After our first Sunday online, I have to admit I was down. Like a lot of other churches, things didn’t go as well as we had hoped that first time we moved our worship services entirely online. Yes, we have long had our services on a livestream but it had not been a key focus of our ministry up to that point. Mercy has that changed!
We took immediate action to address diagnose our issues and took immediate steps to correct the things we could to ensure a positive online worship experience for our congregation and others literally around the world who are watching our services. Though we have limited the number of people in the church office each day, our regular meetings have become what our pastor at times refers to as production meetings.
Our next Sunday service will be our third entirely online. Honestly, it seems like it has been much longer than that. Still, we are adjusting to the new rhythm of our ministry while keeping an eye towards that day when we will be able to gather together once more to worship King Jesus. Along the way we’ve learned so much and we are getting better at this with each broadcast. In this post I thought I would share a few things we are getting better at doing.
All Things Video
When something is the main thing, problems seem to bubble to the surface a whole lot faster than they might otherwise. When video became the primary communication tool to share God’s word with our congregation, we found we had considerable room for improvement. Even though the hardware we had installed to handle livestreaming met the technical specs necessary on paper, in practice that turned out not to be the case. A new computer was ordered and has been installed. Wow what a difference!
We also reached out to our broadband provider to investigate our options to increase our service level. Again, on paper we had the necessary bandwidth to handle what we were trying to do but in practice, not so much. We were able to dramatically increase our service level for a modest increase in our cost per month and again, wow what a difference.
Then there is the actual production process. We have adjusted our schedules to accommodate recording needs to allow time for editing and uploading services, announcements, etc. We made some adjustments in the way we were recording, backgrounds, camera angles, and more to help improve the viewer experience. After all, we are still trying to share the gospel; we are just focusing on sharing it in primarily a different way than we were before.
The main thing on this point was to move quickly to diagnose and address deficiencies. For us it was a combination of hardware, software, and some technical know-how that we had to improve. The positive feedback from our people has been so encouraging!
Maintaining Community
In my last post I mentioned groups and trying to meet online. That is exactly what we are doing now. The first week we tried using Facebook live and it worked but was not exactly ideal. Our class is accustomed to a good bit of interaction and so trying to teach to a computer screen with little to no interaction is tough. That first week my co-teacher lead and did a fantastic job.
This past Sunday we switched to Zoom and I taught from Romans 5:1-11. That was a first for me and I must admit I enjoyed it. The interaction we are accustomed to was possible, different but possible, and the entire class got to see one another. The main thing was we got 18 people together for a time of Bible study and fellowship. It was a win for everyone.
There is the usual preparation to teach for 30-45 minutes one would expect. I like to have my notes handy and refer to them as needed when teaching. In addition to the normal preparation, there is also having to think about lighting, how loudly I should speak, where I should set up and what should be behind me (or does that even matter?).
Something that has helped in this area is having a couple of mid-week meetings using Zoom. It is a great way to get together for a short time and just check in, see if there are any needs in the class that we are not aware of, and do our part to make sure what is being communicated from the church is being received. It is also a great opportunity to work through lighting, location, etc. for the following Sunday!
Sharing What We’re Learning
God has blessed me by placing some pretty amazing people in my life, including many who serve in vocational ministry in local churches across the country. In the last two weeks I have spoken with about 20 folks or so spread out across half a dozen states. They have been gracious in sharing what their churches are doing, what is working, what they have tried to improve on, etc. and I have been happy to do the same.
My context has a lot of unique characteristics that combine to make ministry here special, just like those of my readers. Still, even though there are a lot of differences, there is a lot that is similar from place to place as well. Thousands of churches across the nation are trying to figure out the same challenges we are trying to work through. Other churches are considerably smaller and don’t have the resources we have available. It has been a joy to stay in touch with these friends and share how God is working in and through our ministry here.
Carve out a little time and do something you maybe have not done much of lately: set aside some time to reach out to your friends in ministry! Ask questions the things you are trying to work through. Share some things you have already learned that have made an impact in your context. There is someone each of us knows that we can learn from or share something helpful with during these unprecedented times.
This post is a little longer than usual. I hope it is worth the time! What are some of the things you have learned over the last few weeks that are making this new season of ministry impactful?
Blessings,
Chris