During this time when people, business, and churches are taking precautions for the COVID-19 virus, many are scrambling to figure out ways to keep things as normal as possible. With that, many of you or your churches may be looking to conduct services online or are planning to add a live stream. There are several things that need to be considered before jumping into doing church online. We would also like to add a few suggestions with staying connected to your congregation.
Things to consider:
- Do all things well – We are told in 1 Cor. 10 that we are to do all things well to the glory of God. This includes live streaming. You want to make sure that your message, video, and audio are all the best you can make it.
- You don’t have to stream – You may not have the ability to stream your services but that doesn’t mean your congregation cannot still be apart of a service. There are plenty of other FWB churches that are currently streaming services. You can share another churches stream to your congregation.
- Copyright License – When streaming you must have a special, separate, license to your worship service. A CCLI streaming license covers 300,000+ songs. You can find more information for this license at https://us.ccli.com/copyright-license/.
- Internet Speed – You will want to make sure that you have a solid network connection or data service. You can do this by visiting https://www.speedtest.net/. If you are using your cellular data, please ensure that you have enough data to stream the whole message.
- Record in Advance – Due to the high volume of churches that may be going live for services, we suggest that you record your message in advance. You can schedule your video to post at whatever time and day you would like.
- Giving – We all know that in this time in service giving may be down but the bills will still be coming in. Online giving is a great way to help keep tithes and offerings coming in. If you have online giving already, promote your giving in your streams and through social media. If you do not have an online giving service, check out our partner Tithe.ly and the discount they give all FWB churches at https://get.tithe.ly/partner/nafwb.
- Youth – Don’t forget the kids in your ministries when reaching out online. Get your youth workers involved and do some youth lessons. Record short devotions or object lessons to post throughout the week.
- Think beyond Sunday – There are many ways to stay connected with your congregation online. Post short updates, prayer requests, weekly devotions, music playlists or anything else that will engage people online.
Article Written By: Jeremy Smith jeremy@fwbmedia.org
