Online Worship Tips: CoronaChurch

I just watched my 37-minute Facebook Live broadcast worship and ran on here to give myself feedback from which you might also benefit!

We talk Hair!
We talk camera angle!
We talk song leading!
We talk about my favorite illustrator, Kay Nielsen (whose name is pronounced “KIE,” not “Kay” but I was flustered).

One thing I forgot to mention that was also nice and interactive: I asked those watching to hold up their “blessing hands” when I gave the online Benediction.

I also like that I stayed on camera for a few seconds after the “service” concluded to mention that we would be moving to Zoom Social Hour soon (keep your fingers crossed for next week!).

Blessings, friends. You’re doing great.


Command Central

3 Replies to “Online Worship Tips: CoronaChurch”

  1. Just watched a service from First Unitarian Portland. It was well done. Liked it that it was in the church with the ministers gowned and there was music. Participants sat 6′ apart. The collection was even taken up virtually – interesting how they did it.

    I tried to watch First Unitarian Concord NH but couldn’t get one – FB got overwhelmed I guess.

  2. I was fortunate that we were able to stream from one of our church buildings yesterday – me, the music director, and my phone on a tripod with someone to monitor, move, and zoom as indicated. Feedback received was that people felt like they were there with us.

    Back in January, I had to improvise last-minute and offered 2 Sunday’s of FB Live services from my kitchen table due to storm cancellations with a similar set-up to yours. One trick that I used then and that worked for me was starting the FB live then shrinking the browser window on my laptop screen up to a corner of my screen – just enough that I could see that it was still recording and people were still watching. This allowed my service script to fill most of the screen and I could scroll through it while maintaining good eye contact with the camera.

    My friend and I this week started a thread – behind the priest / in front of the priest (both of us are doing daily FB Live check-ins with our congregations) where we compare the uncluttered background on our videos with the clutter that is just out of camera range😁

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