You've heard the saying, “that's good enough for government work,” right? Some things shouldn't be “good enough.” Some things need to be the best you can do. That's not to say that you should fall into perfectionism. There's a balance between perfectionism and good enough that you should aim for, though.
We're living in a time of tremendous change and opportunity. It wasn't long ago that video was delivered in only one way—broadcast television. In the early 1970s, that changed. First, there was cable television and videotape. Today there's live and on-demand video delivered over the Internet.
Forty years ago there were still black and white broadcast television stations. They were on the way out, but they existed. Now, UHD is starting to be adopted and HD is the norm.
Today, some churches are still asking if they can “get by with SD.” Whether it's for live streams, service recordings, and the like, standard def is still common. If you've already got SD equipment, you can get by with it, but not for much longer. Soon, SD will start to look more and more like black and white television did in the early 1980s. We're past the point when HD is only for early adopters. It's mainstream. Those who still do SD are falling behind.
Striking Out Limitations
Perhaps your church distributes video of your church service on broadcast or cable television. This is a fine start, but you're ignoring a broader audience if that's all you're doing. Broadcast and even cable can be geographically limited. But they're also limited by time. People can't watch your church service if they're out of town or if they're not available when it's shown. If your church captures content on video, the only limitation is having an Internet connection.
Consider this truth: the importance of your content will not help people get past the quality of the delivery
Paul Clifford
Most people, especially in the industrialized world, have access to fast Internet connections. The question isn't whether they'll have access to video content when and wherever they desire. The question is, “Why would they choose to watch yours?” Don't make the mistake of thinking that the importance of the content will help people get past the quality of the delivery. This is the mistake many churches make. They assume that importance of the message will cause people to engage and overlook poor quality. They won't. Instead, viewers will assume that if something suffers from low quality that it must not be important. You're not competing with other churches or other religions. You're competing with Hollywood. They make some of the least important ideas and stories—those designed purely for entertainment. Hollywood makes them seem important because of the care and effort put into their delivery.
There is good news, though. While the standards aren't yet set in stone, 4K/UHD looks like it's going to be the next step in the growth of television. It wasn't that long ago (2006) that television stations in the United States switched from analog to digital. Many made the switch to HD at the same time, although SD stations do still exist. Now, just nine years later, will they all want to start broadcasting in UHD? Most HD equipment from 2006 wasn't made to transition so soon. Today you can buy gear that will do both HD and UHD. Many traditional media outlets don't have the luxury of “flipping a switch” to change again so soon.
Churches have an opportunity to fill the gap, though, stepping into the UHD transition sooner rather than later. This is particularly true of churches in two situations. Some are ready to upgrade. Others haven't yet begun using video and can jump directly into the new standard. These churches could get UHD equipment as soon as the new standards are decided. In doing so, they could have quality that not only rivals traditional media, but leaves it in the dust.
If you currently own a UHD display, your choices of content are pretty limited. Some on-demand subscription services (like Netflix) have some of their content available in UHD. Some user-generated video sites (like YouTube) do, as well. Cable and satellite don't. Most terrestrial television stations don't either.
Placing yourself in the shoes of the early-adopter/videophile who just got a UHD display, what do you use to show it off to friends? You can't yet run to the local video kiosk and rent a plastic disc that has the full quality of the information your display can show; not yet. Rooting through the cat videos on YouTube for 4K user-generated videos is difficult right now. Even finding just the best movies on Netflix may be easier said than done.
What if?
What if, you know that you can go to a website that will allow you to download new content every week? What if you can watch it live, on-demand, or downloaded? Whether you agreed with the content or not, would you consider using it to show off your television? It may sound silly, but how many people have gone to a great cathedral simply to see a tourist attraction and wound up having a spiritual encounter?
In a similar way, churches as early UHD adopters could be a conjunction of technology and access like the one we saw in the first couple of centuries of the church. It was this conjunction that early missionaries capitalized on during the church's initial spread.
Safe roads and a common language were the technology of the past. Today, the Internet and video could easily spread the Gospel in ways that closed countries cannot contain.
Is your church ready to participate in a technological missionary movement? Can you put aside the comfort of “what we've always done”? You can step up into live streaming, on-demand video, and podcasting to spread the Gospel.
Is what you're doing “good enough for church”? Maybe a better question is, “Is it good enough to capture the imagination of people who have never even heard the name Jesus?” Will people look at what your church does and think, “This must be important because they put so much work into it” or not?
Will history look at this period in time as a Christian artistic renaissance or a time when we had an opportunity that was squandered? Hopefully, it will be the former, but it all depends on whether we settle for “good enough.”
