Five Reasons To Use MORE Video In Your Worship Services
Some time ago, I wrote about the need for churches to incorporate video in their worship service. In that post, I stated:
I believe every church leader would say that their church wants to reach people for Jesus Christ. Yet we see a predominant practice of our churches using antiquated methods of communicating the gospel message. One very simple example is the use of video in the church. I would guess more than half of our churches do not utilize video as a form of communication in their worship services. Yet video is an integral part of our communication in the 21st century.
I recently read a post by Barry Whitlow, pastor, and “church communication activist,” where he shares some great insights on his blog, www.barrywhitlow.com:
The impact of video use on the church is greater than most church leaders imagine.
Top 5 Reasons To Use MORE Video In Your Church Services:
- Video is the #1 information delivery tool in the world today. With over 3-billion videos viewed on Youtube every day and 80 million hours of videos being watched daily, the impact of video on the mission of the church is immense. Video is no longer just about entertaining, it’s a proven information delivery tool.
- Video holds attention better. Video is visually interactive which helps hold the attention of the viewer better resulting in greater retention and application of what is being communicated.
- Video helps your church be relevant: What will people in your audience be thinking about this coming weekend? Would you like to illustrate a point using a football video clip? Want to inspire people to invest their life in something that will outlive them using a clip about Steve Jobs? Video helps you intersect with where your people already are emotionally, in order to speak life-changing truth into their lives.
- Video content is plentiful and inexpensive. Engaging your audience with a video that relates to your topic has never been easier, and Youtube has proven time and time again that video content does not have to be Hollywood quality to communicate effectively and impact the human heart. Instead of thinking whatVerbal illustration can you use, think what Video illustration can you use.
- Video shapes your demographic. Like worship song choice, the regular use of video over time helps to shape your audience and attract a younger demographic, especially young families in the 30-something and under demographic.
Does your church need to use more video? If your church does not use video at all, it might be time to move towards communication modes that connect with people of today.
Again what is needed for video, screen, camera, computer and all things need and a reasonable supply network.
Mr. Whitlow’s post wasn’t intended to be a guide for installing proper equipment, but rather an encouragement for churches to use video in their worship services. Talk with an A/V specialist, but also do your homework in researching his or her claims. Issues such as screen size, front or rear projection, surface choices, ambient lighting, projector placement, brightness of projector, types of wiring, switchers, computer interfaces, etc. are all important considerations when deciding on a system. Hopefully, future posts can tackle many of these issues. Thanks for reading!
I like your playlist reasons
Mr. Whitlow, and it would seem the NCBSC, (see The Seven Pillars Campaign) have apparently concluded that the use of video in our “Church services” (I personally make a distinction between informational and devotional usage) is appropriate and if I read his enthusiasm correctly, urgently needed. My uneasiness with his article, and our Association’s growing advocacy for the use of more recent technology in general and video in particular, is that its advocates seem to have asked only “can we use it?” and not “Should we use it?” In all the pomotional articles I’ve seen, I’ve yet to see from our State Convention a soundly Biblical examination of the issue altogether. I’ve seen none of the “wrestling” with the issues that was present in the Iconoclastic Controversy of the early church, or even the passionate discussions of the Regulative and Normative Pirnciples of Worship in the Reformation era, even though these historic issues and the attempts to resolve them within the life of the church have a direct and relevant significance for our “modern” discussions. I suspect that the absence of such Scriptural considerations and Biblical conviction has in large part contributed to the so called “worship Wars.” I need no convincing that “video” is a powerful medium, the impact of secular media upon our generation is painfully obvious. Its precisely this reality that ought to motivate and demand our careful, Biblical, and prayerful consideration.
The one thing that prevents us from using more video is the lack of knowledge about resources. From a post last year…I discovered that showing YouTube videos isn’t legal. Is there a list of “inexpensive” resources for a church who is just breaking into the use of video?
Thanks for the comment. I am working on providing a resource of video sources in the next few weeks. Some YouTube videos are legal. You just have to be careful that they don’t contain copyrighted material used without permission.