Worship Musician Magazine December 2020 | Page 154

CHURCH TECH
CREATING EFFECTIVE SERVICES FOR ONLINE WORSHIP | Todd Elliott
Soul City Church , Chicago , IL
In a pre-covid 19 world , streaming our church services was for many , just a nice idea . It was cool , which meant we were cool . Now that we live in a Covid-19 and eventually ( hopefully ) a post Covid-19 world , streaming our services is now more than a nice idea , it is essential .
With much of our world in some form of lockdown , learning how to best serve our congregations is an important part of helping support the body of Christ . So let ’ s start streaming !
In some ways , pulling the trigger on the equipment and processes to actually do a live stream is the easy part . Sure there is stuff to figure out , but there are tons of resources on equipment and programs to use that can help you figure that out . Here are a few resources :
Youtube - Live Streaming Setup for Churches in 2020 - A short video about how to set up a simple streaming setup 

Ecamm - Best Live Streaming Gear for Churches - Contains a list of quality gear to get started streaming simply . Ecamm also has some interesting software to help with adding graphics and switching between cameras . 

Boxcast - Why You Need to Improve Your Church Lighting - For our webstream to look amazing , we need to improve our lighting . Having a good camera is one thing , but if the lighting is bad , that great camera will only look as good as the lighting .

Youtube - Church Broadcast Mix Made Easy - Creating a great mix on your stream is more than just plugging straight into your audio console . 

Now that we ’ ve come to the realization that we need to stream our services and we ’ ve begun figuring out the equipment and programs we need to use to get it done , it ’ s time to figure out exactly WHAT we should stream .
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH ? Are we simply going to stream our normal services ? Should there be extra elements ? Do we need to make it more interactive ?
There are many roads to go down when trying to figure out what we should be doing , that it is important to stop and ask ourselves : what is the end goal for streaming our services ? Is it congregation engagement ? Is it more giving ? Is it a worshipful experience ? What is the goal ?
This will be different for every church . Pretty similar to pre-Covid days , every church has its own set of mission and vision statements that are unique . In a similar way , each church ’ s goals for streaming will be completely different . What are yours ? Don ’ t just copy someone else ’ s goals . Figure out what makes your church unique and how your live stream will
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