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Godcasting may just be the new church-related buzzword. Many faith communities are finding that Godcasting, aka religious podcasting, has powerful potential to get the message out far beyond the Sunday crowd, providing access to inspirational church content with the click of a button.

Podcasts are audio files posted on the Internet that are, for the most part, free.

Whether it's worship music, a sermon or even a morning prayer like those at the Catholic Insider podcast (catholicinsider.com), religious broadcasting is experiencing a new revolution.

Many churches, including Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, are taking advantage of this high-tech outlet to make faith connections available to the masses.

"A lot of what has changed over the years is church's understanding of technology and the way it can increase connectedness," says Mark Stevenson, the tech director at Ginghamsburg.

Stevenson also runs the Web Empowered Church (webempoweredchurch.com), which helps churches enhance their ministries through the use of technology.

Podcasting reached its tipping point with the iPod craze and now, with trendy applications such as iTunes, it's easy — even for the technically challenged — to download audio to listen to whenever your schedule allows.

Religious podcasts aren't meant to replace the church gathering, but they do provide a potential enhancement to spiritual growth.

The Ginghamsburg podcasts — there are three — collectively get more than 33,000 downloads a month.

Stevenson says podcasting is "a way of reaching more people. ... It's something churches ought to be doing if they can produce audio. There's a new generation that just takes in information that way."

Get a Godcast

You'll need a computer, Internet access, the iTunes software (available at www.apple.com/iTunes) and an MP3 player.

Go to the iTunes music store and click on the "podcasts" link.

Click on the "browse" button to view the various podcast categories.

Click on the "religion & spirituality" category to view the subcategories, like Christianity and Judaism.

Click on the subcategory you want. You will see a list of religious podcasts in the drop-down menu.

Listen to the ones you want, and when you're ready, click on the "subscribe" button. Subscribing will keep you current — every time the podcast is updated it will automatically download to your computer. When you sync your portable audio device (MP3 player), you can listen to it whenever it's convenient.

Brian Orme is an associate pastor at Community Church in West Milton and a freelance writer. You can email him at mjorme@gmail.com