There are now more ways for churches to stream that ever before. COVID-19 has also pushed most churches around the world to make streaming an option and, in some instances the only option. We’ve seen churches reach their congregants and beyond through streaming on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and many other solutions. Now more than ever, it is more important to stream only to your church website without social media.
I’m not suggesting that you don’t stream to social media platforms at all, but advocating not streaming through them as your primary means of streaming.
What is the difference between Streaming Services?
You may have heard of streaming church services live online for free from YouTube to Facebook, and from third party apps like Restream, Switcher, and others. The difference between these services is that the video player used to watch the streamed church service belongs to the social network, and is not your own embeddable video player.
So what’s the alternative?
The alternative is to use a paid service like Vimeo and others, that give you control of the video player and the content. In other words, even though you are multi-casting your sermon to Facebook, you’re also casting it to your website, and keeping control of your website visitors’ experience.
Why would I pay extra and go through the hassle of streaming sermons through another player on our church website? Great question! Let me give you 6 reasons to stream only to your church website without social media, since you asked. 😉
Why Stream To Your Website Only, Without Social Media
#01 Avoid Social Media Advertisements
All social media networks are free to use because they are ad-supported. How every social network works is they collect data about each user, including their email address, IP address, geographic movement, browsing history, and demographic data. This builds a profile that advertisers can now use to market their products and services too. In other words, the user is the product that advertisers target.
When you only stream your church service to YouTube and Facebook, you’re asking your congregation and others to use a product that is designed for advertising.
Those ads are personalized, so there is a chance that your church sermon may be put right next to a dog food ad.
Why does this matter? It matters if you’ve only made your church sermons available through this medium. If you have a website, that is your central hub for all content you’ve created, including live events and recorded sermons. It matters that you provide access to this content where everyone expects to find it; ON YOUR WEBSITE.
#02 Content Cannot Get Flagged
Unfortunately in today’s political climate, Christian Nationalism has taken over many headlines and have been wrongly associated with the historical orthodox Christian faith. Anyone who takes a moment to examine the differences will see these are distinct groups with very little overlap. Christian Nationalism has been identified as antithetical to the Gospel. More can be read on this subject in Michael Horton’s book, Christless Christianity.
The issue at hand is that social media networks are actively monitoring and removing content that is ‘disagreeable’ to their advertising interests. Meaning, there is a chance that some content may be flagged as offensive or hate speech, especially if your sermons are an exposit of what scripture teaches on sexuality, marriage, sin, and other non-conforming topics. Even the Gospel itself is offensive, as the scriptures tell us (1 Pet 2:7-8, 1 For 1:18), leaving little to no control over the content a social network chooses to remove.
Having your content streamed on properties you manage, like your website, leaves no method for content to be reported, and/or removed.
This doesn’t mean you can’t simulcast live events or upload prerecorded content to social network, it just means that the primary channel to find and engage your content should be your website.
#03 Avoid Offending Your Audience
Jesus’ Church is the most diverse body in all of human history. Scripture tells us that God will redeem people from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”. (Rev 7:9) This means that she, the Church, will include all different types of people. Over the past 2 years, issues of racial injustice have been in the forefront of daily life. This means the church should be aware and empathize with those impacted by what is going on in our world.
Even today, racial justice groups are organizing Facebook boycotts and protests. Meaning, they are actively asking people to leave or avoid Facebook at all costs as a form of peaceful protest. For those church members who want to participate, what options do they have to watch sermons online if you’re only on Facebook?
Regardless of whether you agree with the issues at protest, scripture tells us that, “A brother who is offended is harder to be won than a strong city, And quarrels are like the bars of a citadel.” (Pr 18:19) So instead of asking someone to violate their conscience in order to participate in online events, give them your website which is untethered from the social media.
#04 Guilty By Association
As I mentioned earlier, Facebook, YouTube, and other free social media networks are advertising platforms that users get to use in exchange for their data. Unfortunately, what can happen to users of these platforms is content can be associated with other content because users sometimes cannot distinguish between content and ads.
On Facebook, a feed is filled with advertisements that don’t stand out, unless you’re looking for the lightly greyed out Sponsored or Ad tag.
On YouTube there’s ads before, during, and after content along with content recommendations after videos in the player window and on the right hand side. The content owner has some control over what is recommended or what ads can display, but not complete control. The ads shown are related to the user’s watch and browser history.
Meaning, content can be associated with your church, even though it has nothing to do with it. I know this is not an issue in most cases, however, the point is that this does not happen if you host the video on your website. And avoid embedding YouTube videos on your website, as the recommended videos will still appear.
There is nothing wrong with using an app like Restream or Switcher to multi-cast your church service to YouTube for example, then embed the YouTube player on your website. However, YouTube’s player will still include recommended videos and advertisements even when it’s embedded to your site.
Google’s own help document reads: “If you don’t want to show ads on your embedded videos, there’s no way to directly turn off ads on embedded videos only. You may turn off embedding altogether.” (accessed 06 Jan 2022)
#05 Beyond the Hardware
The heavy investment in hardware for live streaming is all the more reason to invest in the software to support, store, and maintain the content that is being created with all that hardware. As part of the investment, video storage is huge problem churches have to deal with. Pun intended! File sizes of raw HD and 4K video can get out of control, and hosting that storage offsite is critical for disaster recovery purposes.
Spending a fixed monthly cost for the ability to provide streaming through your website along with video storage will always be less expensive than buying terabytes of redundant onsite storage that needs to be setup, maintained, powered, and have battery backup. That does not even include figuring out how to copy and store that data offsite in case of an emergency.
#06 Children’s Ministry
IMHO this is the strongest case for using your own player on your own website.
When / if you want a younger audience to view your sermon content either live or prerecorded, you’ll want to give them a safe online experience that parents can trust. Most parents are aware of the content found on social media networks is inappropriate for younger audiences. Knowing this parents will put parental controls and filters on the networks and devices their kids use. This includes blocking channels like Facebook (not Meta) and YouTube.
How can you minister to kids with online sermons and Sunday school content, if it is only available on social media channels? The short answer is, you can’t! When you host your content on your website using your church web domain, parents or guardians can white-list or allow access to your church website without fear of inappropriate content being presented. There’s not rotating recommendations of videos, no advertisements or commercials with language or scenes you’re uncomfortable with.
Do you have anything to add or discuss? Perhaps sharing your church’s approach to streaming and social media. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this?
This post is the first of two. Also check out the follow up: Cost Of Streaming To Your Church’s Website here.
Blessing Mpofu says
These are great reasons to stream to your church website. I like that they not only take into account avoiding noise from social media platforms but also can help address some privacy concerns congregants and or guests might also have.