5 Ways to Host Online Church Worship Services
I don’t recommend providing specific hosting for online-only until you reach 1,500 people in the room. Last week, I discussed this in my Tech & Digital Strategy Recommendations for Small, Medium, and Large Churches blog post. However, I have been hosting online worship services since 2011 and have some thoughts on how to do it. I found some early footage of our online hosting, and it was funny to see me in 2011. Sandals for hosting? So SoCal of me :)
Me hosting in 2011 in sandals
I think hosting for those online is a compelling experience, but it’s not for every church and really not for most churches. But let's say you are ready to do it. There are many ways to execute this idea, and we’ve tried them all over the years. I just found this old Google Slides deck I put together for one of the changes I pitched. You might find it fun to see. It was titled “Streaming Plan for the Online Community,” and I presented this to my leadership. By the way, the presentation worked, and we upgraded our streaming plan after that presentation. Now, I’ve listed five options to host online worship services and provided many examples. Pick the one that works best for your church. Also, I have a whole “Streaming Church?” chapter in my book to dive deeper into this topic.
5 Ways to Host Online Worship Services
1. Talk to People Online & the Room Simultaneously
You don’t need to change much in this approach. When hosting in the room, talk to those online simultaneously. You have to figure out the balance between looking at the audience in the room and looking into the camera. I think Central Church does this the best and has been doing this for a long time. I believe most churches should embrace this option if you want to engage people online in some manner.
Pros:
It is easy to start doing now if you are already live-streaming your worship service.
In these moments, strategically, you can invite people online to attend your next worship service in person. For example, “Next week, we are starting a new series, and everyone that attends gets this special card, but you need to be here to get it.” Another example: we did a Bible reading plan last year at my church and handed out these special Bibles. We would say to those online, “We are starting the Anchored Life challenge next week, and everyone who attends one of our campuses will get a free Bible. If you watch online, you’ll get digital access to the reading plan, but if you want a Bible, attend in person that weekend.” The idea is to introduce strategic friction to drive your end in mind, and by hosting moments like this, you can engage your online audience to show up to the room experience.
Cons:
It can be hard to balance looking at the camera and the room. Sometimes, the in-room experience can feel like they are on a TV show type of experience if not done correctly. I recommend focusing 80% on the room and only 20% engaging those online. That way, you make the room experience feel more engaged.
Central Church in Las Vegas
2. Pre-Record Host Moments
Record the intro and outro videos during the week, which will be pushed to the live feed before the worship service in-room experience starts and after the in-room experience ends. It's a simple way to experiment with talking to those online without figuring out how to live stream from different spots in your worship space.
Pros:
Control the quality of the experience. If everything is pre-recorded, you know the quality of the capture before going live. When you go live, more things can break. Mics don’t work, or the framing of the shot is off. Trust me, things can go wrong.
There is no need for extra volunteers or production people to pull off a live hosting experience. Typically, your current volunteers are busy on a Sunday morning, so pulling off another live experience requires double the team. With this approach, you don’t need another team. Use that team during the week to capture the intro/outro and just play the videos on Sunday morning.
Cons:
There is no ability to make changes based on the live experience because the videos are already captured. For example, maybe the message title from your pastor changes, but you said it in the video because you recorded it on Thursday. These are the things you can’t change in this approach. Pre-recorded intros/outros must stay pretty neutral in what you talk about if things change a lot on Sunday morning.
Sometimes, pre-recorded videos can feel disconnected from the room experience and feel stale if not recorded correctly. For example, the space you record may be empty and have no kinetic energy then you cut to a live worship song with tons of kinetic energy. Also, pre-recorded moments can be too scripted, and it just looks like someone is reading off a teleprompter. When we did pre-recorded videos we started to do bullet points and no longer use scripts to avoid this feeling in our intros/outros.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
3. Simple Live Hosted Experience from the Room
Live host at your worship services a few minutes before and after.
Pros:
This type of capture is high-energy and almost has the “there is a party here, and you are missing out” vibe.
It can be programmed lightly, but it’s a causal and conversational dialogue between two dynamic people. It's fun to put younger people in these moments and give them a stage to grow in their ability to speak to a large audience. It can be like a minor league development pipeline for your staff/volunteers before they host a worship service in the room.
Also, you can change the script if the pastor changes the message. For example, if he makes a strong salvation call at the end of the message, you can close the online worship service by explaining how those online can indicate they prayed the prayer. The idea is you can host the service in real-time and continue the tone of the weekend worship because you are in the room and know what is happening.
Cons:
It does take some technical skill and gear to capture live hosting without video/audio issues.
It does require a new production team to pull off an experience like this well every week.
Usually, you need a separate TV/space to monitor the feed of what is happening on the online stream versus the house, in-room experience.
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
4. Robust Hosted Experience for Online
Live host, but add robust custom programming just for those online.
Pros:
Create programming directly for those online and try to get them to engage deeply with you. You start to explore this option because your online audience is growing, and you want to move beyond just streaming to get people in online groups and discipleship classes and even start giving online. This happens because there is space for people to engage deeply and not just watch at your church.
Unpacking stories and highlighting Zoom options in the pre-service and post-service experience shows that it’s actually possible for those online to engage deeply.
You hire a real “shepherd” of the online community at your church and move beyond just hosting your online worship service. Creating more moments for those online allows them to feel heard and known, and as a result, they will grow in their faith and want to engage with others. This will allow your streams to grow not just in views but deep and wide type of growth. It will feel like a real community, not just a modern-day TV broadcast.
Cons:
To capture a live experience like this without video/audio issues, it takes some technical skill, gear, and some production planning to execute correctly.
Again, just like option 3, it will require a new team to pull this off and space to monitor how everything looks for those online. It is an investment of time and resources to do it well.
Example 1
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COTR does an intro and outro show for those online, and it also cuts into the middle of the stream to talk to those online. They have a total of three moments where they talk to those online-only and have an online pastor who shepherds the COTR Online community. I really love the overall vibe of COTR weekly online worship service experience.
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Example 2
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Southeast Christian Church does a whole show for those online, even cuts to different campuses live, and the production value is super high. Shoutout to Stephen Puricelli, their online pastor, who has answered all my questions over the years. I’ve learned a lot from their online experience.
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Example 3
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Elevation Church is one of the OGs that host online. They know what they are doing and are the best in the business. Chad Zollo, their online pastor, is a fantastic leader; I’m always learning something from him. They build things right for those online for their eFam. I used to joke they do a pep rally every week because their energy is always top-level. What they do every week is impressive. Nobody does it like Elevation Church.
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5. Full Custom Worship Service For Online
Create a custom worship service for those online. It is no longer a live-hosted experience but built from the ground up for those online.
Pros:
You can eliminate any local or in-room language and create something entirely for those online. For example, you create something for YouTube and talk to those on YouTube without confusing those in the room.
You invest in this approach because you want those who worship online to use the online worship experience to start house churches, and/or you see strategic reasons to nurture your YouTube audience directly. For example, giving online has increased, and this is a way to provide a “campus” experience and explore what it would look like to expand your online-only experience.
Cons:
Disconnecting from a live experience is challenging because local people want the live stream, and navigating that change can be tough for core people.
Also, more processes are needed to produce the product, and the right technical skills are needed to make it available in various formats. Like options 3 and 4, you need a new team to pull off this type of experience every week.
Example 1
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Saddleback Church creates a custom worship service for the Online Communtiy every week. We record our online service hosting elements after the first worship service on Saturday night, go to editing immediately, and it is available late Saturday evening. We record after the first worship service because we get to react to what actually happens during the worship service. Because we have Saturday night services, this is a luxury of our weekly worship service schedule. Our online worship service includes a few songs from our worship service that weekend and the message that weekend, but everything else is recorded for those online every Saturday night. We repurpose elements from the in-room experience for our online worship service and keep the experience under 1 hour.
We still allow those who attend our largest campus worship service to get a live worship service stream, but that is limited to a specific campus page. The worship service on our main worship stream page, uploaded to YouTube and Facebook, is our custom online worship service.
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Here is an example of a typical online worship service that is edited on Saturday evenings.
You can see an example of how we can offer communion for those engaging online and edit out the communion moment that happened in the room at our largest campus.
Example 2
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Life.Church does a bit of a mix, like Saddleback Church, of pre-recording their hosting elements before and after, but the live online worship experience is captured in a controlled environment. What that means is that they usually record their message centrally, and that message is played at their 40+ locations. They have a dialed-in workflow and have optimized how they do online into their weekly workflow. It's produced very well, which is why they are one of the best at creating things for those online and one of the biggest online ministries.
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Example 3
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To my knowledge, Mariners Church records everything for those online, separate from a local in-room experience. The hosting, the music, and even the message are recorded just for those online. They are experimenting significantly in this area, which I think is paying off. Justin Herman serves as their Online Discipleship Pastor and is one of the first online pastors to live remotely. The church is in Southern California, but Justin lives in the Phoenix, AZ area. Again, they are experimenting a ton in this season of their church. It's fun to learn from Mariners.
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Example 4
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Churchome is one of the OGs that created something for a fully decentralized church. I wrote about them six years ago when they pivoted to this new approach. You need to attend live to see their custom worship service, and the best way to do that is through their app. Limiting everything to the app shows they are trying to drive deep engagement. Some friction can be good if you know your long-term goals. They also do pop-up streams from LA and various locations, but their main weekly worship service is custom for those online and is used for home worship service experiences. Also, they create custom experiences online for different age groups.
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A video breakdown of the blog post with some extra commentary