The COVID-19 pandemic compelled churches and ministries to offer online content to their congregations—many for the first time. People were seeking answers, comfort and hope as they were confined to their homes. The church answered this call by pivoting as quickly as possible to begin livestreaming services that focused on the hope found in Jesus Christ.
Now, five years later, churches are experiencing online fatigue. Church leaders did an excellent job moving quickly to online ministry during the shutdown, but now as that heightened level of online engagement and reach are declining, they’re asking questions like, “Should we continue to livestream our worship services? Should we continue to provide online sermons or sermon clips for people to watch and share?”
My answer to the question is an emphatic yes.
Post-pandemic online ministry is not only about reaching our current congregation, but also about providing a digital front door for outreach into our local community and the rest of the world. If you’re providing livestream, on-demand videos of your church services, you’re placing the world in a virtual front row seat in your worship space. This means that you must think differently about your video content. Providing an exceptional online experience is crucial for connecting people digitally with your church and expanding your reach beyond your current congregation.
The good news is you can offer an exceptional video streaming experience on any budget by improving three areas of your video content.
- Production
How are you using your audio, lighting and video equipment? Five years ago, viewers weren’t concerned about the quality of your online videos. They just wanted the content. The post-pandemic online environment has shifted with people returning to in-person worship. Online viewers are less forgiving of audio, lighting and camera issues than they were in the past. They’re looking for distraction-free content conveying your message, created with genuine care and concern for them. These types of videos resonate with viewers and encourage sharing on their social media accounts, via email, and through text messages, thereby expanding your online reach and engagement.
Note that earlier I asked how you’re using your current equipment, not buying new equipment. Most churches that purchased video equipment during the pandemic can deliver quality content captured during worship services, but they don’t know how to maximize its capabilities. Knowing how to use your current audio, lighting and video equipment to its full potential is crucial for creating an exceptional online experience.
The first step in enhancing the production quality of your online experience is to improve the audio. A good audio mix is the most crucial aspect to consider for providing an exceptional online experience. Why? Viewers will forgive lower-quality camera footage but won’t tolerate poor audio. YouTube is full of highly viewed videos that feature lower-quality video and distraction-free audio. Legacy media organizations, sports networks, news stations and others all use FaceTime, Google Meet, Zoom or other lower-quality video for their content. However, the audio is well-mixed and easy to hear.
Increase the audio quality of your content by doing a broadcast audio mix. This involves mixing the audio separately for your livestream recording than how it’s being mixed for the in-person congregation. Online and recorded audio require different signal levels than in-person audio. Most audio mixers in worship spaces today can produce a separate broadcast mix, distinct from the mix for the in-person congregation.
Lighting is the second most important aspect of increasing production quality. Good lighting makes it easier for cameras to capture high-quality images. The less light on stage, the more you must rely on the camera to make up the difference, which tends to add a grainy look to your video. Consider redesigning your current stage lighting to prioritize front, back and side lighting for the pulpit and the worship leader area—the central focus of the stage. This design, called “3-Point Lighting,” serves as the starting point for both the in-person congregation and the online viewer to see the worship leader and pastor more clearly during the worship service.
Solid, feature-rich cameras are the third most important aspect of enhancing the production value of the online video experience. Most cameras purchased by churches during the pandemic have manual camera control capabilities, but they are typically set to automatic. This can cause distracting issues, including blurriness, brightness and other video quality problems during the service as lighting changes and as a pastor and worship leader move. Consider learning how to manually control your video cameras so that white balance, color, brightness and focus are always correct.
- Multiple Platforms
Providing multiple locations for viewing live and on-demand content is another aspect of delivering an exceptional online experience. Social media is a great way to start broadcasting live and on demand for free, but it also has its drawbacks. This is why having another streaming and on-demand option is vital to an exceptional online experience.
Setting up your own custom-controlled broadcast platform involves a web page and a video content delivery network. An excellent, church-based and free broadcasting platform can be found at ChurchOnlinePlatform.com. Churches can sign up for the platform and receive a fully featured broadcasting site that includes a space for video, public and even private chat for prayer and other ministry conversations, a sermon notes section, an online Bible, analytics for your broadcasts, and custom website links for your bulletin, website and more. These are easy-to-use, value-added features that provide a better, more stable, and distraction-free environment than streaming on social media.
The second step in creating your own broadcast site is getting a content delivery network. The website ReStream.io is a content delivery network for live video that offers a free account option. ReStream enables churches to send video from their video encoder (like the free, multi-destination optioned OBS Studio software at OBSProject.com) to an account that “wraps” the video into a web player. This web player can then be embedded on a preferred website, such as the Church Online Platform, for streaming. Other providers that offer live and on-demand streaming options with church friendly pricing are Resi.io and Vimeo.com. Whatever option you choose, remember that providing content on social media and completely off social media is vital to reaching people online.
- Interaction With Viewers
This part of the online experience is the easiest to implement, but many churches don’t take advantage of it. Interacting with people online in chat or comment sections is where you can show that you genuinely care through fostering two-way communication.
Answer questions. Thank people for watching and commenting. Provide sign-up links that are mentioned during the announcement time of worship services. Above all, realize that each interaction and comment on your videos is a way that your church can be the digital hands and feet of Jesus.
A church’s online presence is the front door and the front row to its ministry in this post-pandemic world. Taking care to create an exceptional online experience is vital to this. Churches that have taken on this challenge have seen their digital and in-person ministry footprint expand. Take the resources the Lord has provided and use them fully for his glory.
Will Chapman is online minister at Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas.
