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Digital Delivery:

An Introduction to On-Demand Streaming

Three years ago, sometime after midnight on an otherwise non-descript night in December, I discovered on-demand streaming. It was quite accidental. I was on the Internet, and I began to search for sermons by Charles H. Spurgeon, a great British preacher from the 19th century. I wanted to "hear" rather than read Spurgeon, and I was sure a dramatic reading of some of his sermons existed somewhere. Surely I could order tapes on the Internet and have them sent to me a few days later. That night, instead of ordering tapes that I never found, I "streamed" a Spurgeon sermon - right there, while sitting at my computer in the middle of the night in Arlington, Virginia.


At one level, I shouldn't have been surprised. After all, I was simply downloading a digital file to my computer and accessing its contents. I downloaded images every time I accessed a web page on the Internet. To a computer, a digital file is a digital file. It's a bunch of ones and zeroes. If I could download image files, then why shouldn't I also expect to download audio files?

But at another level, the experience was revolutionary. "You mean, I can listen to anything I want, at any time, from anywhere? That's incredible!" At once, I recognized the power of digital delivery, and the potential it had for revolutionizing the way we communicate. In particular, I recognized the potential there was for Christians to harness this tool for the spread of the Gospel to all nations.

Duncan Rein, who would eventually become my business partner, had a similar "Ah ha!" experience a few months later. Preparing to go to graduate school, he was helping his pastor adapt a series of sermons into a book. Thinking it helpful to actually listen to the sermons, he went into a closet where the master tapes of over seven years worth of sermons were stored on decaying analog tapes. What an investment of time those tapes represented! How many people around the world could benefit from that teaching! A message delivered five years ago could help someone today! One sermon in particular was helpful to Duncan, and he wanted to send a copy to some college friends. It took him two weeks to duplicate the tapes, find his friends' addresses, and take a trip to the post office. There had to be an easier way that required less legwork! Soon, Duncan would also discover digital delivery, and its application for the spread of the Gospel.

Definition of Terms

Ministry Value

We've been working full time for over two years, introducing ministries to digital delivery, and we're still amazed by the technologies that enable it. But taking advantage of these technologies shouldn't be a pursuit in and of itself, merely because the technologies are "cool" or "cutting-edge". No, it is essential that we as Christians should familiarize ourselves with these technologies because they will increase the effectiveness of our ministry, as they are employed. The invention of the printing press revolutionized the way the world communicated, and Christians were among the first to capitalize with the Gutenberg Bible. Digital delivery over the Internet is no less revolutionary than the printing press, and it is incumbent upon Christians to embrace these new technologies, if we are to win the world for Christ.

The secular world sees the obvious benefits of the digital revolution because it lowers their costs and increases their reach. We in the Christian world need to recognize and embrace these benefits to an even greater extent because our messages do not profit a man in this life only - but so much more so in the life to come. "Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ"(Romans 10:17).

Digital delivery means that the barriers of time and geography are eliminated! The greatest message ever proclaimed can be accessed by anyone in the world at any time, immediately, and at a fraction of the cost associated with sending a physical product! Together, let us change the world by flooding the Internet with life-giving teaching!

The Nuts and Bolts of Digital Delivery

Establishing an Online Revenue Model

As much as you'd like to give everything away, ministries have to find a way to pay the bills. Currently, you do so through a combination of donations and product sales. Radio ministries pay for radio airtime. As people are helped by your messages, they respond by making a donation or ordering a product to help fund your ministry.

Every time someone listens to a message online, a connection is established between the computer serving the file and the computer downloading it. Data is transferred over a one-to-one connection. If there are 100 people listening at any one time, 100 connections are established. Each connection costs money. We estimate that it costs about 20 cents for one person to listen to a 60 minute message online. If you have enough listeners, this expense can add up, and your Internet ministry can become quite costly.

For many ministries, the big drawback to streaming and digital delivery is that it can easily become a cost center. It's great if millions of people listen to your messages online, but it's not great if your ministry can't afford for this to happen. That is why we've incorporated product sales and online donations into the Lightsource service. Our goal is to help our partner ministries, not only cover the costs of their Internet ministries, but even turn them into profit centers that can fund your other ministry efforts.

People listening to a message online should realize that this costs your ministry money. To the extent that it is easy to donate online or purchase products online, then people who benefit from your ministry should help you support what you're doing online. Online tools will make it even easier for them to do this. Instead of needing to pick up the phone, or write a check and mail it to an address, they can donate money or order a product with a click of a mouse. Better yet, they can sign up to donate a certain amount every month, or indicate that they would like to sign up for an annual subscription, where a CD is automatically sent to them every week or a link to an MP3 download file is automatically sent to their mailbox each day.

The revenue model already works in the offline world, and it will work even better in the online world, especially as ministries begin to develop one-to-one relationships with donors through email. Digital delivery promises not only broader reach for your teaching ministry, but also a broader network of donors, as people around the world are touched by your teaching and respond in tangible ways.

The Future of Digital Delivery