I'm not making this claim lightly as someone who serves in a large church. I'm throwing down a gauntlet, asserting that smaller churches have the potential to create more engaging videos. Before you dismiss this, let me define what I mean by “engaging video.”
An engaging video causes the viewer to act. I like to look at engagement on three levels. Typical engagement actions to a video on social media are: liking, sharing, commenting, subscribing, and following. A secondary action of engagement would be signing up for an email list or a texting group. The most significant engagement win is a viewer responding to a video by signing up for a ministry/event, using the video to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others, and deciding to follow Christ more deeply, letting the church know that they’d like to talk with someone more about this spiritual decision.
…smaller churches don’t have to contend with “process distraction.”
How you measure this level of engagement effectiveness should be based on a percentage of your overall followers/subscribers on social media, the number of people on your email lists and texting lists, and the active attendees to your church. Some large churches – like mine – will put out videos and have what seems like a lot of engagement. However, compared with how we measure engagement based on the total number of people already engaged with our church, the engagement percentage is small. I can have a video with hundreds or thousands of views and still have low engagement. Conversely, a smaller church can create a video and have fewer views, likes, etc., than a larger church but have an engagement rate double the larger church.
How is this possible?
The obvious answer is that a smaller church’s viewership and attendees are less than a large church’s. However, I believe that smaller churches are set up better to do what I’ve learned is the most critical part of making a video… the STORY! So many times, when we as content creators approach making a video – especially those of us at resource-rich large churches, we look at everything else that goes into the video except the script of the story.
An engaging story grabs attention and causes someone to identify physically, emotionally, and spiritually with it, causing engagement. Think how many big-budget movies failed without a good story. I bet you can name some. You can also name some low-budget films that connected with audiences through a story told in a great way that resulted in a tremendous profit margin. Just like big-budget movies get distracted from telling a story well, I see the same thing happen to large churches, including me.
… it’s easy to fall into the trap of making something look good without concentrating on the story…
I see three primary distractions that large churches can experience when producing videos that smaller churches don’t have. This gives smaller churches the edge in creating more engaging videos that are story-centric. These distractions involve the tools, budget, and process.
Large churches have a “tools distraction” that smaller churches don’t have. Tools like different types of cameras, the latest LED lighting and lighting accessories, jibs, sliders, animation tools, studios, audio kits and suites, mobile equipment, and equipment trucks are all nice to have when making a video. However, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making something look good without concentrating on the story behind the “good looks.”
Smaller churches don’t have these tools to distract them away from the main thing – the story. Smaller churches can put the time into the story, develop it in a script like it needs to be, use adequate production tools, and still have high production value based on the story's needs. Don’t let your production tools or the lack thereof keep you from putting time into telling the story correctly. The story is the key and not the tools.
Secondly, a large production budget can be a distraction that can keep you from developing and telling a story properly. You can have money for props, travel expenses for multiple locations or even exotic locations, rented equipment, and hired personnel but still not create an engaging video. Put the story first, and not the budget. How do you do this?
Don’t let your production tools or the lack thereof keep you from putting time into telling the story.
For example, a smaller church might have a mission trip planned to another part of the country. The church can’t afford to send you or a trained volunteer on the trip. So, not being distracted by the lack of money means that the small church tech leader schedules the opportunity to talk to the mission team to teach everyone how to take good videos on their phones. This simple training session puts everyone on the mission trip in the position to take good videos you can use to tell the story of the trip when the team returns. Combining this footage as part of the story – even if it’s b-roll - with stories you capture after the trip can make an excellent video with a low budget but high, story-focused values.
The final distraction to making engaging videos that smaller churches don’t have to contend with is a “process distraction.” Larger churches have specific processes that can be a distraction to a story-focused video. Branding guidelines for color and music, on-staff talent for voiceovers, on-camera hosts, and scriptwriters can all distract from what the story needs. Why? Because you’re trying to let what can become a legalistic process dictate how to tell the story of the video, making every video monotonous and corporate.
Smaller churches don’t have to be limited by an official process. They can analyze a story and use sound scriptwriting principles to see what’s needed to tell the story. Using the previous illustration of the mission trip, maybe the small church creative needs to invite people who went on the trip over to your house for an interview to help you tell the story and get it exactly right. Maybe extended time with the trip leader needs to happen, allowing them to guide the scriptwriting process. Perhaps you need to hang out at the post-trip celebration dinner at the leader’s house to hear how God moved on the trip. Do what you must to tell the story of how God moved on that mission trip. Don’t allow having or lacking a process to dictate your ignoring high, story-focused values in your video production.
Don’t allow distractions to take you away from spending time in pre-production to ensure you correctly tell a story.
Hopefully, if you’re reading this and you serve at a large church, you’ll see this article as a wake-up call. (I had a wake-up call some time ago.) Don’t allow distractions to take you away from spending time in pre-production to ensure you correctly tell a story. If you’re at a small church, I pray this article encourages you to go out there and create highly engaging videos for your church and community.
Focus on the story. Practice good production values with lighting, audio, and camera. Having good production values – using the tools you have properly – is all you need to be concerned about after developing your script. Don’t get distracted by the lack of tools, budget, or processes. If you do this and focus on the story of a life changed by Christ, you’ll be well on your way to creating highly engaged videos that will impact even more for the glory of God.
