Soul City Church , Chicago , IL
compliment that uniqueness .
Once you have a good idea of what you ’ re trying to do you will be able to create the best stream possible .
WHAT WE KNOW HOW TO DO , MIGHT NOT WORK For those of us who have been creating services for a while , we know how to do it pretty well , but in a room with hundreds of people right in front of us . Unfortunately , just creating services like that won ’ t work in this new online environment we find ourselves in . It is time to go into experimental mode . We need to relearn what it means to create services for our congregation . What we have learned in the past can be helpful , but it can also hold us back from creating the best service online .
Can we still have a 30 minutes worship set ? Does the announcement segment still work ? ( Hint : it never worked in the first place !) How long should the message be ?
Be open to change . Hold your opinions loosely . Don ’ t be afraid to experiment .
COLLECT THE DATA AND RESPOND TO IT Without people sitting in front of us telling us if it is all working or not , how do we know ?
Find some people you trust and ask them about the services and how their online experience has been . Here are some great questions to help you make decisions :
• What was right ? • What was wrong ? • What was missing ? • What was confusing ?
Don ’ t just ask these questions and then do whatever you feel like . Consider each answer and adjust your content accordingly .
Along with streaming our services comes the analytics measuring actual engagement . We can tell where people are from . We can see when people are engaging and when they aren ’ t , minute by minute . This is pretty powerful stuff .
When the pastor says the message has to be 45 minutes long , you can point to the analytics and show her that people stop watching after 20 minutes . When the worship leader wants that 5th song , we know that people bail after 2 . When the announcements come on ... well you know what happens .
Our congregations need us to not just go on autopilot . We need to spend the time to figure out what you ’ re trying to accomplish . Experiment and adjust what you know with the new data you ’ re collecting . Steaming our services is more than equipment and more than online platforms .
How will you adjust to a new reality ?
Todd Elliott Todd is a writer , speaker , technical artist in the local church and founder of FILO . Formerly the Technical Arts Director at Willow Creek Community Church , he started FILO in 2015 to help other technical artists become more effective so that the local church can be more effective . Residing near Chicago , he and his wife Bissy have three kids and a dog ... none of whom are into production .
@_ ToddElliott www . filo . org