Sermon Archive

What is the Sermon Archive?

The Sermon Archive lets churches on the Organization Plan connect their existing sermon podcast feed to Theostack. Once connected, your sermons are transcribed, indexed, and made searchable alongside the theological library. Ask a question and get answers grounded in both the curated library and your own preaching history.

Connecting your sermon feed

Any organization member can set up the Sermon Archive from Settings > Sermon Archive.

1. Enter your RSS feed URL. This is the podcast feed URL from your hosting provider (Subsplash, Planning Center, Apple Podcasts, Spotify for Podcasters, etc.). It should start with https:// and end in /feed or similar.
2. Preview your feed. Theostack reads your feed and shows a summary: the number of episodes found, how many can be processed, the date range, and any warnings about episodes that are too short or too long.
3. Start processing. Click "Connect & Process" to begin. Theostack validates a small batch of sermons first to confirm quality, then processes the full archive.

Processing happens in the background. You can close the page and come back later to check progress.

How sermons are processed

Each sermon goes through three stages:

1. Audio transcription. The sermon audio is downloaded and transcribed using AI speech recognition. If your podcast host already includes transcripts in the feed, Theostack uses those instead of re-transcribing.
2. Metadata extraction. AI identifies the preacher name, sermon date, Scripture references, and key topics from the transcript.
3. Indexing. The transcript is broken into searchable passages and added to your organization's sermon index.

Searching your sermons

Once sermons are indexed, any organization member can toggle sermon search on in the chat interface. When enabled, Theostack searches your sermon archive alongside the theological library for every question.

Sermon results appear as distinct source cards with a "Sermon" badge, showing the sermon title, preacher, date, and the relevant passage from the transcript.

To toggle sermon search:

1. Open a conversation in the chat.
2. Look for the sermon toggle in the chat interface (visible only to organization members with a connected archive).
3. Enable it for conversations where you want to include your sermon history.

Feed requirements

• The feed must be a valid RSS 2.0 or Atom feed with audio enclosures.
• Supported audio formats: MP3, M4A, AAC.
• Episodes shorter than 3 minutes or longer than 3 hours are skipped.
• Maximum file size per episode: 150MB.
• The feed must be publicly accessible (no authentication required).

Daily sync

After the initial processing, Theostack checks your feed once daily for new episodes. New sermons are automatically transcribed, indexed, and made searchable without any manual action.

Monitoring your archive

Visit Settings > Sermon Archive to see:

• Connection status and sync health
• Total sermons indexed, queued, processing, and skipped
• Transcript sources (feed-provided vs. AI-transcribed)
• Archive quality score
• Last sync time and any errors

Disconnecting

To disconnect your sermon feed, go to Settings > Sermon Archive and click "Disconnect." This removes the feed connection and stops daily syncing. Your existing sermon transcripts remain searchable until the organization admin removes them or the organization plan is canceled.