Blog | Casting a Vision for Church Video Production to Your Pastor
Casting a Vision for Church Video Production to Your Pastor
Video is one of the most effective ways of telling a story. Visuals draw people in and create connections regardless of where they are. And often, video is the medium through which new people connect with a church. Before they visit in-person, their first connection point is often through a video – livestreams or videos on your church’s social media pages.
That’s why it’s so important to invest in quality church video production. But if you work as a church tech director or video production manager, you already know it. The difficult part is pitching your vision to “the boss.”
Casting a Vision for Church Video Production to Your Pastor
Here’s something you need to remember – your pastor’s number one focus is on connecting with people and changing lives through your church’s ministry. They want people to come to church, feel connected, develop relationships, and find their “home” there.
If you’re trying to cast a vision for your church video production needs and goals to your pastor, you absolutely have to tie it to what they are focused on, which leads to the first point…
Connect it to the Church Mission
Your pastor is concerned about people – not just the exciting things that you and other staff want to do with their ministries. How is investing in video gear and ministries going to affect the congregants? How is this leading you closer to the mission of your church? Investing in video production absolutely needs to be a tool to your pastor that helps him/her, rather than something operating independently of them.
For example, if you know your pastor is trying to connect college students to the campus, demonstrate how video can play a role in that. Whether it’s videos for ads on Instagram or Facebook, or making a video series with your pastor/young adults pastor to engage with college students – you need to clearly connect it to your pastor’s vision and the mission of the church. How will investing in video get you closer to what they are already pouring their time and finances into?
Get His/Her Preferences
Ask for their influences/favorite resources. What churches do they love? Have him/her compile a list of livestreams, church websites, and church social media accounts that he likes. Once they have the chance to do some research and see what they like, you can dive into a conversation regarding what’s required to get you closer to that end.
The chances are, any church that appears professional, engaging, and is telling their story through social media, their website, and other digital means is using quality video production methods to get there. Your pastor may not entirely recognize that as of now, and it’s in your best interest to research the churches they pass your way and demonstrate how video is playing a key role in those churches’ success.
Make Changes Slowly
We are all naturally wired to be scared of change. Even steps in the right direction are often met with loads of uncertainty and opposition in churches. I even remember the church I grew up at being strongly opposed to a new worship pastor requiring us to learn how to play along with click tracks and learn songs ahead of time despite it directly elevating the quality of production and musicianship of everyone involved.
You can expect that same opposition as you make changes to the church’s video production and online presence. The solution? Make changes slowly. Getting your pastor to sign off on investing in video production, or giving you the go-ahead to start changing things doesn’t mean you should kick everything into full throttle.
Take your time. Make minor adjustments to cameras, screens, livestreams, lighting, etc. Wait until some of the stigma around the changes you’re making dies down before introducing anything that could be jarring to current attenders. You might know that all the changes are for the better, but it takes time to convince everyone else of that.
What You Plan For is What You Get
Your pastor/elder board/whoever is in charge of the video budget needs to understand this. If you make bad plans, you’ll get bad results. If you purchase bad gear, you’ll get bad video.
“Plan poorly and hope for the best” doesn’t work in the video industry. There’s no “crossing our fingers” involved. You have to be realistic regarding your investment. What you invest in is what you will get, and if your pastor is hoping that you can elevate the video quality to the level of a few church references they have given you, then have an honest conversation of what the investment needs to look like to accomplish that.
Give them alternatives and realistic scenarios on what certain video budgets will enable you to do.
Be Patient
It’s easy for those who work in video production to get snooty with pastors about these things, but bear in mind that they have no point of reference for the industry, price of gear, and factors that contribute to quality video production. Be patient with them.
Show them several options. Talk through potential scenarios. Tell them what’s needed and what’s optional, and how those options would change your effectiveness in your role as well as contributing to your church’s mission. Tie it together and have an honest, open conversation.
About the Author
Chris Fleming is a professional musician from Minneapolis, MN who has played with artists such as TAYA, Big Daddy Weave, and Jason Gray. He is actively involved with the worship music scene and has contributed as a drummer, music director, song writer, and producer for various worship artists and churches locally and nationally. Chris is the Motion Designer at Motion Worship, helping to create motion background collections and countdowns for our subscribers.