Video is becoming a more important form communication every year.
Thanks to better smart phones, 5G, social media and simple, affordable video editing tools, just about anyone can create and publish videos from anywhere or even live stream video.
This month we’ve been doing a series on various ways to use online video to advance your mission, so in this article we’re going to take a 30,000 foot view of the topic, point you to ideas you may have missed, and in doing so create a resource for things related to online video you can refer to now and in the future.
7 Ways to Use Online Video to Advance Your Mission
1) Live Stream gatherings. When the COVID pandemic forced churches and other organizations to stop meeting in person, live streaming worship services and other gatherings became a necessity. Now, some churches are wrestling with the question… Is It Time for Churches to Stop Live Streaming Services? As you consider that question, keep in mind live streaming enables you to minister to those who are sick, quarantined, or traveling, and connect with people who may want to watch a service remotely before they visit in person.
2) Post sermons online. Instead of live streaming, some churches opted to record video their services or just their sermons and post them on their website. This also has the benefit of enabling you to minister to people who can’t participate in a worship service in person, as well as enabling those looking for a church to watch a sermon before they visit. If you post sermon videos to your website or are considering it, check out 10 Best Practices for Recording, Editing, and Uploading Sermon Videos.
3) Welcome video. One of the best ways a church can use video is to create a brief welcome video and embed it prominently towards the top of its website’s homepage. The people who are searching for a church and visit to your church website want to get to know you. They want to know who the lead pastor is, what worship services are like, what the people are like, what they would experience if they visit in person. Nothing gives people a look inside your church, your people and your heart like video. If you’re thinking about creating a welcome video make sure you read Creating a Welcome Video for Your Church Website – Part 1 and Part 2 first!
4) Stories/Testimonies. God is actively transforming the lives of his followers! He does this not only for our benefit but for His glory and the benefit of others. Sharing stories of life transformation via video is a great way to show those who don’t yet know Jesus that He is relevant and practical to our every day lives.
For Christian ministries and Christian-owned businesses, video testimonials are a great way to show the ways God is at work in what you’re doing, and how your ministry or business can help others. For more on this, read How to Use Video Testimonials to Advance Your Mission.
5) Training. Whether your organization is a church, a ministry, or a business, teaching and training is an important part of what you do. Creating video tutorials or training videos is a great way to ensure the quality and consistency of your training, as well as make it more accessible online. Training videos can be useful for everything from a church’s new members class, to a nonprofit’s volunteer orientation, to a business’s employee training. We go into more detail in How to Use Training Videos to Advance YOUR Mission.
6) Humor/relationship building. Videos, especially funny ones, are great at breaking the ice and getting conversations going. This is why people share so many videos on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TicTok. Videos can also be good conversation starters on more serious topics. We shared some funny videos earlier in Funny Video: If Church Online Were “In Person”
7) Search Engine Optimization. One of the added benefits of using videos to advance your mission is they can help to improve your search rankings in Google and other search engines. This in turn will help more people find your website and more people connect with your organization. We go into more detail on this in 4 Ways Videos Improve Search Rankings and Traffic.
This is far from an exhaustive list. There are many other ways organizations are using online videos to advance their mission. In fact, if you are using online videos in other ways, we’d love for you to share that in a comment.
Warning: Avoid shiny object syndrome!
I just want to wrap things up by saying just because you can use video in all these ways doesn’t mean you should. Don’t feel pressure from yourself or others.
We’re all busy and the last thing you need is for creating videos to become “one more thing to do.” Pray about it. Think about where video could fit into your overall communications strategy. If you sense God calling you to move forward in any of these ways, start small, involve others, and have fun with it. 🙂
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. -Troy Olson
Comment and Discuss
- Where are you using online videos now? Where do you sense God may be leading you to use online videos in the future?
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