Media in a Small Church?

Recently, a small church approached me asking if I could help them out with some improvements to their sound system and to talk about adding Internet to their church. This request got me thinking about how it doesn't matter about the size or budget of a church when using technology. Of course, a hefty media budget can help in securing great equipment but it's not entirely necessary.

First, as with any church, determine what purpose media will serve in your ministry. Will it be used to enhance the service or will it be used as an outreach tool or a combination of both? Secondly, determine how much resources are you willing to devote to developing a media ministry. How much of the church budget will go for purchasing equipment and paying monthly fees? How many volunteers or staff members will be needed to run the equipment and/or maintain media sites?

You may have answered the questions mentioned above and now you're wondering where to begin. Start small before going all out with guns blazing. Starting out small will help you and your volunteers from being overwhelmed, and it is a great way to find out exactly what you want in a media ministry before committing a ton of money. No matter what your purpose or vision is start with using social media sites before anything else. If your church hasn't already done so, create a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a blog and/or podcast account, and a YouTube and/or Vimeo account. Using social media sites are great free resources to start building your media ministry.

With podcasts you can easily upload audio of your sermons and have your messages available to others to listen to. There are many podcast sites you can use that offer a free account with limited services, these are great because the sites allow you to try their site out and eventually as your listener base builds you can easily upgrade. My favorite site to use is Podbean.com, you can link it to your church's iTunes account and customize your podcast site to match your website.

Creating a blog is another great way to use media in church. Having a blog, whether it's written or in video form, creates a more interactive feel to your sermons. Expounding on a point from a sermon or giving a preview of an upcoming sermon series creates excitement and anticipation for how God is working in your church. Blogs also opens up a way to minister to others who may not be near your church who are looking for answers. Sites like Blogger and Wordpress are free and really easy to use and setup. Wordpress also offers websites, having a website is important as this is a tool to bring people to your church.

A lot of small churches can't afford the hosting fees to have a website but there are a lot of free options. Wordpress is a great resource in building a website and Facebook is a great alternative. Facebook allows you to create a business page that allows you to put information about the church, pictures, videos, and even audio.

There are a lot of ways to start small to get your church on the road to using media. I gave a few options that are great but as with anything, research all options as much as possible and decide which course is good for your church's ministry.

Under Pressure

Courtesy of belgraviacentre.com

Working in a church media department always has its challenges and at any given service you will be under pressure to make sure things run smoothly. How do you keep your cool when under pressure? We recently started doing a tech run through on Thursdays and it has helped us in keeping our cool during a service. Also, checking everything prior to the service helps keep the pressure down. But there will always be a Sunday here and there when, despite the precautions you take, things will go wrong. To keep yourself and your team from going crazy during these times you should have procedures in place. For example, the computer used for PowerPoint froze in the middle of the service. Our procedure is to quickly restart the computer and the VGA switcher. Having procedures in place minimizes the stress and ensures that glitches are handled smoothly and quickly. What if a guest speaker decides to change his whole presentation during the worship set? This actually happened to me today. I had to quickly load the changes into our computer during our announcements because that would be the time when it would be less noticeable. When a special event or speaker is scheduled it is always good to schedule a seasoned volunteer or staff person who knows the flow of the service and the software being used to help in case of changes or issues occur.

Planning various scenarios and procedures along with scheduling the right people will help you as a leader to keep your cool when under pressure. But the one thing that I believe is important is your attitude. You can have procedures and back up plans but if you don't have the right attitude or frame of mind you will stress out anyways. Learning how to approach a situation good or bad with the right attitude will keep you calm and clear minded. So what is the right attitude? Being confident in yourself, your skills, and your team. Build confidence in yourself and in your team so that when a situation presents itself you'll be cool as a cucumber. 

Engaging the Audience

Courtesy of Audience Matters, Inc.

We recently added overlays to our live stream service to help engage the audience and it seems to be going great. We have received positive comments on it from our online and live attenders so far and the process has been easy. To give a bit of a background as to what we're doing at HCC, we have been running a live internet service for about three years now and we have tried just about everything within our budget to build and engage our audience. We're using a simple setup of about three cameras, a video switcher, streaming software, and presentation software to pull our live streaming service off three times a week. About three weeks ago we added the presentation software, ProPresenter, to help with the overlays and that has helped us tremendously with engaging both our online audience and our live church attenders. 

By adding the overlays we are eliminating the constant switching from the main screen with the lyrics or PowerPoint presentation to the different camera angles, which was way too much movement for a production. By adding lower thirds to the screen we can have the words and the live cameras on the same screen and we can concentrate on switching our camera angles when needed. Switching to too many different elements, we found, was losing our audience whether than engaging them. Adding the lower thirds to the live video not only engages the audience but gives them the sense that they are a part of the service instead of being spectators. 

When considering setting up an live stream or adding new creative elements to your services the first question you should always ask is how can we engage our audience when doing this or how will this engage our audience if we add this element? Answering this question will help save a lot of headaches and money down the road. 

Building Multi-Site Campuses

I always like to include posts that are about topics that I am currently researching for work or are in the process of putting into action myself. In April my church is launching its second satellite campus in a small town about 30 minutes from our main campus. We want to model the second satellite campus after our first one which is located in a local prison and has been extremely successful but know that each area is demographically and culturally different. Our first satellite campus which we refer to as an Internet Campus or iCampus is a simple setup of a projector, portable sound system, projector screen, a laptop, and a hot spot. Basically, we stream our live services into the satellite campus and have a pastor available to facilitate the service. The challenges we are facing are not with a building and equipment but if the setup will be successful in this new area, if the people in the town would be as receptive as those in our first campus.

When brainstorming challenges we might face in this new campus, we ask ourselves if people would come to a church service that is being projected on a screen versus having a live service. Are we losing the relational aspect of a church by doing this? These are great questions to consider when building multi-site campuses. There are many churches that have built successful multi-site campuses and are continuing to do so as their churches grow. In researching many ways to start a satellite campus I have looked at other churches as examples and have talked with their staff and have looked at companies that have helped churches as well. ProPresenter is a great company that offers solutions to churches that are wanting to start multi-site campuses.

Right now it is a trial and error process to see what will and will not work but in the end it will be awesome to see what kind of satellite campus we end up starting. I will do a follow-up post in April that outlines what worked and what didn't.

The Social Media Church

Courtesy of Edudemic.com

Let's face it, social media has taken over our society, our culture, our entire world! Many churches have realized this and have utilized it to reach their congregation or to gain more information about them. But how can you use social media to grow the church, to reach the masses? The church I work for, Heartland Christian Center,  posts videos of the pastor's messages onto their Facebook page, specifically on an evangelical outreach group page that has thousands of people from 20 different countries as members. When looking at it this way, our sermon videos are not only being viewed by the 400 plus people on our Facebook page and the members of the evangelical group but by thousands of others who are friends with those who are friends with our page or in that closed group.

Social media can quickly lend itself to becoming a church planting tool. Think about it, on any given Sunday morning my church will have on average 600 people in attendance, 100 people viewing our service live over the Internet, and at least 1,000 people watching the rebroadcast through Facebook or our website. If you add it all up, we have a church of 1,700 people that get the message every week and possibly more. Because of the Internet, streaming video, and social media we have been able to launch two other campuses that reach two different groups of people that we couldn't reach before.

Churches need to learn how to use all facets of social media to their advantage, to get past the notion of just another way to communicate with the congregation, but to use it as a tool to reach the unreachable in a different state or country, even in the next town. Evaluate what you are posting on all of your social media sites, whether it is Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc. Ask yourself if this post, picture, or video something someone will share with someone and does this convey the message that the church puts forth.

My hope is that every post I put on here is in someway helpful to churches out there who are struggling in the area of media or just feel lost, let me know how this helps or if there is a topic that I haven't covered that needs to be addressed.

Digital or Analog?

Courtesy of Sweetwater.com

About three weeks ago we made the switch from an analog sound board to a digital one and the switch was not an easy one. When you have one day from installation to learn an entirely new sound board in general is tough but adding the digital element and new features can be overwhelming. Digital sound boards are awesome, you can do so much more with your live sound than you could with an analog board, but because it is digital many assume that it is easier to use.

As churches begin to consider the switch from analog to digital there are a few things that should be takien into consideration. First, do not assume that it is going to be an easy switch or that it is going to be a plug and play deal. Secondly, it will not solve all of your sound issues especially if you have a few people in your congregation who like to complain. Finally, it will take time to master the board.

Assuming that switching out your analog board for a digital one is going to be easy or being led by the salesperson that it will be will frustrate you during the installation and training period. Researching the digital board and any additional equipment you may need before making the decision will help you through the installation process. In our situation, we did our research but we took the word of the professional installer that it will be a simple four hour job and ended up taking twice as long. We failed to evaluate our analog system and the way it was setup before having the new system come in, which costed us time sorting through.

Believing that having a digital board will solve all your issues and complaints is wrong. The truth is it won't. It will change the way you run sound and it will change your sound for the better but all that doesn't matter to that person or persons who has complained in the past. Our sound overall is sounding better and clearer than ever before but we are still getting complaints by the same people before we made the switch. My advice is to acknowledge the complaints but don't get hung up on them.

Thinking that because it is a digital board you will be running sound like a pro in no time will easily frustrate you. Learning the basics on a digital board is easy but to really get to know the board will take time especially getting to know all of the features. Be patient when exploring the board and let your pastoral staff know to be patient as well. Your pastors will get frustrated because they're going to want you to know everything as soon as the board comes out of the box so you will have to tell them that it will take time to get acquainted with the board.

Before deciding to switch from analog to digital keep in mind these things and all the reasons why you want to make the switch. I'm glad that we made the switch especially since the board we bought has an iPad app that is truly awesome. I hope that this post can be of help to those considering the switch. 

Lessons Learned: Making a Live Worship DVD

Courtesy of
http://www.virgin.com/media-and-mobile/news/suffering-from-digital-stress

Recently, our church had a Praise and Worship night where we had professionals come in and record the music with the intentions of making a CD to sell. It was also decided that we make a live DVD as well with multiple cameras. The audio recording went well but the video recording not so much. I am one to plan out my shots with each camera in mind but when working with three completely different kinds of cameras it does not always come out as planned. We used our Sony HD prosumer camera, a Kodak "pocket camera" and an iPhone to get the shots. The plan would have worked since the iPhone 4s surprisingly takes good HD video as does the Kodak camera but there were two factors I did not consider that became a nightmare in post-production. The first factor simply being the human aspect and the second factor being the technological differences involved with the cameras.

I have learned that it is important to train good people to work the camera in media ministry because there will always be someone that will back out at the last possible minute and a good backup needs to be handy. During this particular event I had two people back out leaving one camera guy and myself to run three cameras. I left one camera on a wide shot and the other I walked around with which worked out great but it left me in a position to where I couldn't direct the other camera person on shots I wanted.  This brings me to the second factor I mentioned earlier. The other camera person did a good job but the quality of video was not as great as hoped. The Kodak camera does not have a manual focus setting so there were times where the camera automatically focused footage and the digital zoom caused the close up shots to be grainy. These issues left me to be extremely picky on clips and being limited on space on the iPhone led to not enough shots to make a good multi-shot video.

With a possible predicament on my hands I had to make some editing decisions about the videos I was creating for the live DVD. I used whatever footage I had that was good to create the videos and used techniques that I have learned over the years to clean up as much of the footage as possible. I have referenced VideoMaker's website numerous times in this blog but for good reason it is a wonderful resource to have on hand when you need it like working with bad footage. The lesson I learned through this process is that planning is good for a project but to make the planning worth while you should consider every possible scenario there is to ensure a successful outcome.