Why No One Listens to Your Sermons Online - and 3 Ways How to Change This

[James Nored]

We Need to Change the Stories We Tell Ourselves (from Ruth) from James Nored on Vimeo.

Churches, ministers, pastors, and church administrators go to the time and trouble of posting sermons online each week on websites and social media sites. And almost no one watches. 

Why is this? Quite simply, because online Attention Spans are Incredibly Short. Most people simply will not watch a 30 minute sermon online. Or a 25 minute sermon. Or a 22 minute sermon. Or even a 10 minute sermon.

So how do you change this? Here are three simple ways.

1. Create a 1-2 minute sermon highlight clip.  The above clip is an example of a sermon highlight clip. It actually would be better if it were closer to 1 minute, but a good clip can go a couple of minutes. (But the longer it is, the less likely people will click on it.)
   
   
2. Make the sermon highlight clips have an emotional appeal that appeals to the right brain with passion, music, b roll. This means, high a sermon highlight where you are really getting into it. Nothing impacts people today like passion. 
   
   Adding background music with some b roll, like this clip does, automatically draws people in and draws upon the natural right brain strength of the video medium. Remember, today, it is a right-brained world! 
   
   
3. Embed the sermon highlight clip natively into Facebook and make it autoplay on blogs or websites. Research has shown that when a video clip is uploaded natively to Facebook, rather than just posted as a Youtube or Vimeo link, there is a far higher play rate, as the clip automatically plays. As more and Facebook traffic moves to mobile, this bias towards native Facebook videos will grow even more.
   
   A similar kind of effect can be created by embedding the video with "autoplay" on websites and blog posts.

Because of the short online attention span, on our church website, many of the "sermons" that are highlighted and embedded on our sermon/video page are of these short highlight videos, with links to the full sermon messages. When someone is "trying out" a church/preacher, these clips are enough for them to get a taste, plus they can have a bit more of a culturally typical experience with background music (and b roll, when it is available)--and they can watch the full sermons if they like.

What do you think of the sermon highlight clip concept? What additional information or tools do you need to do this? What are the benefits? What are the barriers? How else could the short online attention span be solved?

[James Nored]

Good thoughts, Darryl. I think that these provide both a taste for those who are looking, as well as those daily spiritual boosts that a lot of people look for and enjoy. Additionally, they can be shared by members with those that they want to engage with in spiritual conversation or invite to worship.

Thanks for sharing!!

[James Nored]

Hi Peter! I use Adobe Premiere as my editing software. You can purchase a monthly prescription to this software now. I get background music files from www.premiumbeat.com. You can also get a yearly prescription to www.audioblocks.com for music files. 

[Darryl Willis]

Good post and something folks should consider.

As a former lead minister I think we preacher types get too enamored with our own sermons! (It's really sad that so many young adults got my audios to play to their children at night so it would put them to sleep... 8^) ...sigh...).

I wonder if there really is a good reason to load our sermons online. Honestly, I search church websites all of the time and I rarely even consider listening to the online sermons. (Of course, I could be an odd duck, but I'd bet I'm not...)

Two things I would suggest: 

1. If you are going to post your sermon vids, yes--use the clips. I actually like full length materials--but honestly, there is so much out there, I really don't have time for it either.
2. Determine the primary reason:

• To give website visitors a taste of your assembly? If so, why just the sermon? After all there is much more to an assembly than the lecture. Why not a clip of congregational singing, or a word of encouragement from a leader, or the Lord's Supper devotional thought (if your church offers that)?
• Is this an ego thing? If it is don't post them at all!
• Is it for your elderly or shut ins? Put them on a dedicated page with a login for members and clearly label it as such.
• Is it for folks to gain something useful--a bit of encouragement, testimony, or some teaching (e.g., tips for studying the Bible, how to pray, hope for the lonely, searching for God, etc.)? If so, consider doing a brief stand alone that has a clear beginning and end. A good example is Brendon Burchard (although his vids are a little long: typically 10-11 minutes). Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N81zTEp3aEs.
• As a testimony for your community? You could really include your members in this kind of ministry and have several filmed or interviewed sharing their testimony, how they view their church community, or how they are seeing God in action.)

These are just my opinions. I'm not suggesting that posting video clips are always ego-driven or that no one ever finds them useful! But I do believe we ought to really think through the purpose and function and create our videos to fit that function. Honestly, I think sermons should be kept in the context of the assembly rather than posted on video merely because it's part of an entire package and its nature is not really conducive for video--it is meant to be experienced among a group of people and together. 

[Peter Horne]

What software do you use for all this?

[James Nored]

Thanks, dad! I am starting a new website specifically on communication, called "Preaching to Postmoderns." Stay tuned!

[Lynn S. Nored]

Great insight! I continual to be amazed at your ability to apply researched items pertinent to our culture to reaching others.