How To Create More Engaging Church Videos

Engaging church videos not only get watched, but shared. Odds are, you probably know of at least a few Christian videos that have went viral recently.

People you’ve watched them not only remember the content, but the church as well. It definitely pays to create more engaging videos to reach a wider audience.

Remember, it’s not just your members who are watching your videos. Anyone who can access the Internet is a potential viewer, so engage them all.

Get Out In The Community

How many of your church videos are set in your church? They’re probably all in just one room too. Your church isn’t limited to one room. Showcase your entire community. Film local spots while someone narrates.

It’s easy to tie in shots of your community to sermons, announcements, quick inspiring messages and other types of videos. Plus, local people love seeing their community featured proudly online. For others, it’s fun to get a tour of a new area. Who knows, you may just inspire new people to move to your area.

Another benefit is it shows your church cares about the community, which is endearing to viewers. Don’t be afraid to get community members in on the action. Just get permission first. Having a variety of people talking helps your videos to be more engaging.

Add In Some Comedy

Remember those videos you used to watch in school that just equaled nap time? That’s because they were boring. In case it’s not obvious, boring is not engaging.

While every video doesn’t have to be a comedy special, add in some comedy here and there. Christian comedians don’t just tell jokes. They also have a lesson or moral behind many of their jokes. So, why not be more engaging with a little comedy?

Not only will people pay more attention, but they’re more likely to remember it later. After all, don’t you remember something funny over something mundane?

Talk about a few funny anecdotes or have a hilarious joke at the end of each video. Remember, you don’t have to be funny in every video, but a sense of humor will get you a long way when it comes to viewers.

Be Comfortable And Natural

We’ve all seen those church videos where it looks like the people would rather be doing anything by filming a video. It’s painful to watch and so awkward that most viewers don’t get past the first 10 seconds.

For members, it’s confusing. Imagine a personable pastor who is suddenly stiff and shy while on camera. And yes, it does happen.

Or, people talk in monotone or too slow or fast. The most important thing to remember about church videos is to just be comfortable and natural. Be yourself and pretend the camera doesn’t exist. If you’re having trouble with this, don’t be too proud to ask someone else to help out. You can make appearances, but let others do the talking. Or, stick with voice-overs where you never have to be on camera.

Create Clear Videos

The one thing you can learn from America’s Funniest Home Videos is all videos are not created equal. Some videos are crisp and clear. Others look like they were filmed behind a screen with all sounds coming from underwater.

Currently, there is no possible way for an individual to watch all the video content uploaded online. However, a shocking five billion videos are watched daily on YouTube.

What does this mean for your church? Viewers don’t have time to waste on poor-quality videos. They want video they can see clearly on all devices, without any blur or static. They want to hear the audio without turning the volume all the way up and hoping for the best.

It’s well worth the effort to invest in the right equipment to shoot more engaging videos. This is even more important when you consider that the average person spends 88% more time on a site with video. If you want to keep people on your church site, focus on creating higher-quality videos.

Keep Them Short

This isn’t a hard and fast rule to follow, but viewers don’t want to waste their time with a rambling video. Get to the point. The length is as long as you need it to be. Remember, it’s “need,” not “want.”

For instance, a sermon video is obviously going to be as long as the sermon. However, an announcement about an upcoming event shouldn’t take 10 minutes. A quick 2-3 minute video is all you need.

If you do regular inspirational videos, you can cover quite a bit in just five minutes. A short video is easy to watch during a daily commute, while waiting in line or sitting at a kid’s after school activity. They’re more convenient and people are more likely to remember something from a short video than after being overloaded with a long, rambling video.

Use Captions

People love videos, but videos aren’t always appropriate everywhere. For instance, you wouldn’t want to watch a video in the middle of a library or while sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.

Instead, many people turn the sound off to avoid causing a scene. If you don’t have captions, your church videos might not be engaging anymore.

You don’t have to just hope these people come back to your videos later. Instead, add captions. It takes more work, but not that much. Plus, everyone can enjoy your videos, wherever they are. They won’t even have to wear headphones to do it.

Inspire Viewers To Take Action

Now that your viewers have watched your video, what next? If you just talked about being nicer to people, maybe give them a call-to-action to say “hello” or smile at a stranger while grocery shopping.

You could suggest reading certain scripture or writing down their thoughts on the video topic. The key is to make your church videos more engaging by making your viewers feel more involved. There’s a reason why video ads are so effective. They tell the viewer to buy something, go to a website or just do something.

Overall, having that verbal call-to-action makes viewers feel like they’re getting more value from your videos. More value means they’re more likely to keep coming back to watch more.

Have A Set Purpose In Mind

Rambling and boring videos often stem from one main problem – not having any idea of the purpose. If your church videos are just being made so you have videos online, please stop now!

While video is definitely something your church should be doing, every video needs a clear purpose. The last thing you want is someone watching your video and wondering “what did I just watch?”. It’s kind of like those weird movie or TV trailers where you get a bunch of clips, but nothing makes sense.

The purpose or point of your church videos should be so obvious that when a viewer is done, they could immediately explain it to someone else and no one gets confused.

It’s a great idea to outline your videos beforehand. Write a script. And, most importantly, edit before you start filming. If things go astray while filming, edit later.

Go Beyond Just The Sermon

Viewers like a variety of content. This is why there are literally hundreds of various channels. Does your church only post your sermons? While that’s something you should be sharing, that’s not all.

Have a weekly devotional video. Do a video for member and/or viewer questions. Give your volunteers the spotlight. Showcase musical talent. You get the picture. Just have a variety of different content. You don’t have to upload numerous videos every week, but adding at least one other video in addition to your sermons helps to make your videos more engaging.

Let Your Members Get Involved

Show off how engaged your members are by having them be part of your videos. Let them put on skits, show what they’re working on in the church, interview people in the community, talk with Christian leaders, show ministry groups and much more.

Letting your members get in front of the camera spices things up and gives viewers an idea of what your church is like outside of your church leaders. This gives your church more personality and helps build a stronger relationship with viewers.

Use Captions With Just Music

Sometimes, it gets boring just listening to someone talk. However, music has a way of connecting with people. Using the right background music and adding captions to your video makes your church videos seem more engaging.

Plus, after someone’s had a stressful day, they can sit back, listen to music and explore their faith. It’s a simple strategy, but it can be effective. Plus, it works well if your staff and members aren’t exactly eager to talk in front of a camera.

Think Movie Trailer

You don’t actually have to create a movie trailer, but think about how they work. They’re short, yet show a bunch of content packed into a tiny package. There aren’t a lot of words, but what words are used are meaningful.

Background music just adds to the message and makes every scene a must-watch. Incorporate this strategy into your own church videos. Make every moment count.

This works incredibly well when it comes to welcome videos or volunteer enrollment campaigns.

Remember, there is such a thing as too much. Watch some movie trailers and let yourself get inspired, but don’t get too cheesy.

Make An Impact With Your Words

If you don’t want to deal with movie trailers, there is one main takeaway to still hold on to – make every word meaningful. Think about it like this. If you only have a few seconds to grab a viewer’s attention, what would you say?

You probably wouldn’t spend 10 seconds just saying your name and what church you’re from. Everyone is busy nowadays. They need short, meaningful messages.

Not only are those more memorable, but they make a major impact. There’s a reason why people love quotes. In fact, numerous books sell every year that are just filled with various quotes. You get major impact in just a few short sentences or less.

If your words aren’t making an impact, they’re not engaging enough for your videos. Let your members hear the script and see what they think. Also, listen to feedback from your viewers to learn more about what resonates with them.

Sprinkle In Fun Parodies

If you’re having a hard time coming up with something comedic, go with a parody. It’s worked for Weird Al for years. Take popular songs or TV shows and give them your church’s unique spin. Change up lyrics for a more Christian-friendly message. Perform a parody of a major TV show or an old classic. Imagine your church having a weekly Christian parody of Saturday Night Live.

It’s important to make sure you have the rights to use or reference any content you use. The good thing is if you use YouTube, they make it easier to gain the rights you need.

Make Viewers Feel Like A Part Of The Audience

When you make church videos, there can be a massive disconnect between you and your audience. Even when it comes to sermons, don’t just talk to your members.

Reference the people watching at home. Ask them to leave questions and feedback in the comments. Make a funny joke about even though they’re watching at home, you still need to put on some pants because God’s watching. It’s fun and makes them feel included.

Look At Popular Christian YouTube Channels

Finally, take a look at how other churches and Christian leaders are taking YouTube by storm. You can learn quite a bit just by seeing what others are doing and checking out the comments from viewers. Remember, don’t just copy them. Let them inspire you to do something great with your own church videos. Use the following to get you started:

• Top 10 Christian YouTubers that Challenge, Encourage and Inspire!
• Christian YouTubers and YouTube Channels
• Current YouTube Ranks for Faith-Based Channels

In addition to engaging church videos, don’t forget to create an engaging church website to host them or link to them. Let us help you create a great church website today.

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