But it isn't, technically

CourierPress: Religion: "'GodCasting'

December 17, 2005

The Rev. David Niednagel is among Evansville's most popular and charismatic pastors. Now, his plain-spoken messages are finding new ears outside the walls of Christian Fellowship Church. The listeners aren't in pews. They're online, and they're not alone.

Nationwide, an estimated 4.5 million people this year used their digital music players - the most popular of which is Apple's iPod - to listen to spoken-word programs from sources such as ABC News or ESPN. Podcasting, as it is known, has become so popular it even earned itself an entry this year in the dictionary.

But Niednagel is part of the fast-growing niche known as Godcasting, which makes available downloadable messages from Christians, Jews, Mormons and even pagans. There, between Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus' and Kanye West's 'Jesus Walks,' Sunday's messages are available for download. An average of 488 people download Christian Fellowship Church's service, said Steve Gubbins, technical ministries director. 'Some of it is people from other churches who want to hear what David (Niednagel) has to say. We have a lot of listeners from around the world,' Gubbins said. 'It expands the reach of the church (to) shut-ins, people who can't get here. It allows them to stay connected and share with us.'

And the number is growing.

According to industry analyst The Diffusion Group, the 800,000 consumers who used podcasting in 2004 is expected to reach 56.8 million people in 2010.

In other words: The number will double each year through the end of this decade.

Right now, about 15 percent of those who have digital music devices use them for podcasting. That rate is expected to reach 75 percent by 2010.

Podcasting could represent the single largest increase in religious exposure since television, which gave rise to the televangelist. The on-demand audio has the potential to reach an even greater share of the population while spending very little on production costs. In many cases, the audio already is recorded. It just has to be converted into a digital file and made available online."

You can access the mp3's of the services online at http://onlinecfc.com/public/onlineresources/. However, techinically it isn't a podcast. The podcast involves the rss feed so that you can have a podcatcher to get the weekly sermons automagically. I think I need to call Steve Gubbins again.