“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
You’ve heard that phrase before. As have I. If this is true, then a video is worth a million words.
Let’s take a brief parenthesis for a moment, shall we? What are some ways that churches communicate with their people?
eNewsletters.
Social media.
Letters.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is nothing more powerful than video. This is not a new thing, by the way. This has already been true for a long time. Just note the trend in social media. It has gone from text driven (Facebook) to video (Snapchat and Beme). I’ll write more about that some other time.
So here’s a few lessons:
1. Video it or it didn’t happen.
Video every event that your church does. Do you have a training event? Are you doing something in the community? Even a regular weekend worship service. Capture it on video. You can easily report on something that happened via a picture on Facebook or through your church e-newsletter, but people won’t really register it very much. But if you have a video of the event that you can play in church? Boom. A million times more powerful.
Here’s a video, for example, of an event we did called Haircuts for Kids. (Can’t see the video? Click here). We did free haircuts, before picture day, in our local public elementary schools. All the stylists donated their services. A local farm donated 200 pumpkins. We also played games with the kids. This event got on the local news and generated some nice buzz in the community.
Could I report on this in person and show some pictures of the event? Sure. But a video like this will be 100x more effective. Even if you have to pay for someone to record and edit, do it. I think we paid around $200 for this video to be shot and edited.
2. Get a simple camera or a GoPro.
I got a GoPro this past December to record evangelism related events I’m a part of. I’m going to record every single thing that I oversee that we do this year. There are lots of different kinds of cameras out there, but as I thought about it, a GoPro is the best kind for events like these. If it’s in the waterproof case, for example, you don’t have to worry about it being damaged. You can pass it around to different ministries so they could record their own events. It’s fairly worry-proof.
Don’t worry about having professional-looking footage, by the way. There are some basics of shooting video that I’ve learned—that will be another future post—but for the most part, the story is the most important thing. As long as you have a half-decent camera, it could even be your iPhone, then you’re good.
3. Learn to do basic editing.
Not to add to your already huge list of things that you already do as a pastor, but, this might be a skill that you should consider developing. If you have someone who can edit your videos, splendid, but if not, do it yourself. I’ll be editing my own videos this year.
Here are three videos I shot and edited this past Christmas on the GoPro. It will help to give you an idea of what’s possible.
Here’s the first one I shot at my brother’s house:
Second:
…and here’s the last one I shot. Actually, I have one more, but I haven’t edited it, yet.
So what about you? Do you already do some video in your church? How do you use it? Feel free to leave a link to the video in the comments so others can see an example. If you’re not already using video, what do you think is your next step? (To leave a comment scroll below or click here.)
Do you want a dissenting opinion? Actually, I think videos like this, of family and church activities, are nice and have a useful place. But many times when videos are used in church I have a negative reaction–though I acknowledge I may be a minority, and it may relate to my advanced age. 🙂 But, first, they are usually played at a decibel level that hurts my ears. Second, they almost always are paired with music I dislike, but I’m forced to endure it. Third, movies/videos professionally done are often overdramatized, over-emotionalized, so that they become irritating to people who haven’t desentized their emotions with too much viewing, and without an accompanying outlet for response they can also lead to immunization or desensitization. Fourth, they often seem gimmicky, as if the reasoning is: We’re trying to reach the young people here, and young people like media and technology, so we need to start the sermon with a video–when I think the point could be made without it. And it’s not exclusively an age thing, as I know at least one younger couple who stay out in the hallway with their young children, e.g., whenever highly dramatized videos are played between footwashing and the Lord’s Supper, because the violence and strong emotions are inappropriate for the children to view.
Yes, thank you! Dissenting opinions are always welcome 🙂
Indeed, there needs to be a balance. Videos and how music is paired with it can play on emotions in an unfair way. It’s a really powerful medium and needs to be used responsibly. The other side, of course, is that video is the world where young people live. So the question that we have to wrestle with is, how do we communicate in a culture that is increasingly becoming more video-driven? Not easy, as can see.
By the way, I should clarify that I’m not suggesting that all these videos should be shown in church. These could be linked to in the church e-newsletters, shared on social media, placed on the church’s youtube page, etc. My main point is that there is no better way to communicate and do justice to an event than video. You can’t often communicate the emotion and essence of something in a photo or a few sentences.
whew, I thought I was the only person who thought this way. I have literally thought all four points when they play videos in church. thanks for the post.