What if Grandma, who lives in another state and can't travel, could see little Katy perform in the children's Easter pageant?

How would your evangelism strategy change if your pastor could personally speak to a previously unreached people group?

Would homebound members feel more connected to the church if they could join you each week for Sunday morning worship?

With web streaming, all the above could happen for as little as seven cents per contact. Web streaming technology takes audio or video recordings of your services and makes them available on the Internet. You can even do a live broadcast so members and friends around the world can join you for worship. New products and services make this a reality even for small churches and small budgets.

First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia started putting audio versions of their services on the web over seven years ago. "We moved all our efforts over to the web because it is a far-reaching medium," says Collin Brown, the church's director of publications. "We have people in 50 countries logging in to either the archives or the Sunday services." Brown likes the ability to reach people that normally wouldn't have access to a church. "Even in closed countries there is now an open door for them to be fed spiritually through the World Wide Web. With a sermon on the web, we're automatically worldwide."

Not only can First Baptist reach more people but they can also do it with fewer resources—and it costs much less than a TV ministry. Best of all, no one has to find sponsors or buy airtime.

"TV and radio are limited to geographical barriers, and they are also very expensive means for spreading the gospel," says Chance Mason, president of Streaming Faith in Atlanta. Like other streaming companies, Streaming Faith helps churches put their audio and video files on the web for easy downloading. "The Internet will soon be the most effective way to deliver your content to individuals around the world."

How Does It Work?
Broadcasting on the web isn't difficult, and your church may already have what you need. If you are currently making audio or video tapes of your service, the first part is done. Now just add a dedicated computer (the bigger, the better) and an Internet connection (the faster, the better). Depending on the hardware, you may need to add an audio card (approximately $20) and/or a video card ($100-$120).

Using a piece of software called a streaming encoder, or simply encoder, which you can get free from Microsoft, your church can convert your analog signal to a digital signal. Then use your Internet connection to upload the file to a streaming company that will check to make sure the file is properly encoded, and then they will host it on their computer.

"One advantage of hosting off-site is that the streaming company bears the weight and responsibility of successful transmissions," says Brown who chose Eonstreams, Inc. for First Baptist after submitting proposals to several companies. These companies can help you get your church's message to the world by helping you with file formats, storing the content on their servers, and adding a link to add your website.

The streaming media link on your website becomes a connection to the life of your church. Elderly members who are permanently homebound and mothers who are temporarily homebound with sick children can join live services online. Foreign missionaries can use a laptop to view live worship or playback sermons "on-demand." You may even set up a special location across town or across the world and project the video onto a large screen for viewing by a remote congregation.

"We have a church in New Zealand that watches broadcasts of Bishop Long (of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta) every week," says Mason of Streaming Faith.

Affordable Outreach
The cost of broadcasting online is based on the combination of encoding, storage, and bandwidth. For example, Eonstreams offers a package that allows churches using audio (a low encoding rate) to store approximately four months worth of sermons, (a nice amount of storage) and up to 2,000 downloads (bandwidth) each month, for about $150 a month.

For the same amount of money, a church could web broadcast videos and allow 700 people a month to download them. A third option would be to broadcast one high-definition quality video to a single location to be projected for a remote church service.

As your needs change, the prices and the encoding rates change too. Audio requires the least amount of streaming kilobytes (the rate of the transmission as it is delivered to the viewer). High-definition quality video (like the kind on new TV's) requires more bandwidth when projected in a remote location. Streaming Faith offers packages beginning around $125 a month. Both companies can expand to meet your needs, in some cases, for as little as seven cents per viewing.

Eonstreams provides weekly reports detailing how many listeners or viewers used the service and what the peak download times were. This information shows which topics really resonated with members. "We find that a lot of people are reviewing the sermon from last week prior to going to church the next week, just to make sure they are caught-up and fully know what is going on," says William Muncy, public relations and marketing director for Eonstreams. This makes it easier for a pastor to continue on to a new topic, referring those who need to catch-up to previously preached sermons on the web.

Muncy recommends that the pastor spend time acquainting the congregation with the new technology and its benefits. For those members present on Sunday, they can listen to the sermon again at their convenience to take notes or spend time studying the topic during the week. Your members will have a deeper and more enriching experience when actively engaged with your pastor's preaching.

Getting Started
The experts recommend small churches start with audio sermons on the web and consider video a few months later when the number of users increases. Depending on your encoding rates, video can be more difficult for those on dial-up connections. While the number of homes that have some type of high-speed Internet connection continues to grow, there are still many people using dial-up connections. Consider their viewing experience before making any decisions. Your streaming company can help you with these details.

"Shop your bids around and get a couple of submissions from different companies," suggests Brown of First Baptist. "Allow the hosting companies and streaming companies to work for you."

But Brown also says that having the ability to download files isn't enough. He thinks that a church should use these new tools as a part of a specific evangelism or outreach program. Brown is currently working on an advertising campaign that shows a man in his bathrobe and slippers sitting at his home computer watching worship services on the monitor. Unknowingly, behind him stands a greeter with the order of services, members of the choir singing, and the pastor preaching. Over the top of the ad a headline says, "Turn Your Home Office into a Sanctuary!"

Brown plans to use this marketing piece as a way to introduce interested locals to First Baptist without them having to leave their home. His outreach plan seems to be working. When First Baptist started web broadcasting they reached a few thousand, now they reach over 45,000 each month.

While you don't want a church where everyone stays home for worship, web broadcasting allows you to reach those who can't or won't come to your church, even if they are just across the street in slippers.

Jennifer Schuchmann is a freelance writer in the Atlanta area.