Pure Heart Church in Glendale, Arizona; Images courtesy Heath Bottomly with Maven Media
Church Facilities Conference & Expo in Dallas, taking place September 21-22, 2021. Register now with promo code CP2021J to get 20% off your registration." to save 20% off your registration.
As we think about the church and how things have changed, we tend to think in terms of pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. Or is it just me?
In light of the changes brought about by the pandemic, churches are re-imagining their spaces. For years now, there has been a trend to not build the massive facilities we were building in the ‘80s and ‘90s. For the most part, 2500+ seat facilities are a thing of the past. Today, even rapidly growing churches are building a max of 1000-1200 seat facilities, while the sweet spot seems to be between 600-800 seats, according to Rodney James with Master’s Plan. With the advent of multi-site campuses, we are taking the church closer to where the people are. Through the pandemic, the online audience has shifted from an afterthought to a campus at the forefront of our minds.
I would love to know how many churches had no live stream services or even the capability of recording live to video pre-pandemic. In March of 2020, when many churches across America stopped meeting in person, many were scrambling to figure out how to remain accessible when folks couldn’t come into their buildings. To call this a disruption is an understatement. The pandemic and closure of the doors to our facilities created unprecedented opportunities for all of us. There’s that word, unprecedented. It seems so many things in 2020 were “unprecedented.”
2020 forced the church to change. No longer was the live stream just something we did as an add-on. It now had our full attention, and we were throwing resources at making it great. As a behind the scenes guy myself for many years, I imagine Technical Directors suddenly became one of the most important people on the team. Of course, they were always important, but more people are acknowledging and appreciating them now.
Many churches excelled in these live streams on Sunday mornings. To make the online experience more engaging, we recorded the service earlier in the week and even recorded worship music at another time. We turned our worship centers into makeshift studios. We placed lights, cameras, microphones, and other gear in places we normally would not have them when people are in the room. And then we had post-production work happening, getting the music to sound right, maybe even some over-dubs, re-takes and re-mixes to get it dialed in just right. For some of us, things never looked or sounded so good.
As churches began to re-engage in in-person gatherings, the big dilemma became, “How do we maintain the level of excellence in our online church services now that we are live?” I think it is safe to say that most, if not all, churches that were streaming their services will continue to do so. It’s not an either/or but a both/and. So how do you keep the quality of service you had during the pandemic? Here are a few things to consider.
Since the pandemic, some churches have built out studios specifically for video production. In these spaces, we can now re-create what we were doing in the worship center while the doors were closed—the right lighting, creative camera angles, microphones in the perfect position, re-takes when needed and utilization of green screen walls. You can still leverage these tools for service segments that are not live. Up your video announcement game. Create your own sermon bumpers. Record testimonies and interviews.
The studio goes viral (no, not COVID viral).
In-house studios are facilitating the ideal spot for creating short form video and social media posts. Culture has changed and the church must adjust to remain relevant. Twenty years ago, people found a church through the Yellow Pages, ten years ago it was through a website, and today, people find out about us through social media. Many churches are carving out time to produce social media posts for TikTok and Instagram Reels in these studios. Some are creating spaces with windows for onlookers to engage. Online Pastors may be in the space during services encouraging the online audience to participate. These can become highly interactive spaces.
Get off the floor.
While we were recording in our worship centers for streaming on the weekend, we had all that gear on the floor. It worked great until people started coming back to the building. Every tripod became a potential trip hazard. One of the adjustments made at our local church was to relocate the outside cameras from the floor and mount them to the side walls. Another adjustment was removing the big softbox lights from the floor. We put together a lighting package from our preferred vendor, 5 Words Media, and went to the congregation with the proposal. Congregations know that the online service is no longer optional and needs to be excellent. The project was easily funded, and we installed Fresnel fixtures that provide images that pop and translate well online.
Don’t neglect the online audience.
There is this tension in keeping the online experience excellent while also making it great for the in-person attendees. Many churches have realized they need more than just a front of house engineer and are creating space for a broadcast engineer to mix the service live specifically for the online audience. Often, they are utilizing studio and post-production tools to “sweeten” the mix.
Keep it real.
Rodney James is the President of Master’s Plan Church Design & Build. He was raised building buildings with his father and has served as a church administrator and senior pastor for 20 years. At CFX 2021, Rodney will share about the importance of leading with spiritual intention through a build project.
One surprise that visitors to our churches experience is a lack of continuity between our Youtube videos and the actual worship center. We might have beautiful video from the studio days, but it doesn’t represent the experience a guest would have when they visit in person. Rodney James with Master’s Plan suggests taking a serious look at what your outward facing content looks like and compare it with the actual environment of your church. Do they tell the same story? If not, consider how to make the adjustment so they are in alignment.
Ultimately, the in-person worship gathering is not easily translatable to an online audience. We learned that worship is more important to the in-person attendees while the message is more important to online attendees. Most people, not all, skip through the music portion of a service video and tune into the message only when viewing online.
We often find ourselves critiquing the sound quality of the mix, camera angles, transitions and even the font used for lyric overlay when we are viewing online, but we would be immersed in the experience when in person. Making sure to find that balance between how you use your space to connect both your online and in-person congregants is vital to keeping everyone engaged.
After graduating from Bible college, David Cherry joined the staff of an international leadership ministry and soon found himself responsible for all things AV. He has served as pastor of technical ministries in the past and currently serves as a bi-vocational pastor and the sales engineer for 5 Words Media. You can hear David share ideas on how to generate revenue from your church at CFX 2021.
We are more grateful than ever for the technology that allows us to instantly be a global ministry and bring our services to those that are unable to attend in person, but nothing compares to gathering in person to worship Jesus Christ together with a community of faith.
Use code CP2021J to get 20% off your registration.
