Top 10 Tips For Quality Livestream Worship Services - Pt.2
By Jonathan A. Johnson
In the previous piece, our discussion focused on the first five tips for developing a quality livestreamed worship experience. Here are the remaining five tips.
5. Limit the service time.
Any online broadcast that spans over two hours runs the risk of losing everyone’s attention. People’s attention spans are decreasing rapidly in this microwave, TikTok society. If your church can execute a full, effective church service in one hour or less, that’s even better.
4. Give God and the people your best!
This should be self-explanatory, but it’s not. It needs to be explained. Oftentimes we depend on people to lead the corporate worship event that aren’t comfortable up front or they are unprepared, or they’re simply determined to claim their fifteen minutes of fame. On the other hand, there are those who can pray down fire from heaven, those who present the best, singers who can really sing, musicians who can really play, and those who are skilled at public speaking. Everyone is not blessed with those gifts. We must be careful to present the best representation of Christ for people to see. We must give our very best. Remember the people you are trying to reach. In the fast-paced digital space, people not got going to wait until your quality improves. They simply click to turn it off.
3. Assess and be authentic.
Is your church conservative and sticks strictly to hymns, or is it more church progressive with a praise team? Or, it could even be that your church utilizes a combination of styles. Wherever your church is on the spectrum, be authentically yourself. Don’t try to compete with another church, or try to do something outside of your church’s comfort level. Be the best at what you do. The Holy Spirit is the director of the service, we all are the servants operating according to the Spirit’s leading. Plan the service and submit it to God. Don’t try to control everything. Be willing to be flexible when necessary. Leave room for the Spirit of God to move. The Holy Spirit can move just the same on a pipe organ as well as on a Hammond B3.
2. Know your audience.
Who are you trying to reach? Are they middle-class, younger, older? Is your context urban or rural? What’s the average age of the community? Is it a community with children or teenagers? These questions inform what kind of content your church should/could/would usually be producing.
1. Clarify your purpose and mission.
Why does your church need to stream? Is your church being effective in the community it currently resides in? If you can’t evangelize and influence around the corner, why try to influence around the world? Also, be careful to reach those within your four walls first; then expand your focus to those who are not currently members of the church. Ultimately, we are trying to reach the unchurched and lost and bring the gospel to them, to let them know there is a group of people that will love them no matter what they’ve been and what they’ve done.
Maybe in your context, streaming is not a necessity. That’s okay, because not every church needs to stream. Maybe you’re determined to build an online presence, and that’s okay too. We simply must: plan, pray and play. Just think, in a world where every conceivable kind of content is accessible within seconds via the world wide web, it is essential that we also provide web users with quality examples of the unsearchable riches of God’s love and grace as well. As we do that, let’s be careful to make sure that our media presentations are the best representation of gospel possible.
Jonathan A. Johnson is a producer for Oakwood University Broadcasting Network and a Media Production Consultant, currently residing in Huntsville, AL.