Producing content that addresses specific needs will help your church reach more people compared to just streaming worship services. Online children's messages, parenting advice, grief counseling and divorce care are just a few ways to reach new people online.
Times have changed and people want more from your church than just worship services. To ease the demands on your church's tech staff, Ecamm Live was designed so non-technical users can stream, switch between cameras, add graphics and insert pre-produced videos at the touch of a button.
Live streaming your Sunday services is a great way to get started, but don’t forget about other ways you can leverage this technology to nurture the relationships you’ve already built within your church community and to reach potential new congregants.
Here are 5 live streaming ideas to get you thinking beyond Sunday services.
1. Weekly Pastor Check-in
What if your pastor spent just ten or fifteen minutes each week going live to your church’s Facebook page? This important check-in time could be used to share updates, talk through any upcoming events, share post-sermon thoughts, or just check in and see how everyone is doing.
Moments like this build connection and also allow your congregants the opportunity to ask questions and engage with the sermon they heard on Sunday.
Bonus: If you’re using a live streaming app to power this broadcast, you’ll be able to pull viewer questions and comments into the live stream to make viewers feel included and let them know you’re really listening.
Download a free trial of Ecamm Live’s all-in-on live streaming production platform today and check out the special discount offer just for Church Production readers. Use promo code CHURCH10 at checkout to save 10% on your first payment.
2. Missionary Interviews
If your church has missionaries out in the field, live video interviews are a great way to highlight the important work that missionaries are doing. It’s also a good way to give your congregation an inside view into what life is like for missionaries in the field.
Bonus: Consider adding a donation widget to the live stream to use it as an opportunity to raise funds for a particular project or issue that requires financial support.
3. Story Time & Crafts
Maybe your pastor wants to share content online that didn't make the cut for the sermon. Think of this like the director's commentary for message. Even a technically challenged pastor can start and record a live stream with no help needed from the tech staff using Ecamm Live.
Consider doing a weekly live story time or craft project for children. You could have a youth pastor or church leader read a Bible story, have fun with some puppet theater, or act out a story. You could also demonstrate how to do a Bible-themed craft and include project materials and step-by-step guidelines so families can try the craft at home. This kind of content is easily sharable and could be used to keep your message top-of-mind for kids throughout the week.
Do you have a business administrator or executive pastor who is great with finances? She could give weekly financial advice online and build a following that could bridge into learning more about your church. With just a touch of a button, any one who can use a smart phone can start streaming and recording with a software-based production solution like Ecamm Live.
4. Bible Studies & Prayer Groups
Does your church host regular Bible studies or prayer groups? Consider taking these groups online and broadcast to a closed Facebook Group where people can participate when they’re not able to attend in person.
Pull comments and questions on screen or share verses or book information in your video feed. Your group members may also find it helpful to save and reference these videos long after the Bible study or prayer group time has ended.
5. Non-Church Related Advice
Maybe you have an executive pastor or other church leader who’s great with finances and could give financial advice to members of your community. Or a parent on your leadership team who can lead a regular live video series providing parenting tips and advice. Just because the content isn’t focused specifically on the church doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to your viewers.
Think through what specific content might be helpful not only for members of your community, but also for someone who has never attended church. Creating helpful content goes a long way to gaining new viewers and new congregants.
Now that you’ve made it to this spot in the article, you’re likely asking yourself: “isn’t this a lot of work for an already overloaded tech team?”
If you're like a lot of church techs, the idea of running additional live streams likely sounds overwhelming. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be. There are technologies that provide a simple solution for your live stream that you can easily set up once and let someone else operate. Win, right?
One possible way of doing this is training someone on your team to go live with a smart phone or tablet. Unfortunately, broadcasting from a device has a lot of limitations. The screen is small, the camera may not be as powerful, and you’ll still have to set up a tripod to hold the device steady during the broadcast.
A better solution might be to find a location where you have control of the environment, set it up, and leave it for each live-streamed session.
For example, if your pastor will be live streaming a behind-the-scenes show about his sermon prep, leadership lessons, or something similar, consider setting up lights in his or her office that simply need to be turned on with a switch.
Find a location where you have control of the environment, set up your live stream, and leave it for each live-streamed session. A software-based production suite and encoder like Ecamm Live requires only a Mac computer, camera (built-in webcam, DSLR, or even your iPhone’s camera), and a microphone to get started.
Add in a USB mic, like the Audio-Technica ATR2100 or Samson Q2U, which may not be the most preferred mics for most live worship situations, but for this application are easy to use and deliver good quality. You'll have better sound than using the computer's built-in microphone that way. Or you could use a lav or headset, like the one your worship leader uses on the weekend, connected to a USB audio interface and then into the computer.
For the live streaming production itself -- switching between cameras and adding graphics, etc. -- consider a software-based production platform made with simplicity in mind. If your team uses a Mac, Ecamm Live is a great solution. It’s easy to get started with broadcasting out to major platforms (like Facebook and YouTube) and includes everything needed to create a professional quality broadcast without making the process complicated. So once you set it, you’ll be able to teach your pastor or other church leaders to use it in just a few minutes.
Try Ecamm Live for free and see how easy it is to create professional live stream broadcasts. Church Production readers get a special discount offer! Take 10% off your first payment of Ecamm Live using promo code CHURCH10.
When it's time to live stream (try to be consistent with your day and time), it's just a matter of turning on the lights, microphone, and Ecamm Live. Then your pastor (or other team member) only has to click "Go Live" to start the live stream. Switching between cameras is just as easy and the software automatically provides a high-quality recording of the live broadcast for you to upload to your church's website or YouTube channel.
Not all pastors are comfortable with technology, so the easier you make it and the fewer options to tweak, the more likely it is that this doesn't become a huge production that requires more people to oversee.
Producing more content overall, and more content that addresses specific needs, will set your church apart from the crowd. And standing out this way will help you reach more people than you could if your church were just streaming its worship services.
