Get Your Ministry on TV…Internet TV

Over the last few years there has been a variety of stories on cutting the cable cord, rising costs of cable and the unnecessary bundles that cable offers. With streaming options such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Hulu Plus, streaming video options are becoming more popular, especially among young people who don’t feel the need to own cable. Thus the question is how can your church take advantage of this viewing transformation, well, i’m glad you asked.

Internet TV is a great solution for ministries because it removes the cost barrier that currently exists for traditional TV and the average church budget. The average church doesn’t have the budget to get on a national TV station or even the budget to produce a nationally televised broadcast, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a word that needs to be heard nationally. Instead of paying TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) $15,000 a week to broadcast a 30 minute show, a ministry can pay $250 a month to build a channel on Roku and broadcast 24/7/365.

In addition to Roku, Google TV has allowed ministries to build channels (apps) that can be installed and watched on television. Additionally, Google TV has a built in web browser (Google Chrome) that can be utilized to watch streaming services online. Later this year Apple TV is reportedly opening up it’s Apple TV software for apps, this would give churches yet another opportunity to establish a presence on people’s TVs and in our living rooms. Now the real opportunity lies in Microsoft’s Xbox. Xbox currently is leading the charge into the living room and ever since they started offering Internet TV options such as Netflix, Hulu TV, Amazon Video and ESPN Watch Now, there has been anticipation building as to when they would allow the masses to build channels for their hardware.

Overall, churches have a great opportunity to establish themselves in people’s living rooms for a fraction of the cost that are associated with traditional methods. As churches move from streaming videos on traditional websites to tablets to mobile devices to internet televisions, the impact and reach will continue to grow and reach the masses.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/internet-tv/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=internet-tv

The iChurch Method TV – Ep. 7 – How to Identify and Distribute the Content of Your Church

Continuing my series on The iChurch Method and how it works, in this segment I speak on How to Identify and Distribute the Content of Your Church. Here is the transcript:

The first thing I talk to you about is content. I keep stressing content because I’ve dealt with some small ministries, whether it’s a bible study in a living room with ten people or a mega church with 20,000 people and the issue is always content. Where is your content coming from and how can we gather it all together and get ready to distribute it online?

Once we identify all that content and we’re looking at how often are you preaching; are we talking about bible study during the week, are we talking about a sermon on the weekend, do you have any other type of content that you want to get out that the church distributes regularly, which most often people think announcements or maybe some other events going on at the church. I need all that content and whatever else the pastor has done, books, devotionals, anything, and let’s talk about how we can distribute that online. Once we get that done then we start looking at the ways we distribute it online; social media, websites, mobile, multimedia. We start looking at stuff like that.

Then we start talking about the financial aspect and if you want to create an online store. We’re not talking about CDs and DVDs, let’s talk about digital products; that’s no overhead and it’s all profit. Let’s talk about online donations. If you don’t have that already, let’s set up a free PayPal account and start getting online donations. Let people support you and support the ministry from wherever they’re at and stop limiting them to supporting it only when they step inside the sanctuary.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/church-content-distribution/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=church-content-distribution

Harness the Power of Audio in Your Church

With all of the wonderful technology available to us today, it’s easy to get so caught up in videos and visual effects that we forget about the power of audio. While videotaping sermons and making them available as streaming video, on demand video downloads or even selling them through your Web store is a wonderful idea, don’t forget about the potential for podcasts and CDs.

Whether in conjunction with video and DVDs or on their own, podcasts of your sermons should be a regular part of your Web offerings. Even if you decide not to go with video and DVDs, recording your sermons requires the simplest technology, and audio files are small and much more easily uploaded and downloaded than video files.

There are times and places that audio files are much more appropriate, as well. Busy people who don’t have time to sit down and watch a videotape of a whole sermon will listen to it instead while driving, especially during a long commute, while on a train or bus, while jogging or walking, at the gym, while doing laundry and many other times during their day. Audio sermons are great for multi-taskers!

Community Outreach for House Bound Members

You can also feature live streaming audio during your actual sermons, for parishioners who are ill at home or in the hospital. They can sit and listen to your sermon much as people once sat by their radios for live broadcasts. You don’t need to limit your audio recordings to sermons, either. Since they are so easily made and virtually cost-free, consider having volunteers read bible passages, or portions of books, record church meetings, telephone interviews with missionaries and more.

These are all items that will not only let people catch up on what’s going on in your church, but can provide a measure of solace for home-bound parishioners, so that they can feel as though they are actually there at the church. Consider using them as outreach, for retirement communities and convalescent homes, where your flock might be possessed of willing hearts but failing bodies.

Never underestimate the power of the spoken word. With today’s technology, it can be used to reach out to the whole world, easily and inexpensively!

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

http://www.ichurchmethod.com/audio-in-your-church/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=audio-in-your-church