of mine in various situations have asked me to create podcasts. As churches seem to cut back more and more on actual training time, I hope these resources can be useful.
For younger people I love and want to see grow in Jesus: there are people in my life I love dearly who spend little time sitting still and reading their Bibles or books on Christian living and discipleship. But maybe they will listen to a podcast. I have some additional ideas I'll be sharing, but we need to always look at new ways to connect eternal truth with every generation.
The Lord gives us the tools—let's use them for his glory!
Here are the ways you can listen to Bible805
You can listen through the website at http://www.bible805.com. This site also has show notes (kinda rough, but if you want them) and I hope to add more useful links as time goes on.
Following are the various app links that you can listen through and subscribe to the Bible805 podcast.
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8
Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bible-805/id1439181547
Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy83NDVhNDc4L3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kP8tppdHCz65P8Tku8RJZ
Breaker https://www.breaker.audio/bible-805
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id1462377
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1438370124/a-better-way-for-church-communicators-podcast-by-yvon-prehn
Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/4jOg
RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/bible-805-6Lax9v
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/anchor-podcasts/bible-805
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions!