Streaming video of your church doesn’t need to be complicated.
Churches now have another way of reaching their congregation and broadcasting their services online:
Facebook.
“How,” you ask, “can I stream my services live on Facebook?” Glad you asked.
If your church has a Facebook fan page and a LiveStream or UStream account streaming your church’s services (or other events), streaming through Facebook is just a few clicks away.
Now, I’m making an assumption that your church is already broadcasting their services through one of these fine video streaming services. If you’re not already doing that, you may want to read some of the other great articles here about how to get started today! Wow! That’s a ton of information!
Done? Good. Now let’s talk about setting up your fan page on Facebook for live video streaming.
Both UStream and LiveStream have apps that you can install in Facebook. Just do a quick search and you’ll find them. Not sure what you’re looking for? Check out the handy tutorials here:
Add the app to your page, configure that puppy, and BAM! You’re streaming video through Facebook!
OK, the instructions are a little more detailed than that but I think you see the point.
If you’re already streaming video of your church services, all you need to do to extend your reach to Facebook is add one of these cool little apps to your fan page and you have another great way to reach out to people stuck at home because their sick, have no transportation, or maybe they’re just looking for a new church home and don’t want to drive to several different churches to see what your services are like.
Many people spend a lot of time on Facebook these days and it’s fast becoming a way that people search for things that interest them. Now you can reach out and touch them through the power of live video on your Facebook fan page.
Brilliant!
Anthony Wayne says
This certainly makes sense. I guess “virtual church” is next. Why have all of that money used on a building when you can just have a virtual church and use the donations to use God’s work instead of paying for the upkeep of a building. How many years away do you think that is? Probably less than you think.
Rasheed says
Hello Tom,
Thanks for the great article; the link to ‘view previous articles’ is not working. I am redirect to a 404 page. I am really interested in starting a video ministry and presence. I need information from purchasing a video camera to editing software and from this article I know the vehicle to broadcasting the weekly services.
Keep up the good. God Bless you and your team. – Rasheed
John says
This is something we are working towards. Your “other great articles here” link is empty.
Thanks. Stay blessed…john
Douglas Porter says
We have switched back and forth between the two but the ads are getting worse. We’d like to pay but not as high as they require. I’ve seen http://sermoncast.com but they charge based on church membership instead of viewers. Anyone have a better recommendation? Or have used sermoncast?
Stacey says
There seems to be alot of streaming providers for Churches popping up on the scene lately. Finding an affordable ad free service with decent features is difficult though. I’ve seen services ranging from around $50/mth upwards of $300/mth. The cheaper ones tease you with a low price for live streaming with lots of restrictions on numbers of viewers, etc and then if you want to archive the live portion for later viewing they charge more for that and most limit on how many videos can be stored. Some charge a flat rate for the service and then charge for bandwidth….. For my own research, I googled for a while recently and found what appears to be a good middle of the road service which is http://www.mychurchlive.tv They offer a customized webcast/replay site and a flat rate of $99/mth for unlimited use. It’s ad free and has no limits on # of viewers, length of event, etc. Unlimited also applies to how many services can be archived for later viewing as well as they don’t appear to limit the quality you can stream at. They have a few sample sights of Churches using the service you can check out to. Hope this helps !