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Remember the classic children’s book, "The Little Engine that Could"? In that story, the little engine wasn’t sure it was up to the task, but it kept saying, “I think I can. I think I can,” and, spoiler alert … it did.
Small churches can be like that. What they lack in resources, they often make up for in determination.
Despite what you might have heard, a live-streaming ministry needn’t cost thousands of dollars to start. You can, with some ingenuity, get more out of gear and people than you might assume, but doing so is the result of more than just determination. You’ve got to have a solid plan and be willing to change it from time to time to ensure success.
Start with why
Before you even start live-streaming, you need to know why you’re doing it. Don’t live-stream to satisfy your ego or to do what “the big church” in town does. No, this is a ministry. Make sure you have ministry goals for it.
Are you planning on reaching out to members who can’t attend because of illness? Maybe you’re near a military base and you’ve got a lot of deployed military personnel. Maybe you want a way for people to check out your church before they start attending.
Be specific. It will guide how you live-stream and your definition of success.
Define success
It’s easy to say, “If only one life is changed, it will be worth it,” but when you’ve been pouring resources into live-streaming for months, or even years, with no sign of that one person being changed, you might start to second-guess yourself.
Instead, make a list of concrete goals that you can measure along the way. Is there an average attendance number you’d like to see? Maybe there’s a number of prayer requests that will show you that you’re on the right track. Maybe you can put up a map of the world and put a push pin in all the places you get viewers from.
If you care about people, you care about numbers because each number represents a person.
It’s probably going to have a numerical value, but don’t get distracted by that fact. If you care about people, you care about numbers because each number represents a person. Otherwise, Acts wouldn’t have bothered to mention the number of people joining the first church.
Create a minimum viable ministry
When you start, it’s easy to look at all you don’t have. “We don’t have a video switcher,” “we don’t have multiple cameras,” “we don’t have a dedicated audio mixing position,” and the list goes on and on.
Instead, try to launch with a minimum viable ministry. In business, entrepreneurs often talk about minimum viable products. This is the same idea. You start with what’s not perfect, but will work, so you can get feedback on how to improve from the people you’re trying to serve.
You might think you need better embedded video on your web page, but find that your online congregation wants Spanish simultaneous interpretation instead. You might think you need better cameras, but you find that your online congregation wants better sound.
You want to launch a minimum viable ministry, not only because you want input, but also because it’s easy to get bogged down in the planning stages. Steve Jobs once said, “Great artists ship” and others have said, “you can’t improve what doesn’t exist,” and “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly … at first.” Launch it and then improve it.
Plan for improvements
Since you won’t have the perfect live-stream the first week (even well-resourced churches don’t launch things perfectly; they’ve got to learn from experience), you’ll need to improve. Balance the “if I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses’” mentality of Henry Ford with a desire to get input from your online congregation.
Some of their ideas will be gold. Some won’t be. Carefully weigh each suggestion and decide whether you need to act on it or not.
As you’re planning for improvements, consider these guidelines.
Determine the best bang for the buck. There’s a diminishing return with money spent. Often churches hear the 80/20 rule and think it’s a reflection on poor discipleship. Instead, consider the blessing of the fact that you can get a live-stream that’s 80% as good [as] another church for 20% of the money.
Do you need broadcast cameras? Maybe not. Do you need a 2 M/E video switcher? Maybe not. Do you need another 16 channels of audio? Maybe not.
Do you need broadcast cameras? Maybe not. Do you need a 2 M/E video switcher? Maybe not. Do you need another 16 channels of audio? Maybe not.
AUDIO. Audio IS an area that you want to spend time and money getting right, though. A 4k image with inaudible sound is worse than an SD image with perfect sound. Thankfully, audio tends to be cheaper than video, too. So, if you spend here, you’ll get better feedback (no pun intended) than if you don’t.
Don’t be afraid to spend money. Some things are worth spending a little extra on. Consider this metaphor. Right now, you could get all the water you’d want to drink … for free, if you wanted to hike down to the nearest stream or river. Sure, it would certainly have tons of bacteria and maybe some harmful chemicals, too, but it’s free, right?
Now, what if you went to the nearest faucet and started drinking directly from it? It costs more, but not a lot more. It might not taste as good as other options and does have some chlorine in it to kill the bacteria, as well as other additives, but it’s still pretty cheap.
What if instead, you went to the grocery store and bought bottled water? It’s more expensive, and not cold, but it’s better than the first two options.
Finally, what if you stuck a buck or two into the nearest soft drink machine? You don’t have to go as far. It’s clean. It’s cold. It probably tastes better, too.
Tech is like that. There are a variety of options. Many of them are free, but cost more in the long run because they contain … bacteria (things you don’t want).
Don’t be afraid to buy a $200 tripod instead of a $20 one. It will make movement look A LOT better. Don’t be afraid to buy a $1,000 camera instead of a $50 webcam. The ability to zoom slowly will vastly improve your video. Like bottled water from the store, they don’t cost a lot more, in the scheme of things, but are a lot better than the lowest priced alternatives.
You don’t have to buy the best, but buying better than you can get by with is often the way to go.
You don’t have to buy the best, but buying better than you can get by with is often the way to go.
Devote people to the live-stream, too. Don’t forget that people are a resource, too. You might think, “our worship pastor is techie,” but remember that if something breaks, the techie worship pastor can’t be in two places at once to both lead worship and fix the live-stream. Maybe you don’t have a choice at first, but having someone dedicated to a position is better than adding “one more thing” onto a busy person’s plate.
You’re going to want to fill gaps as quickly as possible and make plans to keep them filled. Maybe you start with unmanned cameras, but you probably don’t want to stay there. As positions like this become essential, you’ll want a team with backups who can fill in when someone has an emergency.
So, how can you make your live-stream better? Make constant improvements.
So, how can you make your live-stream better? Make constant improvements. Improve your skills. Improve your equipment. Improve your team. Even little improvements, over time, will make for a live-streaming ministry that starts to match your big vision.
