7 Things You Should Consider Before Upgrading Your Church’s Media System

It seems that everyone these days is wanting to upgrade their church’s media system to stream their services. Especially after the pandemic that shut everyone out of public gathering places, churches have been craving to get their services into the hands of online members. Many are just throwing money at it and expecting that having better cameras will automatically make more people watch. This is not necessarily the case. In fact, it’s not usually the case. There are many things you should consider before upgrading your church’s media system, and I see a lot of them not being fully considered before the money gets spent. The following is 7 things you should consider before upgrading your church’s media system.

1. Why do you want to upgrade your media? Understanding the why is the most important thing you can do before a single dollar is spent on gear. For some churches, it could be that the gear is really outdated and simply needs an upgrade to do the same function it was doing before. For other churches, the why could be that they are wanting to expand their reach by creating a more accessible and appealing online presence. Understanding why you are wanting to upgrade will help problem solve later on and save you a lot of headache as you get deeper into the process. It’s worth pointing out that I don’t think it’s as necessary to go into video or even stay streaming your video as some people might think. There’s a lot of talk about “engaging the young people, (or the secular)” that assumes having a church service on the internet  is suddenly going to attract and engage the young person. It’s not usually going to. Unless your church has outgrown the space it’s in and can’t afford to build a bigger building, or you know who is going to watch the content, having a stream of your service more complicated than a camera pointed at the front may not be worth it.

   
   

2. Who is going to watch your content? Part of the why requires a plan. Who is going to watch your content? Are you offering video content just to your church members and hoping they spread the word to your local community? If that is your plan, understanding it well will influence a reasonable view on how much money to spend. It’s probably unwise to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on content just for your church unless you are in one of the bigger churches and are willing to absorb that. Having video streams only for your church members to watch when they are out of town is inreach, not outreach. That’s not a problem. It’s just something to be aware of. If you are hoping to have more than just your church members and the local community watch the content, a plan needs to be made for that too, because number 3:
   

3. Why should people watch your church stream when they could watch anyone (or anything) else? If you are wanting to upgrade or expand your video streaming capabilities, it is important to ask yourself this question. Why should anyone watch your content? There are millions of hours of content being uploaded just to YouTube alone every week. Not to mention other streaming sites or church websites. That’s an incredible amount of competition and the odds of someone just stumbling onto your content by accident is increasingly unlikely. Then you also have to think about all the other churches that are also streaming their content. What separates you from them? Why should anyone care what you have to say? If you can get a good answer for that question, then proceed to number 4.
   

4. How are you going to make sure people see your product? If, in your planning session, your why  is that you want to increase the reach of your content to a wider audience than just your church members, then you need to have a good marketing strategy (and budget) to let people know you exist. It’s nice to think that people will see your shiny, well run production and continue watching, but it is worth considering, how many people walk by your physical church and stop in just because of how nicely it's painted? Consider a plan to make sure people know you exist, and give them a reason why they should keep watching (hint: it’s going to have to be more than just a good sermon). Otherwise you are just throwing money at nice equipment that you may as well have invested in something else. 
   

5. How much work can you reasonably get someone to do Saturday morning? Upgrading your media system to do the same thing it currently does, just better, doesn’t require any more long term work from the team. However, adding things like video or lighting cues, or pretty much any small addition can lead to an exponential growth in needs for the media team. For example, if you decide you want to start a live stream, but you can consistently only get one or two people on your media team every weekend, the most you are going to be able to do well is a camera set up in the back documenting things. Sure, you can do some PTZ cameras and cut between them, but on a media team, each person should really only be doing 1 or 2 tasks at a time. So if you need audio for church, slides to go with the sermon or lyrics with the song, video operating (for PTZ cameras or manned cameras), and video directing, you should have at minimum 4 people on your team. And they can’t just show up 10 minutes before the service. There needs to be a full runthrough of the service with the worship and media team, soundcheck for everyone on mic, a double checking of slides with the pastor, and a system check on cameras (at the very least). Every week. If you want to do more, it takes more people. If you cannot dedicate that many people to the team every week, consider upgrading in smaller ways. Placing a camera in the back and pointing it towards the stage is a great way to document the service for the people who missed that week. Additionally, consider just having an audio recording of the sermon and releasing it as a podcast or on AudioVerse. Video is not the only way to increase engagement with your church. 
   

6. What is your budget? If you have the answers to all of these, then you can start working on budget. Yes, budgets can be difficult to get, especially for something like media when there is operating, outreach, and evangelism budgets to also reconcile. However, if you can come up with a solid reason why you are doing it, a solid plan for getting it in front of more people, and a reasonable plan to execute it, there is money to be found. Conferences will sometimes help out, benefactors from other regions or churches—or if you’re lucky, your own—often are willing to help, or just having a giving Sabbath at church can really help make the difference. But don’t just make an extravagant media budget because you want to be the next big media church or because you think it’s what will bring more people to your pews. It's way more work than it sounds and it probably won’t bring a lot more people to your pews. Think about what you need to make your goals a reality. Spend as little as you can get away with, and invest the rest of the money into your community. 
   

7. Should you spend your money on going into or upgrading your  video anyway? Unless you have a solid plan for any of the above, the short answer to this question is “no.” If you are just wanting to expand or upgrade your Sabbath morning media production because you think it will automatically help bring more people to the church and ultimately to Jesus, then don’t waste your money. Only after you have a thoughtfully considered plan as to what you want and how people are going to get it should you spend any money getting gear. Sure, spend your money improving the sound system if it is bad and the people inside can’t hear. And spend some money on improving lighting if people can’t see well. Upgrading your video gear should be considered carefully too. If your church has only a handful of viewers relative to the size of your church, getting the latest camera isn’t magically going to fix that and it’s more than likely going to be a waste of money. 
   

In the end, if you don’t have a good reason as to why you should spend money going into, or upgrading your video presence, you should just spend your money on the community around your church. We often get so focused on spreading the gospel “to the world” that we forget the community around us. Focusing on them will be significantly better at bringing a meaningful engagement to your church than thousands of dollars on camera equipment for a few people online to watch the service for 2 hours a week.