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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."

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.

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