Hi, I’m Daniel Flucke, an ELCA Lutheran pastor serving two congregations in southeastern Wisconsin. I’ve been interested in the world of podcasts for years. In fact, I briefly tried recording podcast devotional reflections of my own back in 2007 as a junior in high school (hopefully, all traces of that endeavor have been erased from the internet by now!). You can find out more about me or read my sermons on my personal site, www.danielflucke.com.
During covid, when the congregation I was serving at the time in Greene, Iowa, suspended in-person worship, I began recording and releasing my weekly sermons as podcasts. After a few months off while changing calls, I started a weekly sermon podcast for the two congregations I now serve in Wisconsin as well–you can check it out, listen, and (of course) subscribe here.
Like many congregations, we at Living Hope and Christ the King stream our worship services and post them online. For some of our members, this is a great way to stay connected when attending in-person is not an option. It’s also a wonderful way for newcomers to get a feel for what to expect before attending a service in-person. One of the few positive things that’s come out of the pandemic is a skyrocketing number of churches streaming and posting worship services online.
However, some parts of the worship service translate better to an online medium than others. At least for me, it’s much easier to listen to a sermon while walking the dog or driving than to stay engaged during an entire service. Podcasting sermons as well as other teaching and conversations are a valuable form of online ministry. And of course, while megachurches with audio engineers are likely to have higher-quality audio with better production values, podcasts are a great equalizer for smaller churches to find larger audiences.
In January 2023, I began a new devotional practice of listening to a sermon every day. As I searched for different sermons to listen to, I realized that unfortunately, there are quite a few “dead” church podcasts out there – churches that had begun podcasting sermons, but for whatever reason, discontinued the practice. Also, since there’s no consistency in how churches name their podcasts and since the podcast landscape is split across many directories and platforms, it can be difficult to find church podcasts to listen to.
In February, 2023, this site was born! I hope you find it helpful. If you find any mistakes, outdated links, or dead podcasts, please let me know! Similarly, if you are aware of other Lutheran podcasts, let me know so I can add them to the directory. All of this is a manual process and it takes time, so your support and patience is greatly appreciated. May you be blessed by hearing God’s Word proclaimed!