Digital Church Trends: Live Streaming

A new month is upon us, which only means one thing here at The Digital Shore: a new blog series. For the past month, we’ve been breaking down some of our lesser-known services, but we are ready to step into something new. We partner with several churches and ministries through our business, which means that we stay constantly updated on the trends and problems often present in church world. Every area of life is constantly evolving, and ministry is no different with a variety of new trends and technological updates popping up. So, we want to take the time to address four different trends we see appearing in churches and break them down. So, let’s start with live streaming.

What is live streaming?

While most of you probably already know the answer to this, the short answer is that live-streaming is recording and broadcasting a service or event in real-time online. Most churches I have seen utilize this tool to broadcast their Sunday morning services in real-time, but technically, you could use it for other events and weekday services as well.

Pros:

1) The most helpful aspect of live streaming is that it can help members who are unable to attend in person. Some people are physically unable to attend due to medical conditions or business travel, and it is those people who will probably benefit the most from the live stream. These are the people in your congregation who want to be there but can’t and want to still participate in worship with their church family, even if it’s from a different location.

2) The ability for outreach is also a positive aspect of live streaming. Some people are not ready to step into a church yet. They might be toying with the idea, and watching your service online first is a way to try it out without having to step into a building quite yet.

This is where most people would argue that a recorded service uploaded later can have the same effect, and they would be right. However, I have found that people tend to crave authenticity more and more lately, and videos that are edited can be lacking in that. The ability to stream your service and show the tone of it is a great strength of the live stream.

3) This might not be an aspect that is typically brought up for live streaming, but it can actually help your planning. Live streaming kind of pushes churches to have the service planned more concisely and sermons pointed and ready. This shouldn’t be the motivation, but it is a happy consequence of preparing to share your service in real-time on a digital platform.

Cons:

1) In my opinion, the number one con of live streaming is that it does have an inherent cost in resources. If you are using a professional platform, then there is a financial cost, but it also has a cost in terms of people and time. Someone has to be available to know the equipment and record/broadcast the service. Someone has to figure out the logistics of the best platform and the steps that need to be taken.

Also, while live streaming might sound like an easy process, it does take some preparation on social media as well. Someone needs to be posting in anticipation of the live stream on Sunday morning (or whenever it is); otherwise, no one will know that your stream is available and won’t watch or listen.

2)  This point kind of goes hand in hand with the first one. While live streaming is pretty easy once you have the volunteers, the schedule, and the equipment and platform, it’s not necessarily a good use of time for smaller churches and budgets. Just because the stream is out there does not mean that the audience is there. You have to decide whether the multiple costs live streaming requires is actually beneficial to your congregation before you embark on this endeavor.

Suggestions:

If you are interested in trying live streaming for your church, there are free options like YouTube Live or Facebook Live. These options also make it easy to stream from a smartphone, which might be the most convenient way to start live streams if your budget is limited.

If you are interested in paid platforms, here are two of the most popular ones available:

-Livestream: This is one of the oldest and largest live stream services and is geared toward all businesses and organizations, not just ministries. Currently their video hosting services start at $7 a month and the live streaming plan sits at $75 a month.

-DaCast: This company offers cheaper plans that might suit smaller churches that don’t want to invest heavily in live streaming. Their plans are billed annually, but the starter plan starts at $19 a month with custom plans available for high volume plans.  

Some of the other options I would encourage you to check out is streamingchurch.tv, Sunday Streams, and ChristianWorldMedia.

As we’ve discussed, live streaming has its pros and cons but can be a helpful tool for members who are unable to attend physical services. Who can say if live streaming is around for the long haul, but it is definitely a popular church trend at the moment.

So, stay tuned for Friday as we tackle another popular digital church trend!