With over a thousand episodes available, 7Cast has a clear focus: sharing hope in audio.
Beatriz de Oliveira and silence rarely meet. On a daily basis, her routine is accompanied by music, via headphones or the speakers of her smartphone. However, along with combinations of notes, transformed into chords and melodies, in recent years her ears have become accustomed to another type of content: podcasts.
The format—previously little known—has become popular and aroused the interest of both listeners and producers. A 2019 survey conducted by the Deezer platform revealed the consumption of on-demand audio programs in Brazil surged by 67% over the previous year. The study considered data from streaming services such as Google’s Podcasts, Spotify, and iTunes.
For the Seventh-day Adventist Church, this has become an opportunity to carry its message of hope to other audiences. “Experts have said that the past is the text, the present is the video, and the future is the podcast. The Church is attentive to the growth of this technology and decided to invest,” Carlos Magalhães, manager of digital strategies at the Adventist South American headquarters, emphasized in an interview.
In early July, Adventists in South America launched 7Cast, a Portuguese-language platform that aggregates productions from members, pastors, and institutions. The proposal is to bring together in one place everything that today is in different addresses. Divided by theme, it already includes, for example, the daily audio devotionals produced by the church’s Brazil Publishing House (CPB).
The Communication Director of the Adventist Church for eight South American countries, Rafael Rossi, adds that, “it is fundamental for the Church to keep up with the new tools and use them as opportunities to fulfill the mission. Worldwide, there is a huge growth in the use of podcasts. With 7Cast, we created an integrated platform for everything that was already being produced, and at the same time, we are going to invest in new productions, as needed.”
For all audiences
What, exactly, is a podcast? The concept is simple: until last year, one could only view programs from the church’s the Hope Channel when they aired. With the arrival of NT Play, this has changed: now, the programs can be viewed when, where, and how often a user might desire. Podcasts work the same way, only in audio format.
In addition, it allows ordinary people—not just institutions or media outlets—to produce content and share it with the public, even in very specific subjects such as astronomy or artificial intelligence.
One of the oldest and best-known Adventist Church podcasts in South America is BibleCast, hosted by pastors Diego Barreto and José Flores Junior, exploring themes such as theology, Christianity, and spiritual issues. This was, in fact, the first Adventist podcast Beatriz encountered.
“A friend referred me to a Facebook group called Heroes of BibleCast. I saw the description, became interested, and started listening,” she said
7Cast has the same goal as Feliz7Play, the denomination's video platform: to be produced by Adventists with the aim of sharing hope. The difference between the two, Magellan said, is that with 7Cast, new content is added daily.
Hope anywhere
Everything that goes on air in the aggregator goes through a selection criterion. To be there, it must be of spiritual, educational, or intellectual usefulness.
“We will not have materials related only to entertainment. There will always be a greater objective of helping the listener in some aspect of their life,” explains Magalhães.
And soon it will be possible to submit proposals that are evaluated and approved for distribution by 7Cast. The biggest challenge, he said, is the generation of new and relevant content. Today, more than 15 different titles are available. But if you think that’s not a lot, think again: more than a thousand podcast episodes are now available, free of charge.
When Beatriz began listening to the podcasts, what most caught her attention was the relatability of the programming and its ability to deal with serious subjects. In addition, the practicality appealed to her: listening anywhere, anytime, while doing other things, either while cooking or practicing physical activity.
For her, 7Cast is “an incredible idea. It will make it possible for us to know many things that we did not even think about. We lead busy lives and sometimes neglect spiritual things. With these podcasts, it will be possible to be in contact with God during the day in a lighter way, but without losing the importance and depth of the devotionals,” she said.
The contents can be heard on the platform itself (7cast.com ) or services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer and Google Podcasts.
This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site