Article 05
Sermons from YouTube
How the YouTube link fills your Watch page, the weekly refresh, and what to check when a message is missing.
You keep uploading to YouTube the way you already do. Your site reads your channel and lists the newest messages on the Watch page. No API keys, nothing to maintain.
How the link works
In Church settings paste any of these into the YouTube field:
- Your channel link, like youtube.com/@yourchurch
- Your handle, like @yourchurch
- A channel link with /channel/UC... in it
- The bare channel id (starts with UC)
When the site builds, it finds your channel, reads its public feed and shows the newest messages with title, date and thumbnail. Each one links to YouTube or plays in place, depending on the template. Shorts are skipped.
The weekly refresh
Your site rebuilds itself every Monday morning. If you upload Sunday's message Sunday night, it is on your site Monday. Publishing any change in the editor also rebuilds the site right away, so if you want the message up Sunday afternoon, open the editor and publish.
Watch live
The Watch live field is separate. Paste your YouTube live link, or any link where people can watch. Every Watch live button reads from it. Leave it blank and the buttons disappear.
Troubleshooting
No messages showing. Check the link in Church settings. Open it in a private browser window; if YouTube shows your channel, the link is right. Then publish once to rebuild. New channels with no public videos show "Sermons coming soon."
An old message is showing instead of the newest. The feed updates a little behind YouTube. Publish once, or wait for Monday.
A video says "unavailable" on your site. The video owner turned off embedding, or the video is unlisted or private. Open the video on YouTube, Edit, and under Advanced settings allow embedding. Private videos never show.
Wrong channel. If your church has more than one channel, make sure you pasted the one where sermons live, not the kids ministry channel.
Music copyright. If YouTube mutes or removes a message because of a worship song, that is between you and YouTube. A CCLI streaming license is the usual fix. We cannot change it from our side.