Video Ministry — Not Just for Big Churches

More and more small and medium-sized churches have embraced the use of technology in a variety of settings from enhanced websites, online giving, and video projectors for worship. But few small to mid-sized churches, in my experience, have really considered in-house video production as a viable ministry.

More and more small and medium-sized churches have embraced the use of technology in a variety of settings from enhanced websites, online giving, and video projectors for worship. But few small to mid-sized churches, in my experience, have really considered in-house video production as a viable ministry.

Most people assume that it takes tons of money and tons of equipment and tons of skill to pull it off. But increasingly this is not true.

At St. Paul’s Collegiate Church we have found the ability to produce in-house videos has been huge for us in terms of worship, teaching, and a whole host of other applications within the church.

We started with a decent video camera, an Adobe Premier suite of software, a pretty good desktop (lots of ram and memory and an upgraded video card) and a high school student with lots of creativity and passion for video. Our entire upfront cost was under $5,000 for this ministry, and we could have done it for less.

And with that we have been able to produce videos that we have used in our worship service, as part of our teaching, and in other areas as well.

By producing videos in-house, they are relevant and connected directly with our community, with our sermon series, etc. I have used outside videos before in my teaching (check out sermonspice.com, the Willow Creek Association and the MediaShout website for some great stuff). But they all feel a bit “outside” our culture and sometimes “not quite right”.

With in-house production we can really tailor it to our audience and community.

We have also found that this is a great ministry for budding artists in our midst. Both the local high school and university offer video production classes, so finding people with the skills needed to work in Adobe Premiere or a similar software package is not that difficult. Also, you may be surprised who in your congregation already owns much of the equipment needed for basic video projects.

We don’t use video every week — we are pretty selective so that it doesn’t feel over done. For us, it really has filled the role that drama can play in other churches.

Some examples of what we have done include a volunteer celebration video, word-on-the-street videos (which are great as a jump-start for a sermon), reflection videos for worship/offertories, etc, baptism videos, etc. Other possibilities include testimonies and individual stories as well as more artistic concepts.

Recently we actually sent our video team to Haiti with the Haitian Health Foundation to produce a video for them. In the future we are hoping to do this more often for groups like HHF and other missionary organizations we support. It is a great and practical way to help these ministries.

If you want to see some of the videos our folks have put together, you can see them here.

As we think about creative elements in worship, video is a great resource to use in our services and accessible to any church with almost any sized budget.

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Ben Dubow is Lead & Founding Pastor of St. Paul’s Collegiate Church in Storrs, CT. He also works as a church and leadership consultant and event/retreat/conference speaker.