How to Make Your Online Church Video Streaming Effective

Phil Cooke

I received an interesting note from Joe Hayes, head of  the TV and video ministry at Redemption World Outreach  Center in Greenville, S.C. At Redemption, the Sunday  online worship service is succeeding way beyond  expectations.

Since so many churches have an online video feed of  their live service on Sunday—and yet very few do it
well—here are four tips from Joe that might help:

1. Consider it just as important as your live event.  Don’t do an online, streaming feed and treat the viewers
like second-class citizens. Make sure it’s as high  quality as you can afford, and make it available and  easy to find.

2. Understand the online experience is different from  the live service. In the live service, people are
sitting with a large group. They can feel the excitement  and see the preacher sweat, and it’s a visceral,
physical experience. But with the online service, people  are watching on a small screen, usually from across the  room. They’re also probably distracted. So shoot more closeups, and make sure the audience has plenty of  microphones. You want the people at home to feel the  power of the service.

3. Consider calling the online service “iChurch.” This  is what the Redemption communications team does. They  treat people that watch online just like members of the  congregation.

4. Talk to the “iChurch” congregation directly. For  instance, Joe says that once they explained to the
streaming audience how to give online, it literally  doubled the financial response.

Why they watch doesn’t matter as much as how much you  welcome them. They can learn, participate in worship and  support you financially. It’s time you took your online  congregation seriously.

Phil Cooke is a filmmaker, media critic and adviser to  some of the largest churches, ministries and nonprofit  organizations in the world. He’s the founder of the  Influence Lab.

The above article, “How to Make Your Online Church Video  Streaming Effective” is written by Phil Cooke. The  article was excerpted from www.philcooke.com web site.  December 2013.

The material is most likely copyrighted and should not  be reprinted under any other name or author. However,  this material may be freely used for personal study or  research purposes.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author,  but it contains many excellent principles and concepts  that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying  goes, “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”