Written in 2018
Live streaming promotes a celebrity complex that hinders the church from being an authentic community. Instead, it becomes a brand with a fan base.
– Sager
Dear Pastor, Church Leader, and People interested in Live Streaming your church service, this letter is my call to think critically about what you hope to accomplish.
Live streaming is a possible option for churches due to recent leaps in technological advancement. The excitement of using new technology and racing to implement it has led churches to integrating live streaming without considering the divisions it places on their local Church community. The emphasis is that live streaming your services only divides your community by creating at least four distinct groups: the local audience, the online audience, the stage presence, and the techies. The goal is to examine how a local community turns into a divided group and the community stops being a collective and isolates the groups further than before. There are exceptions to this, and those will be examined in order to provide a well-rounded thought prompt to live streaming.
The Local Audience
Each live stream venue generally has a live audience. Depending on who the primary audience is will determine how people interact with the session. For a Basketball game, professional or college, consider how many time-outs are called just to allow commercial cuts. Sponsors ask for time devoted to promote their contribution in hopes of gaining screen time for marketing. Thankfully churches generally are not so driven to provide sponsored interruptions. From a recent Facebook questionnaire, I had several people admit that their church acknowledges the live stream audience briefly in announcements or at the start of service before returning the attention to their local congregation. However, without the rare integration of an online lead/pastoral team, most people whose churches use live stream also admitted to no interaction between the online audience and the local audience.
A community is formed by the people who do things together, and there is obviously a potential divide between the online and physical people if they are not interacting together. Recently while running a live stream for a conference I was promoted to admin for their Facebook page in order to make corrections as needed on the Facebook live videos. The organization rarely interacts with the audience on their videos, but I decided to take the initiative of answering questions and interacting with the audience. While this distracted me from being fully invested in those physically around me, I was able to keep the online audience engaged. A lot of people, however, were making shout-outs to people they knew at the conference (physically). I began to wonder, would these people attending the conference go back and watch these live streamed videos in search of the parents, friends, and co-workers comments? And how do you feel sending a message to someone in the void of cyberspace, knowing that they will probably not answer you? But mostly what does the live audience think and feel about their online audience? Are they thinking about Jane and John Doe in the nursing home, or Mary Sue watching her sick kids at home? Are they considering the time, effort, and taxation of the soul the people that provide an atmosphere of worship and connectivity are putting into this project?
The Taxation of the Tech’s Soul
The integration of live streaming and a local event is a grand new integration of technology and possibility. Newer, and cheaper technology allows for easier integration and adaptation to implement this fascinating development, but who will maintain and set up the technology? It is not only setup and maintenance but running the content that we must consider. Who will run the audio to make sure it is clean, not too loud and not too quiet, and transmitting properly? Who is running the camera(s) to make sure that whatever is being streamed is in frame, and visible to the online audience? Who is making sure that there is no serious lag, or that the video starts on time?
These responsibilities fall underneath those more technically gifted or those who are running technical projects within the church. These people are the ones who have a job during service to make sure it all works so that people can consume the content. Because of this, they are often focused more on the technical aspects of the product and the deliverables than participating in worship alongside their local congregation. This taxation that makes a church service a time of work instead of rest can be burdensome on the soul. Especially if the rotation of capable staff/volunteers is inadequate, forcing a select few individuals to continuously run and maintain this process of distribution.
“The noise of constant distraction and technological advancement in my place of supposed spiritual refreshment demanded not that I be a complex and contradicting human, but the consumer of a message packaged to reach as many people as possible. This message is carefully honed to my supposed needs, using the same analytics the growth hackers of Silicon Valley use to find those moments of silence I might be in and feed me another alert” (Smith).
The rest of the congregation may not realize it but the requests of the worship team to promote a space, and atmosphere for worship burdens techs to craft these pieces for the desired effect. As Drew Smith says, “I was taught how to manipulate an environment with sound, video, and light, to create the specific type of emotion needed to get a specific response.” In his article, “Becoming Anglican”, he explains how he was so distracted by perfecting the desired outcome that he did not realize that the first two things thrown out to focus on his work were: the worship and the sermon. My own experience similar to Drew’s. I spent years behind the soundboard, on stage, behind cameras, and always learning the technical ways to “lead people into worship”. Though looking back all it was, was learning to manipulate people’s emotions by controlling the environment. We cannot ignore that the stress put on the tech workers in a church will eventually affect them. Who are they? Are they being poured into with theological teaching of why we are doing what we are doing? Have the leaders of a church thought about the subtle things they are expressing and asking the techs to do?
In my own experience, most of the smaller churches running any technical production use a lot of young, impressionable, yet not fully mature people. They are children who have not begun to critically ask why they are doing certain things. This places them in a dangerous place of being ignorant to the burnout, distractions, and isolation they are stepping into. Techs must be aware of the congregation and the needs of the congregation, in much the same way the leadership of the church should be. But it is also the leadership’s role to be mindful of the taxation they are putting on the tech’s soul.
“…machines are not the issue, man’s use of technique is and ignoring that is ignoring the world and people around us” (Smith).
We cannot aimlessly send children into a place of distraction and isolation from the local congregation, teaching them skills to manipulate emotions without preparing them for the existential crises they will experience when face burnout, lost sense of community, and recognize their assignment as manipulating people.
Worship Team & Celebrity Performance Complex
For the worship leaders, pastors, and other people on a platform, the live stream can create a similar celebrity complex that movie stars, YouTubers, and other famous people experience. Whether they realize it or not they become the face of the congregation. Casey Neistat explains this complexity well on his YouTube Channel, though he is not a part of a team of people on staff at a church or leader in a religious live stream, his popularity expresses the dilemma that we need to be aware of with live streaming or recorded videos. That is the recognition of people (individuals) recalling moments experienced watching them, while never interacting with them, and attributing that to familiarity with them. We can think of celebrities who’s characters we feel like we relate to, or know, without ever meeting them. As a live stream develops there will be times when certain people will be recognized without knowing the people to who recognize them. Watching Casey’s video “We Had to Call the Police at 368” or on his podcast, Couples Therapy, episode 3 “invading spaces” will help explain the extremes of this cause. In a small church example, this would resemble something such as a member of the pastoral staff or music team being recognized and addressed with familiarity without being able to return with the same level of recognition.
The other thing to be aware of is the act of performance that has probably already crept into your local church service, particularly if you are thinking about live streaming. Perhaps you have noticed that the band on the stage does really well, but when they seem out of place, sad, tired, or unmotivated the music no matter how good is, is not as impactful. There is a particular act of amplification and exaggeration that must be performed on stage to help engage the audience. UpChurch uses a five-point suggestion in his blog for how worship leaders can do better in their jobs by emulating Jimmy Fallon. The five points are: He’s always smiling, he’s got great energy, he’s humble, he’s prepared, he’s relevant. Any person who has stage acting or performance knows that there is a face or an act that needs to go with your aura to match the emotions you wish to convey. But is it not peculiar that a famous live talk show host would be the aura that is suggested for worship leading?
AustinStoneWorship in their video “Worship Leaders Don’t Lead People Into God’s Presence” try to remind us that the worship leaders do not lead people to God’s presence, as if a perfect performance, key changes, volume swells, and light dimming has the power to usher people into God’s presence. If something in the room is true worship, man can have no control over the desired effect.
“Overemphasizing or consistently focusing on technology, skill, and excellence can leave most us with a nagging feeling that our musicians, our leaders, our equipment, and our songs are never quite good enough. We resign ourselves to the thought that we’ll never be as successful, used, or important as the people we see on YouTube and at conferences. Or we breathlessly pursue the trappings and externals of ‘modern worship,’ attaching biblical authority to very cultural practices” (UpChurch).
The people on stage are already susceptible to being set apart as something other, or special, above the local congregation. Adding any filming to that and presenting with the opportunity to be on camera can inflate egos. Therefore, pastors need to be aware of the decisions they are leading their teams into. We have already noted how the lead teams unknowingly can tax their tech’s souls by requests that seem cool, or modern, or because everyone else is doing them. These people are, as mentioned before going to be recognizable faces of your church, will they know how to handle themselves when interacting with people they may not know that recognize them and may act as if they have a relationship with them?
The Online Community
The integration of live streaming creates an opportunity for people outside of a local congregation to feel part of the community that appreciates a particular church in much the same way a sports fan appreciates or a brand fan appreciates their interest. Though this is only a possibility and not the only thing that can happen, it can foster a conception that receiving a transmissional message is enough to partake in community. It is this community, our online community, that we find to be largely ignored by the live streaming church as if just projecting a message in their direction is enough to do the missional outreach of sharing the gospel. However, who is this online audience a church is marketing to? And if we determine live streaming is the best option, is simply sending a signal and not interacting with the audience the best option? Is the design of the temple of sports, ESPN, our model for streaming? Or are we truly providing the live stream for a particular audience?
When we look at churches marketing their live stream we see the common phrases of for shut-ins, elderly, people who are sick, and people who cannot make it to church due to various reasons. It is understandable that we would want to support the people from our local community with ways to be spiritually nourished by the message presented when they cannot be present, however, is live streaming the best option?
Let us look at some reasons to live stream, according to Live Streaming service providers and Churchproduction.com:
Engagement — Immediate interaction to questions from the audience
Community — There’s a community that develops online when you regularly engage with events, too. You start to recognize people, if just by their usernames. Real friendships can develop and it’s possible to start to care about what people feel and what’s going on in their lives.
Timeless — The benefits don’t end there. From a strictly practical standpoint, events have registration deadlines. It doesn’t matter whether you either tend to drag your feet until the last moment, or just missed past announcements that the retreat you’ve been looking forward to is about to close for people to attend. A live announcement could be the difference between going with the group or staying home and kicking yourself for missing out.
The Intangible — There’s just something different about live, too. Watching a video that’s delayed just isn’t the same as participating live. Ask any sports fan, “Why not just TIVO the Super Bowl and we’ll go out for supper? You can watch it later.” They may not be in the stadium, but a recorded game isn’t the same as a live one. Likewise, recorded church isn’t the same as knowing that you’re singing with your brothers and sisters as they too are worshipping God.
Keeping in the Habit — The Bible tells us not to neglect gathering together (Hebrews 10:25, for example). Life sometimes gets in the way, though. A work trip, followed by a vacation, and then a sudden death in the family can make a week you overslept turn into a month with no church. You might not mean to start a bad habit, but people don’t go from running marathons to sitting on the couch by saying, “I’m just gonna skip training for a couple of years.” No, they miss one day and then a week and then a month. That’s how people break the church habit, too. A live stream provides another opportunity to keep from missing a week when you don’t intend to, but life forces you to be away.
Outreach / Reach the Seekers– There’s outreach potential as well. Young parents might think they need to find a church “for the children,” but soon find they need God, too. People of parenting age will, by and large, check out a church’s website and live stream (if the church has one) before they take the risk to attend in person.
Connect With People Who Are Home Sick — On an average Sunday morning, most churches in America could fill the rosters of several baseball teams with people who have stayed home — either because they’re sick or because they’re caring for someone one who is. One of the most practical and consistently relevant applications of streaming is that it allows the 34-year-old mother to stay at home with her coughing 6- year-old while still tuning into take part in her weekly Bible study.
Share Important Moments — Every year, a church hosts hundreds of important events — weddings, holiday concerts, bible studies, and more. Sometimes, however, the people who want to be there just can’t make it. Being able to watch the event streamed live lets these people share those important moments, despite their physical distance.
Bless Faraway Soldiers -Your community members aren’t confined to the walls of your church…your ministry shouldn’t be either. Soldiers and missionaries are valued members of our community and should stay connected. Live video streaming is a special tool that can bring them the comfort of home, even when they’re out on the field serving a duty to their country or bringing others closer to Christ. The ability to tune into your church online can bless them in a special way, even when they’re thousands of miles away.
Welcome New Families — Before believers move to a new area, they’ve often searched online for the new church they can join. After all, a church is a haven for anyone new to a community. Showcasing your sermons and services online makes them more comfortable with who you are, what you’re about, and what they should expect from your ministry; it lets new families see if your church is the right fit for them.
Livestream.com wrote an article explaining how live streaming can grow your “House of Worship” audience. They explain that a growing digital audience drives churches to livestream to reach the people and that a large portion of their survey are already streaming online weekly. Their conclusion in the article is to encourage you to think of all the events you can stream besides your service, or even your service to multiple rooms, campuses, etc. As you read these reasons, do you see the multiple audiences it seems to be attempting to reach out to? While we may want to reach all people or as many people as we can, the way we reach out to them should not be the same transmissional message. You do not have to evangelize the elderly shut-in couple who have been firm believers for decades in the same way you would a seeker who has never heard of the gospel before. Those who are a part of the local congregation who are overseas, on vacation, shut-in, in nursing homes, or sick will be far less critical of people they have relationships with than people who do not have attachments to a local congregation. How does the seeker who wants to ask a question about the Bible feel if he cannot contact someone, or if he tries, no one is responding to him? Does the family on vacation actually plan out time to find a place with wifi on your set time of Sunday service to gather around a phone or laptop and worship together? Is the man or woman serving overseas in the Military going to set apart time in the afternoon/evening/night to watch a worship service in order to feel connected with their family?
I believe there are some legitimate audiences that live streaming might provide a beneficial aspect to. However, is it the best option? Is the way your church plans to integrate it the way you wish to reach your particular audience and the way you wish to engage with them?
The Alternative Measures
“…all artistic endeavor and communication involves more than technical skills. Their intended purpose is to glorify God. To accomplish this, all art, and communication must be brought into captivity to the mind of Christ” (Baehr, 10).
Baehr also reminds us that when deciding on our communications we need to ask the question, “to whom do you want to communicate?” Who are we sending this message to? Does our audience have access to the method we wish to deliver it by? Is that the best way to deliver it? And in the process of live streaming, while elderly, sick, and shut-ins may be able to see a video are we cutting off former ways that they interacted with members of the church congregation via delivery of CDs, Tapes, or oral retelling of a sermon?
“so often in the ‘nation-building’ policies of the new states one sees both a genuine, popular nationalist enthusiasm, and a systematic, even Machiavellian, instilling of nationalist ideology through the mass media, the educational system, administrative regulations, and so forth” (Anderson, 163).
What would be alternatives to live streaming video onto a website, social media, etc.? Prochurchtools.com has an episode called, “Why Live Streaming For Churches is Overrated”, in it, they have three ways conveying the same information. They have a video, then at the push of a button you can switch to an audio-only version of the same message, and by scrolling down they provide you access to a transcript. This way if someone wanted to come and learn about the topic you were speaking of but did not have a way to listen or was deaf they could access the same content as those who chose to watch and those who chose just to listen! But providing a live transcript may be a bit difficult without implementing the help of an AI and a moderator to correct mistakes made by the AI. Your church could always record video of the sermon, then post it later. You could do a podcast or audio-only broadcast to save time, technology, and effort to distributing the message without working on the details of video and network load to distribute the content. The method of capturing and distributing your content depends entirely on your intended audience. Perhaps for your shut-ins, the live stream would work well, but maybe a DVD or CD hand delivered and the human interaction with the delivery is more meaningful and better for them than a live stream where they do not interact with anyone from the church. Perhaps reaching the seeker looks less like streaming a sermon and more like produced videos with VLOG like qualities similar to Casey Neistat and Peter McKinnon.
Conclusion
So you want to live stream, but are you sure you understand what you are asking for? There are many resources to look into, and ultimately it will come down to what your church is hoping to get into. No doubt there is a lot of excitement that can come for pulling off technical wonders such as live streaming, but at what cost? Dear leaders in the church, it is up to you to shepherd people either towards or away from this behemoth of a task. You cannot go into these waters unaware without placing multiple people in your congregation at risk for burnout, exhaustion, and potential loss of faith as they forget to worship with their brothers and sisters in Christ due to pressure to produce a good production.
My personal recommendation is that you consider the need of the audience you wish to reach and consider the responsibility and pressure to deliver the connection you wish to make to that audience. Then once you have considered it, train, educate, seek guidance, and constantly tap into your team to see what divides, obstacles, and unnecessary pressures your desires are putting on them. I highly recommend that you do not sacrifice your local congregation, and the people serving the people around them for the sake of a transmissional message in a world seeking dialogue.
Bibliography
Hjalmarson, Len. No Home like Place: a Christian Theology of Place. Urban Loft Publishers, 2015.
Stubbs, Agnes Teh. “How Livestreaming Worship Services Can Grow Your House of Worship.” Blog, 5 Dec. 2017, livestream.com/blog/livestreaming-worship-services.
UpChurch, John. “5 Lessons Jimmy Fallon Can Teach Worship Leaders.” Crosswalk.com, Salem Web Network, 27 Mar. 2015, www.crosswalk.com/blogs/christian-trends/5-lessons-jimmy-fallon-can-teach-worship-leaders.html.