Have you ever watched a video that impacted you or moved you emotionally? Has a video ever changed your mind or led you to take action in some way? Has a video ever made you laugh or made you cry? I think it’s safe to say that videos can have a profound impact on us. All of us have been affected at one point or another by a video that we watched.

In this article, I want to explore the importance of video, how effective it can be, and what you can do to get started in creating the types of videos that move you. The world of video production can be a daunting one. With all that’s involved, it can be difficult to know where to start. Our hope is to provide you with the tools that you need to capture and create excellent and impactful video content.

We believe that church media is so much more than just great-looking images on a screen, it’s helping people to connect to the church and find a place to belong. In a digital age, video is quickly becoming the primary source of consumption. The statistics are staggering. Here are just a few in particular:

• 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day. (Hubspot)
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text. (Insivia)
• Social media posts with video have 48% more views. (HubSpot)
• Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. (G2 Crowd)

If our ultimate purpose in all that we do is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we should desire to use any means to be as effective as possible. As you can see by the stats above, video is currently the most effective means of spreading any message, so therefore it is enormously important for us to utilize it.

Many people outside of the church have a poor image of what the church is really like. They hear a lot of bad news and form their perception based on that. The power of video is that it provides people with an experience. Consider this: someone who would never consider stepping foot inside of a church might see a video that you post to social media from your church. Maybe it’s a testimony video or a fun recap of a conference or a promo for an upcoming community event your church is putting on. To that unchurched person, watching a video is no risk to them at all and requires little time and effort, so out of curiosity, they might hit play. Through that video, they experience what church is really like. They see the love and compassion and connection that people have. They see that we’re a fun group of people who care significantly about others. They get to see how people’s lives have been changed by Christ and the joy and fulfillment that we carry. They experience all of this in just a matter of a few minutes from a video that they happened to see on social media. In just a few minutes, their perception of church is completely changed and they might even consider going in person to check it out. They may click on your church’s profile and watch more videos and consider coming to a service or an event because they feel like they know what to expect from watching the videos.

Video content is so incredibly important because it takes the experience of what goes on in church out to those who are outside of it. It invites them into the experience, shows them what they can expect, and helps them to establish a connection before ever stepping foot inside of a church building. Video is one of the most important and effective tools that you can be using right now to reach people and we want to equip you with what you need in order to do it with excellence. No matter where you’re at or what you have available to you, you can start today.

What you need to get started

Many people don’t start because they feel they need to have all of the right equipment to do so, but the truth is that it’s much more important to know the right concepts and principles than it is to have the best equipment. A video shot with an iPhone can be more effective than one shot with a $50,000 cinema camera if you utilize the right principles.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be exploring what you need to know in order to create excellent and effective video content. We will be sharing the type of equipment that you need to start, how to use that equipment effectively in order to capture what you want and how you want it, the important factors that go into creating professional-looking videos, the filmmaking process, and how to develop an effective plan from beginning to end. Through this beginner’s guide series, we will be sharing concepts that will help give you a foundation to build from.

We’re so glad that we can take part in your journey to becoming more effective in reaching the world around you with the gospel of Jesus. Our goal is to equip you with everything you need to do it with excellence and to be as effective as you can be.

Are you looking for the right tools and resources but feel overwhelmed by all of the options? Check out our resources page for a thorough breakdown of all the equipment, software, and services that we use and have had great success with. We hope that it will help you in your journey and save you a lot of time.

We’ve also put together a toolkit of helpful resources to jump-start your church media. It contains several tools and strategies that we have developed to create effective and excellent media. We’ve included a video shot list, which is the number one most important tool that I use on every shoot I do! Click below to download the Toolkit for absolutely free! If you’re unsure of how to develop a shot list, I will be demonstrating my process in detail in later articles, so keep an eye out for that!

Hit subscribe so you never miss a post and submit any questions that you have about creating church media and we’d be happy to answer them for you!