Church Online

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. 

Live video is key to getting your church’s message out. Whether you are broadcasting to displays around your building, to a TV station, Livestreaming or just archiving, excellent live video can set your church apart. According to a study by released by Brightcove, poor quality video presentations influence viewers to have a negative perception of the author. This negatively impacts engagement with the organization. So, it’s important to ensure your livestreams and broadcasts are the highest quality possible, both in production and delivery.

With the rise of multi-campus churches, the question of live or video sermons has been a question at the forefront of this movement. Some churches have multiple pastors preaching at different campuses. Some churches have one pastor that travels to each campus to preach.

How do you get better production with limited resources when people will be sitting in seats that you used to be able to shoot from? That's where a multi-camera production comes in. In the past, multi-camera live streaming production has been very expensive. SwitcherStudio for iOS changes all that.

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?

As church technology companies continue to consolidate, some providers are rising to the top as leaders in this industry. On March 24, 2020, Subsplash, the Seattle-based software as a service (SaaS) announced the acquisition of Cincinnati-based StreamSpot. StreamSpot is the award-winning content delivery platform providing live streaming services for faith-based organizations and businesses. In October of 2019, Subsplash announced the acquisition of Custom Church Apps, another church app provider that serves churches and ministries.

Imagine if a month ago you'd said, "We're closing down our church building for a month or so, and we will do all our ministry online." People would have told you that it was a horrible idea. In the span of a week, things in America look quite different. Churches are now asking: "How best can we do all our ministry online now that the church build is closed for a month or so?"