Sermons and the podcast

The sermon library holds every message the church has preached, by series, speaker, category and tag. Published sermons appear on the website and, when they can, in the church's audio podcast.

When to use this

• Each week, after Sunday's service is recorded.
• To fix a title, a scripture reference or a link on an older sermon.
• To take a sermon off the website or the podcast.

Add this Sunday's sermon

1. Open Sermons and select Add a sermon.
2. Under The message, add the title, the speaker, the date it was preached on, and the series (or Standalone, or New series… to start one).
3. Add the scripture: book, chapter and verses, such as John 15:1–8.
4. Add the media links (see below), and the length in minutes.
5. Choose Draft or Published, and select Save draft or Publish sermon.

A message preached on a weekday is fine; the date just shows as that day.

Media links

• YouTube URL: the service recording or the livestream replay on the church's YouTube channel.
• Audio URL: the audio file for the podcast. In the sandbox, leave it blank to use a placeholder.

The back office only stores links. It never uploads, embeds or downloads the video or audio itself.

Licensed music and the podcast

Tick The recording includes licensed worship music if the recording includes songs the church is licensed to sing and stream, but not to distribute. Those sermons stay on the website but are left out of the podcast, because a podcast is a distribution the music licence doesn't cover.

If you're not sure, tick it. The sermon can always be added to the podcast later, once the music has been edited out.

Draft or published

• Draft: only staff see it. Use it while the details or links aren't final.
• Published: it appears in the library on the website and, unless it contains licensed music, in the podcast.

You can unpublish a sermon at any time from its page.

The podcast feed

Podcast feed (at the top of the library) shows the feed exactly as podcast apps (Spotify, Apple Podcasts and others) would read it, including any sermons you've added or published in the sandbox. Drafts and sermons with licensed music never appear in it.

Good to know

• Staff notes on a sermon are internal: they never appear on the website or in the feed. Use them for clip ideas or follow-ups, never for pastoral or counselling content.
• AI summaries, transcripts and chapters come later. Each will need a named staff member to approve it before it's published.

Top tips

• Add the sermon as a draft on Sunday afternoon, with just the title and scripture, then publish when the recording is ready.
• Keep series names identical week to week (copy, don't retype), so the series stays together in the library.
• Use tags for themes people search for, such as prayer or generosity, rather than repeating the series name.

Troubleshooting

A published sermon isn't in the podcast. It's marked as containing licensed music, or it has no audio link yet.

The YouTube link is rejected. Paste the full address, beginning with https://, from the video's Share button.