5 Tools for Online Church Video
Church Online.
It is here to stay.
I like to think of your Online Worship Experiences as a campus of your church.
When launching a new campus, you would be intentional about the budget, staff and energy you poured into it.
In this article, I want to give you 5 Tools to enhance your Church Online. I’ll also give you links to interviews I’ve done with the founders and leaders of these tools so you can hear directly from them about their vision and mission behind serving you with their platforms.
TOOL #1: Church Online Platform
The Church Online Platform is a FREE resource from Life Church (the same church who created the YouVersion Bible App). As the platform says on their website “they are more than a video player, they equip you to create community with people around the world.”
This is a platform that you have on your website that allows people to watch your services and interact with your team right on your website. Its the industry standard for having a Landing Page for your church’s Online Worship Experience.
On our Making Sunday Happen Podcast, I talked with Kyle Kutter from Life Church at CHoP, as its called.
You can check out that interview here
TOOL #2: Resi
As you plan and prepare to go online it’s important to select a great streaming provider. You need to have a service that will allow you to push your content to multiple destinations. You can stream directly to YouTube or Facebook, however, a streaming provider is going to allow you to set up your website with a specific stream key and use that service to send your streams to other social platforms.
I recommend RESI, which at the beginning of the pandemic their name was Living as One.
Resi is an encoder based technology that was built with the multicampus model church in mind.
I want to let you hear from their founders and leadership – Collin Jones and Nate Anderson.
Here’s a clip of my chat with these guys.
You can check out that interview here
TOOL #3: Switcher Studio
You might be in a situation where you need to purchase more gear to enhance your Online Experience, but you don’t have the funds to really upgrade right now.
The next two tools I’m going to share with you give you affordable options to accomplish that.
The first tool I’ll share with you for this is Switcher Studio.
Switcher Studio is basically a switcher in your pocket. This is a mobile solution to connect 9 different sources and live switch those sources from your phone or iPad. You can hook in cameras, a computer with your Presentation software like ProPresenter or MediaShout, or other inputs to create your Live Worship Experience on the Fly.
You can also use Switcher Studio to record all your inputs for editing later.
I talked with Marc Gawith from Switcher Studio about this tool and how you can use it to do a multi-cam set up without having to purchase thousands of dollars of gear.
You can check out that interview here
TOOL #4: Altar Live
Another Tool that can help you accomplish a Hybrid Worship Experience on an affordable budget is Altar Live.
Altar Live is a brand new service created this year through the pandemic that allows you to merge physical and digital worship experiences together. It’s incredible!
I talked with Stephanie Antonucci Leathe and Andy Mahon all about it and we walked through features of the service, what you can do with it and how it can help your church.
Here’s a little of that conversation.
You can check out that interview here
TOOL #5: Media Content
The last tool I’ll share with you in this session for transforming your Online Worship Experiences is Media Content.
I know this might sound broad, but I cannot stress the importance of using videos and other media content for your Online Worship Experience.
Let me give you some types of media to think about using to add flavor to your Online.
- Host Talking Head Videos
- Countdown Timer Videos
- Testimonial Videos
- Worship Experience Openers
- Mini-Movies and Sermon Bumpers
- Lyric Media or Virtual Choir Videos
- And more.
Media Content, specifically Video Content is a must have tool in your tool belt for crafting your Worship Experiences.
Let me give you a few stats on how effective Video is to market a product or service:
85% of marketers say that video is an effective way to get attention online.
https://animoto.com/blog/news/social-video-trends-marketers-2020
Viewers claim they retain 95% of a message when obtained via video.
Video Ads were the #1 Way Consumers discovered a brand they later purchased from.
95% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
58% of consumers visit a brand’s social media pages BEFORE visiting their website!
- You better know that first time visitors are checking out your social channels and your website before they visit your church – physically or online.
70% of business say they are creating more videos now compared to the same time last year.
The Average person will spend 100 minutes each day watching online video in 2021.
(According to Zenith Media)
- Did you catch that? Over an hour and a half of every day people are watching video online.
If I could encourage you to more time, money, energy into any tool to enhance your Worship Experiences = I would say VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO.
I would create a mixture of raw, selfie, low key type videos AND high-quality produced videos for your congregation.
If you need help with Video Content for your church –
We have a massive library of Ready-Made videos on our website at 1230.media
- Lots of Mini-Movies, Sermon Bumpers, Trailers – all for around $12 each – so super affordable.
And if you need something custom, let us know, we are on a mission to help churches and ministries with graphic design and video content so you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a creative team.
1230.media is our website if we can help you.
So let’s recap:
Use these tools at your church to reach people for the Gospel. At the end of the day, its about people.
Loving God and Loving People.
Go out there and create incredible Worship Experiences at your church.
