by The Church.Digital: We’re all in a video world now. Majority of churches are streaming their service online. Video needs go beyond livestreaming. Churches need to find ways to make disciples online. They are doing worship at lunch every day, devotions throughout the day, and shows throughout the week. Discipleship is not only video, but often includes it.

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Some of you are doing video for the first time. Others have been doing it for a while, but need some ideas for how to improve as everything moves to video. Here are several tips I gave a pastor this week with a few extra thrown in:

Your gear doesn’t matter much

We get obsessed with camera, microphone, encoder (if you even know what that is), streaming company, etc. The most important detail is how you use your equipment. I’ve seen the video of a church that spent $100,000 on their video system, but it looks like a video from the 1990’s because of how they use it. Don’t spend much time this week on new equipment. Learn to use what you have.

Camera height

Position the camera just above your eyes. It keeps you from spreading your face with a double chin. Use a tripod, stack of books, etc. to get it into place. 

Create Depth in your Picture

Videos look like hostage videos when the camera is directly facing a wall and there is nothing to break up the picture and make it look like 3D space. So position the camera at an angle to a wall. If you have a good background like fireplace, bookshelves, etc. that is even better. You can be positioned facing the camera but the added depth behind you will help make it look like you are in a 3D room. You can even position a coffee mug, computer, or stack of books in front of you to help with this. 

Here is a screenshot from Andrew Peterson’s live reading of one of his books. Notice how there are books in the near ground and his background gives added depth. The whole picture looks 3D.

Lighting

Use natural lighting to mimic high end lighting. Pick a location where natural light comes in one side of your scene. Leave the overhead lights off so that there is a soft shadow falling on the opposite side of your face. This gives a cinematic feel to your video and is a lot more pleasing to the eye. 

Use the Rule of Thirds to Position your Camera

This is a rule in photography and art that divides a picture into three parts horizontally and three parts vertically. The best position for the subject of a photo or video is at the intersection of two lines. Notice where Peterson’s head is positioned. 

Place yourself on one side of the shot. It makes the video look much more natural. 

Improve one thing per week

This is a type of overall tip. Pick one thing to improve every week. Don’t do too much. Improve the audio one week, add better lighting the following. Those who are doing the best have been working and improving for a while. Your people will forgive you for mistakes you make when you start out. Start, evaluate, and improve.

 

Psst. Church leaders.

Let’s rap about Zoom.

You know the whole video conferencing thing that has become even more of a thing in the last few weeks, as COVID-19 has taken over?

I don’t want to talk about the stock price ZOOM-ing incredibly high (even if people are buying the wrong stock).

Sorry, I’ll take my dad jokes elsewhere.

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I don’t even want to talk about how Zoom was sharing user data with Facebook, (although, as of this writing, the newest update had fixed the supposed “bug”).

I want to talk about the fact that Zoom is changing the way we do life.

How it’s an evolution of tech that has gone before.

I’m looking at you, Skype.

My 3 kids are all going to be using Zoom starting next week for their distance learning. Every business in the world has been going to Zoom for virtual meetings. It’s an incredibly useful tool.

And churches everywhere have started to use Zoom for their small groups. Living their group life online.

This is an astounding turn of events for a lot of churches that were on the fence about “digital discipleship.”

If you’ve read anything from this site in the past few weeks, particularly from yours truly, you can see that the necessity of online small groups is palpable. Small groups, primarily using Zoom, are changing the way the church-at-large thinks about meeting.

But all of those groups still need leaders. Because I’m just one person. And so are you. And even if you see the necessity to connect people in groups, you can’t lead every group each week.

We as church leaders are called to raise up new leaders, right? (YES, we are!)

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen an uptick in the want to virtually volunteer. People that were once able to come to the church building no longer can do so.

So, church leader, it’s time to use that uptick to fill out your ministries and to connect people to Jesus.

Does the medium look different? You bet your sweet Bible it does.

But the skills are essentially the same.

Because online small group leaders are just that: small group leaders.

And with that, here’s a couple of tips to training up good online small group leaders:

Identify the right person. 

Don’t just look for a warm body who can “fill a spot.” If God truly did make us a “body” (spoiler: He did), then there are certain people who are MADE to be group leaders. Find them.

Who are you looking for? Someone who:

• Is dedicated to praying for a group of people
• Will be committed to personal and corporate growth
• Will be able to reach out to their group even after the hour or two of their group time
• Can train up or mentor another leader
• Is committed to grow along WITH the group (we all know that group leader who thinks they have all the answers!)
• Above all, can humbly seek the Lord in all discussions.

Provide a clear expectation for them. 

And make that expectation match the church’s expectation for groups. An online small group is just like a regular small group. So if your church sees groups as outreach, great.

Discipleship? Awesome.

Multiplication? Even better.

Let your leaders know what you’re wanting from them. It’s a lot easier to play in a sandbox with defined walls than it is a beach where the options are limitless.

Train your leaders to, before anything else, be able to LISTEN.

We all know how to hear, but to LISTEN takes intentionality.

It takes time.

It takes patience and wisdom and humility.

Just because you’re on a webcam doesn’t mean that people can’t pick up on the clues that you’re not paying attention. Train your leaders to make eye contact, even if it’s on a screen, to not follow distractions. Trust me, this is HUGE in group life, and it shows that your leaders actually CARE.

Train them on the specifics of the platform.Notice this is last on the list.

It’s the least important thing in all of this. The heart of the leader, their ability to be in touch with the Holy Spirit while leading a group, and their ability to listen are all SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than knowing how to use the “mute all” button (although, trust me, that’s very important).

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you’re in the rush to get online groups up and running to replace the church-sized hole in many of your people’s hearts, this is a great way to start.

Let me know via my socials how your group life is going. I’d love to connect with you, to help in any way possible, and to resource you however I can.

This is a long season we seem to be in, and it may be getting even longer. Rest assured that we can use this tech to our advantage, and we will see the Kingdom expanding even further than we can even begin to imagine.