church online

Sharing a live event with a crowd of friends is becoming very rare, especially in light of the 2020 pandemic. How do we deal with live vs delayed church streaming moving forward?

Live streaming software is more prevalent and user-friendly than ever. Fortunately, there are also many great low-cost (or even free) options available for those getting started with live streaming.

The great thing about technology is that while prices start high, they tend to go down quickly. It used to be that churches would...

Churches face a major shift in how to worship in 2020 and beyond. Live streaming has become the go-to solution for churches and parishioners who want to stay connected, engaged, and spiritually fed. Pastors and tech team volunteers recently had to scramble to use streaming infrastructure to reach their congregation at home. Now they're faced with the challenges of improving their production workflow.

The practice of live streaming church services has gained popularity over the last few years. The impacts of COVID-19 certainly accelerated the move to live streaming for many churches. We've compiled this list to help you navigate the myriad of live streaming providers available. 

In June, after months of being forced to hold worship services in an online-only format (thanks to COVID-19), California churches were allowed to begin meeting in person again. This time, with a limit of 100 people or 25% of the building’s capacity. Just a few weeks later, Governor Newsom ordered that churches “discontinue singing” while gathered for worship services. This resulted in an uproar from many Christians. How can we hold a worship service without worshiping? How can the government dictate whether we praise God or not? Didn’t Jesus say that we must sing?

With the government temporarily requiring churches around the nation to shut their doors in response to COVID-19, online worship services are becoming the new norm. We don’t know how this will affect the way we do church in the long term. For the next few weeks or months, your church needs to figure out how to make an online worship service feel more like the real thing and welcome people who’ve never experienced a live stream service before.

Live streaming isn't right for every church. In an ideal world, equipment would be cheap and every church would have the infrastructure to host their own service via live stream. Now, many churches are struggling to make something work in a short amount of time because of COVID-19. This isn't a perfect world and while God isn't surprised, many churches have been. So, with that thought in mind, what are some things you can do today to maintain community and meet other than live streaming?