Close Caption your sermons for the deaf and hard of hearing

By Christopher Mann for ReSermon.com

​​The deaf and hard of hearing relate to the hearing world in a diversity of ways, but in recent years, closed captioning has become so technologically easier and economically affordable, that in 2015 the FCC mandated closed captioning for commercial broadcasting.

This requirement does not, for the most part, apply to churches, but on the other hand, after a church invests tens of thousands of dollars into video and audio equipment in order to broadcast sermon content into YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes for the hope of winning souls and changing lives, why feint at spending a few hundred dollars per month to make sermons accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing, too? ​

Ungratefully Deaf: Tinnitus plagues young and old alike, even in the church.

In the 20th century, mostly middle-aged and elderly folks really needed to worry about hearing loss--mostly factory guys and war veterans.  Then, Baby Boomers partied pretty hard with the Grateful Dead and ended up Ungratefully Deaf.  Today, mega-decibel environments are nearly ubiquitous, from millennials with their “iPod-itus” to even the church, which is increasingly marked by loud bands pushing volume to 95 decibels and more -- clearly in the hearing-damage level.

Hearing loss used to be a concern for the old, but the popularity of closed captioning for the middle-aged and even young people is manifested in how popular captioning is for Netflix and YouTube today. Captioning should be part of a church’s video sermon regular workflow.

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An example of a closed caption sermon prepared by ReSermon.com.
This is Clinton Faupel, founder of RemedyLive.FM ministry in Fort Wayne, preaching on January 31, 2016 at Pathway Community Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Sermon_01.31.16 from Pathway Community Church on Vimeo.