Integrating your Podcast feed for My ChurchSuite

The My Podcast section in My ChurchSuite is a great feature that enables you to deliver the audio and video message content - perhaps from your weekend services - directly to your members through My ChurchSuite. Note that ChurchSuite does not host your podcast feed - the integration links to your existing hosted feed.

Setting up the podcast integration

To get started, navigate to the Integrations section of the Administrator area and click on the Podcast integration.

Click Start.

The integration supports the standard iTunes format XML Podcast Feed or a SoundCloud account Type. Your podcast episodes must contain spaces in the episode names - use the underscore character if you need to - and all RSS feed files must contain HTTPS episode URLs - HTTP URLs are not supported and will result in episodes not being playable in an app environment.

Next, follow the related instructions below for the Podcast Feed or Soundcloud feed as appropriate.

Linking to an iTunes XML Podcast Feed

If your podcast is available as an XML/iTunes format feed (typically from your website or the platform you use to stream your podcast), select Podcast Feed as the Type and then paste in the Feed URL where your XML RSS feed file can be found.

Once you have entered the Feed URL click Save and ChurchSuite will attempt to access your feed and sync a list of the most recent podcast episodes. If there are any errors with the feed they will be displayed for you to see.

Linking to a Soundcloud account

Soundcloud is a great alternative to hosting a podcast feed yourself and has become popular with churches due to its ease of use and low hosting prices. If you have a Soundcloud account select the SoundCloud option from the Type selector.

Next, enter your SoundCloud ID. If you are unsure of your Soundcloud ID you'll be able to find it from your Soundcloud URL. For example, if your Soundcloud URL is https://soundcloud.com/kings-hope-church your Soundcloud ID would be kings-hope-church; if your URL is was https://soundcloud.com/my-church-name your Soundcloud ID would be my-church-name. Once you have entered your Soundcloud ID click Save and ChurchSuite will attempt to sync a list of the most recent Soundcloud episodes. If there are any errors they will be displayed for you to see.

Updating your podcast

ChurchSuite will automatically check for new episodes in your Podcast/Soundcloud account every 24 hours so there's no need to come back and update the integration. If you do want to 'force' a re-sync - perhaps if you want to make a new podcast episode immediately available - you can use the Sync button from the integration page.

Working with series

A great feature of the Podcast integration is the ability to group podcast episodes into each series. Episodes don't need to be added sequentially for this to work, but they do need to follow a consistent naming convention. To group by series, the series name must be contained within square brackets and be a part of the episode title. For example, consider the following podcast episode titles:

• [A Generous Church] Serving the poor
• [A Generous Church] Welcoming newcomers
• [A Generous Church] Blessing others

In the examples above, the series name for each episode would be 'A Generous Church', immediately followed by the episode name. If this naming convention is followed then talks in the same series will be grouped within My ChurchSuite making it easy for members to stay up to date with a series.

Working with video

If you record videos for your Sunday talks and upload them to either YouTube or Vimeo, ChurchSuite can display your video alongside the audio player. To enable this, include a link to the YouTube or Vimeo video within the episode description and ChurchSuite will 'pull' the video through automatically.

For example, if you include within the episode description "You can also watch at: https://vimeo.com/1234", ChurchSuite will embed your Vimeo video with ID_1234 directly into the My Podcast page. The process for including a YouTube video works in the same way - by including a YouTube URL in the episode description.