How to Start Live Streaming Your Church Service

With COVID-19 changing the way churches and other organizations operate, we want to take this opportunity to share some tips on how to live stream your church services if you are a beginner! Live streaming is an excellent way to stay connected with your church family during this time of social distancing. It is also useful for other situations like inclement weather, making it dangerous for people to travel to church

Live streaming doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive! Below you can find a list of items you will need to start a live stream, as well as how to do it without any fancy equipment!

Things you will need to start live streaming your services:

1. A camera. Some churches are blessed to have a high-quality, professional camera that can be used for this purpose, but that is not a necessity. You can use pretty much any device as long as it has a decent camera. Even devices like a laptop or smartphone will do the job.

2. Lighting! While low light might create a nice atmosphere when your congregation meets in person, it doesn’t show well on camera. If you can, invest in some basic lighting to enhance the quality of the video, or just make sure to record your live stream in a room that has plenty of natural light.

3. A Live streaming platform. There are many options to choose from when it comes to platforms for streaming. Some are free for churches to use, and others require a paid subscription.

Free and user-friendly live stream platforms

1. Facebook Live – Most of us use Facebook on a daily basis anyway, so why not use it to live stream your service? This is a completely free way that your church can always stay connected to your congregation. Just open your Facebook app, or access your Facebook page on your computer, and click “Live”!

2. YouTube Live – YouTube is another free option for churches. If you don’t currently have a YouTube channel, you can create one for free in just a few minutes. Like Facebook, you can live stream on YouTube directly from the app, and on almost any device. Once you have your account set up, just go to your channel, click on “YouTube Studio” and then click “Go live”.

There are many other options for streaming platforms to choose from, but for a church that is just starting a live stream for the first time, Facebook and YouTube are flexible and user-friendly options.

Of course, there are much more sophisticated ways to live stream. If your church has expensive cameras, lighting, and software that you can use, that’s a huge blessing, and we encourage you to utilize those resources! We just want all churches to know that there are simple, cost effective ways that they can stay in touch with their church family virtually, while practicing social distancing. For more information about hosting online services, you can read more on Brotherhood Mutual’s website.

Happy streaming!