Some Useful Technologies for Church Ministry (Part 2)

Read the series.

(Technologies for outreach, continued)

2. Audio and Video Media

Nowadays, a good church website will have more than good graphics and helpful written information. Since the advent of digital media, many churches have begun to make their sermons available in audio format. If the church has its own server or pays for a hosting service, it can archive its audio messages and make them available on its own website.¹² For churches that can’t host their own audio archives, there are ministries like Sermonaudio.com, which can provide both the hosting and also a worldwide venue of listenership for a reasonable price.¹³ Such services often provide monthly reports not only of how many people are listening to or downloading your sermons but also of where these people are in the world. You can also acquire these kinds of statistics by using Google Analytics to monitor your website traffic.

In addition to posting audio media on your website, you may want to consider using video as a medium for outreach. Many churches (especially larger ones) will have something like a “welcome” video where the pastor or someone else on staff provides the visitor to your website with a concise (2 to 5 minutes) introduction and invitation to your church. If the video is well done, it provides the visitor with a more warm and personal welcome than he would get if he simply read a text on your website or on a church promotional brochure.¹⁴

In addition to the basic welcome video, you may want to include somewhere on your website other video media that address and expound other topics that are important to your church and that really define your church’s core beliefs, values, and/or mission. Moreover, if you have the personnel to help in this area, you can have your sermons recorded in video format and made available through live streaming and/or uploaded to a dedicated server (with sufficient bandwidth) or host services like Livestream, Vimeo or Viddler.¹⁵ Higher Internet speeds and lower hosting costs have made the option of podcasting your sermons in video format more feasible. Furthermore, some churches create well-edited excerpts from sermons, give them a catchy title, and feature them as “teasers.” Videos featuring the personal testimonies of certain members may also be an attractive way of introducing potential visitors to the kind of people who make up your church and, more importantly, to the power of the gospel in the life of individuals.

In addition to posting these kinds of videos on your church website, you may want to consider creating a church Facebook page where you can feature these videos. Your members can post these videos on their own Facebook pages and use them not only to introduce their family and friends to your church ministry but also as an evangelistic tool. Using social media networks to post your church audios and videos can be a useful and effective means of communicating the gospel to outsiders. And if you have the money to invest, a nicely designed smartphone or tablet app can be yet another attractive venue to make your audio and video media available to the public.¹⁶

Of course, audio and video media require the equipment and the personnel to capture, edit, and upload it. You’ll need quality microphones, mixer boards, computers, editing software, HD cameras, good lighting (for video) and so forth. You’ll need someone with some basic experience with audio and/or video equipment to record the audio or video. You’ll need someone with more experience to do the editing. And you probably should have a professional or at least a semi-professional help you select the right equipment, set it up, and oversee the capture and (especially) the editing process. This is more the case with video media than with audio.

If you already possess or want to invest in video equipment in order to create something like a welcome video or other ministry related videos, I recommend you look into procuring a video teleprompter. With the advent of portable tablets like the iPad, you can now purchase affordable teleprompter kits¹⁷ that enable you to look right at the camera as you’re reading the scrolling text of your presentation reflected off of a “beam splitter” glass (which works like a one-way mirror). If done well, this can give your presentation more precision and polish.

Certainly, acquiring and employing audio and video technologies for church ministry requires financial investment. Moreover, most pastors, including myself, do not have the expertise in audio/video technology to discern what equipment to buy or what level of competence is needed to operate that equipment. At this point, I’ll lean on the wisdom of a personal friend. Ryan Hobson is a video producer and consultant. He also served as the Technical Director at Heritage Baptist Church, Owensboro, Kentucky. Here’s what Ryan has to say about selecting the right equipment that won’t go out-of-date too soon (“future proofing”) and training the right personnel for your audio and (especially) video media:

A qualified consultant, especially one who specializes in helping churches, can often be more cost effective in the long run than the “do-it-yourself” approach. A church should not only consider its present needs. It needs to look five to ten years ahead. A well-defined “upgrade path” can save $1,000s or $10,000s down the road. Better to wait and purchase the quality equipment than to get cheap or “adequate” equipment, which may require more effort and money to upgrade it later on.

Proper training is important for A/V volunteers. Being left on their own to “make it work” is the fastest way to lose them. This is because the only time they’re usually noticed is when something goes wrong and they get blamed. Since the A/V personnel at most churches are volunteers, providing them with quality training and support is essential for the success and effectiveness of their ministry.¹⁸

So if you don’t have members in your church with the knowledge and proficiency to set up and operate the equipment, you may need to invest some money to hire a professional to help you choose the right equipment, set it up, and provide those in your church with a basic knowledge of audio and video technology, some coaching and technical support.¹⁹

Personally, I believe an investment in quality audio and video media is worthwhile in light of the fact that such digital media is widely used by people in our culture as well as people in other cultures around the world. I don’t think audio and video media will replace good written media. But as a means to introduce your church to outsiders and to communicate to them your basic identity, as well as your core beliefs, values, and mission, I believe audio and video technologies are a lawful and effective medium of gospel communication.²⁰

One need not feel constrained to endorse Mark Driscoll’s ministry model in every detail in order to appreciate a valid observation he makes concerning the use of technology for outreach:

Technology is a tool for the church to connect with people and provide them with gospel content about Jesus. Now more than ever, churches that want to reach out effectively to lost people, particularly young people, don’t necessarily need to love technology but must learn to use it to connect with people they love. Any church that is willing to use technology well is demonstrating love by approaching lost people in a way they are accustomed to. This technological hospitality is the practical outpouring of Jesus’ love for our neighbor.²¹