Your scheduled church service is being impacted by COVID, Live Streaming your church service is the solution! And it’s easier than you think!
This corona virus or Covid-19 as it’s also known is wreaking havoc on what we consider normal life in America. Churches are being encouraged to close their doors and live stream their services to their congregations. We all know there are plenty of small, country churches where this just isn’t going to work. As a friend of mine on Facebook suggested, as entertaining as it would be to see Ethel sitting in her pew and trying to live stream the service and us getting half of her out-of-focus face and her own dialogue of the service in the audio feed, that’s really not what anyone is going to watch.
For the numerous churches that don’t have the option or equipment to live stream their services, or for pastors who don’t want to preach their sermon to a visibly empty room let me encourage you to do something far easier and probably far more engaging.
AN EASY WAY
Set your phone on your desk or a stand (inline with your eyes would be perfect!) and live stream to Facebook right from your desk (or another location) the message you want to share with your congregation. Use the links below to figure out how to do this and do a few test broadcasts prior to Sunday morning. If you don’t want to go “live”, you could even just simply record your message on your phone and upload it to Facebook and YouTube and then share the links out with your congregation via email, text or social media accounts.
Don’t overthink this. My friend, Pastor Harry Curry, has been sharing short devotionals with his congregation on Facebook for a few years now and they’re great. Nothing overproduced (it doesn’t need to be). Just honest sharing from the heart of what God has put into his Messenger to be shared with his people.
As I think about this more, what a great opportunity the Church has this weekend to literally flood social media with links of God’s love and word being shared around our nation! Haven’t we all had enough media broadcast of fear and panic? The messages this Sunday could be like a fresh, spring rain to a thirsty land full of people needing encouragement and hope in their lives!
As my friend, Pastor Scott Luck recently shared in a Facebook video to his congregation about this coming weekend… “social distancing ? social isolation”. Through this time, be intentional about trying to connect with others as best you can. Worship with family and friends in your own homes. Invite people over for meals, or games, or yes, even to watch some Netflix shows together. Let’s use this time to strengthen our relationships with others, not further isolate, separate and disconnect from the world around us.
Here are some links that should help you out with some good instructions:
- How to Use Facebook Live: The Ultimate Guide
- How to Broadcast With YouTube Live
- Create a live stream on Mobile
- Here’s how to go live on Facebook with your Android or iOS device
- YouTube 101: How to Live Stream from Your Phone
- 7 Best Apps to Go Live on YouTube from iPhone or Android
- How to upload a video to YouTube and customize its settings on desktop and mobile
- How to Upload Video to Facebook
- How to Post Your Video to Vimeo
Written by our very own web extraordinaire, Jason Bean
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