Coronavirus: The virtual church experience

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:08

Welcome to the Unfiltered podcast.

My name is Lee Stevenson and I have the privilege to be the lead pastor of a church plant in Orlando, Florida, Harvest Community Church, and also serve the greater Converge movement as the executive director of church planting and my co host here. I'll let him introduce himself.

Danny Parmelee: 00:00:25

I'm Danny Parmelee and I oversee church planting for Converge Mid America.

Lee Stephenson: 00:00:30

erent than any of us expected: 2020

And so we're going to do a series of podcasts here, just kind of talking about what have we learned, what are we seeing, what are we sensing for the future of the church?

And specifically today, we want to take some time in this podcast just to talk about lessons learned when it comes to virtual church and what we're seeing, you know, in the church world today.

Danny Parmelee: 00:01:17

Yeah, Lee, I'd love for you to even kind of start out with you sharing some of the things because your boots on the ground and maybe even just to share a little bit of your experience.

Just even the emotional, like, okay, you know, the excitement, the fear, and then kind of where you're at now, this number of weeks in, and then go to some of those practical things that you learned along the way.

Lee Stephenson: 00:01:39

Yeah, that's, that's great. We're to kind of put in context right now we're about 18 months old as a church plan. So this hit us uniquely.

The, the good thing is, I think we were already having conversations about what is online church look like and how do we maximize that beyond just, hey, let's just record our services and post it on YouTube or post on Facebook.

And so I feel like that put us a little bit ahead of the curve, that we were already working on instrumental pieces, but I think it just forced our hand, as it did every church in America, to all of a sudden figure this out a little bit.

And I think some of the things we've learned very quickly is your quality of equipment does matter when it comes to the recording and the sound quality and how that gets viewed.

I think when things are on a screen, we have, we have a tendency to be almost minuscule when it comes to the critiques of what we see and what we do to improve that.

And so I think we do have to pay attention as a, as a, as A as a pastor or a staff people on a church to the overall quality that we're putting out there. And it's not a, it's not a performance base.

It's literally how do we keep people engaged with the service experience so that people are maximizing that experience in the home setting? And that's, that's hard.

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:09

Can you even just, if you can just even briefly share when you say equipment, even give some really specific. Because I know for some church planners it's like, man, everything costs money and the money's not necessarily flowing in right now.

What, what are we talking about ballpark here and you know, difference between whatever $50 Mike and whatever the next level up is.

Lee Stephenson: 00:03:33

Sure, sure. Let me, let me talk from the standpoint of kind of what our current setup is and why we've done what we've done.

First of all, we do a two camera lockdown. So we do one camera is a tight lockdown shot and it's mainly my waist up and it just gives us a real focused view.

Danny Parmelee: 00:03:55

The second camera, a focus view of your abs. Is that what you're trying to say?

Lee Stephenson: 00:03:59

Yeah, well, I try not to show my abs while I'm preaching, but yeah. And then we do a wide angle view which I preach next to a TV screen.

So we've got about a 60 inch TV screen on a stand next to me and I stand real close to it and I stand. I don't put a tabletop or anything like that in front of me.

So I want to keep as direct connection as possible with the audience that are viewing from the camera. And so anytime I read a passage or make a point, I'll point to the screen and. And that automatically would go to wide angle there.

We're using Sling Studio as kind of the brains behind managing the camera and recording. And I gotta say, like, for the money you spend, it's probably the best system out there, I think to get the full package.

Slingstudio, you're looking at maybe fifteen hundred dollars.

But the way it operates, you can set up your cameras, literally run it from an iPad and you can just literally toggle between this camera and this camera by hitting a box on your iPad and super, super smooth. And then we run the sound through that as well, but through our soundboard.

So we're mixing the sound as we're getting the camera shots, which really knocks down the amount of editing time that is required to get a quality put out there. So I preach with a headset mic and we use AssureBrand, just like any Church would use.

But just run it straight through our soundboard into the Sling Studio. And so you're looking at anywhere between 500 to $1,000 for a really quality mic to be able to mic and get good quality sound with that.

And then the TV cost and the camera cost. The other piece, I would say is very important to pay attention to that.

I think I've noticed as I watched other churches post their recordings of their services and stuff is lighting. Lighting really, really matters.

And we, we've got a floor lamp, we do back lighting and then we have two LED lights on stands that really try to knock down all the shadows.

And, but one of the things that we learned probably two weeks into this when you're doing the tight shot is you really have to dial in the coloring or the lighting gauges on your cameras to give an accurate look so your skin's not too yellow or too orange or too dark when it comes to how that gets carried over to the screen. And so you really do, once you get it dialed in though, you should be, should be set.

The other thing we do is I, I preach from a teleprompter when I'm looking at, at the close angle camera. And we took that cue from the, just from newscast.

So there's a reason why you're, you know, when you watch the news that they're talking to a teleprompter is because they're able to maintain constant eye contact with the camera. And that keeps people engaged differently than if you're looking down to your notes or you're looking off your side on a regular basis.

But the key with the teleprompter is you need just the right amount of distance so your eyes aren't tracked in the camera like you're reading and stuff of that sort. But then when you go wide angle, you're now speaking to a different camera.

So you've got to be okay flexing, going from teleprompter to non teleprompter and back and figuring out the rhythm of, of doing that. And, and that's been helpful for us.

Danny Parmelee: 00:07:57

All right, great. I want to actually go back. Sling Studio, you said, is $1,500 for the full package. Now are you talking.

Because I, I, I've heard a number of guys using Sling Studio loving it that you're talking about just the software because it is just a ver. It's a digital switcher. Right. Or are you talking about actual hardware equipment that they also.

Lee Stephenson: 00:08:19

There, there is a little bit. Yeah. There is a Little bit of hardware equipment that comes with that.

It is mainly software driven but there is a there hardware interface that it actually, you know, plugs into that you could plug your soundboard into and stuff of that sort like in the back of the room.

Danny Parmelee: 00:08:36

And, and I've heard, I mean I am talking small church plants being able to use this without huge tech people and tech team and that you can literally use your iPhones and iPads.

So even if you didn't have hugely expensive HD cameras by using their, the, the hardware that they send and then the software basically doing the switcher that like you said, all of the editing is done right there basically on the iPad live.

Lee Stephenson: 00:09:06

Yeah.

Danny Parmelee: 00:09:07

So to speak. And then, and then obviously can convert to actual recording thing that for the money, I mean you can look pretty professional.

Lee Stephenson: 00:09:15

You really can. So yeah, you really, really can. And that's why I would recommend like I think that's a worthwhile investment for any small, medium sized church.

I know even large churches that that's their predominant thing that they utilize because it is so easy and it works. It's WI fi. You can literally.

And we've done this so like for the worship set because you want a little bit of a different feel on the worship, we'll set up iPhones just like you said interface, you know, through WI Fi with the Sling Studio. So you can set up as many cameras as you want.

You can set up four or five still camera shots and just literally toggle between them and use the phone that you use as a daily, you know, as your daily cell phone as well. So it's pretty remarkable.

The other thing that we're, we're learning is, and I think this is a struggle every church has is how do you, how do you create a worship experience that is engaging? Where people don't want to just sit on the couch and watch some people play music, but they actually want to sing and they participate.

Which again is awkward even for us, you know, when we're in our home trying to sing and have the whole family together. But I've just, we've learned in watching churches also that figure this out.

The closer that you can get the camera connection with the person's face and eyes, the more engaging it is. And so in other words, personalize the worship experience. If it's just a distant shot the entire time, it's going to be a lot less engaged engaging.

But for some reason it's like when you see somebody's eyes in the midst of worship, it has a way of drawing you into Worship as well.

Danny Parmelee: 00:10:56

That's great. I want to actually go back and then come back to this worship question you mentioned. Teleprompter.

What are we looking at cost wise and what do you mean by teleprompter?

Lee Stephenson: 00:11:08

Yeah, so the teleprompter we've got set up, the camera sits behind the screen and you can, you know, we set up on a tripod just like you would any camera setup.

And you just plug in a laptop and it mirrors it onto a, a see through screen so you don't actually see the camera lens, but you're speaking right at the camera lens as, as you read it. Now we have to have a.

You can preset the speed, but the reality is I've learned that, you know, you have a cadence and so you can't just set the speed and just go. So it's good to have somebody that kind of follows along with you and is running the laptop live while you're kind of going through the teleprompter.

, up to about: 1100

You can get a really quality teleprompter. That makes the job a whole lot easier.

Danny Parmelee: 00:12:08

That's great. All right, going back to the worship experience, how many songs are you doing?

I'm, I'm guessing that you're either shortening them, you know, each song doing less amount of songs. How, how are you personally and what are you kind of seeing as far as like man, this is what needs to be different. We can't just translate and plop.

This is what we did live. So it's just now the only difference is it's video.

Lee Stephenson: 00:12:32

Yeah, we, we, we really try hard to keep our services around the 45 minute mark. Total time length max we'll do is maybe 50 minutes, which typically we find about two songs. Typically is the right flavor.

So we'll do a welcome and intro with a host type of role.

Right at the beginning we'll have a countdown because again people tend to tune in at different times just as they do walk into a service at different times. So we do a five minute countdown and we actually start that three minutes before the typical service time.

And so it actually gives us a two minute buffer. So like say at 9:30 service time, we start the five minute bumper at 9:27. Service officially starts then at 9:32 with a quick host roll.

Welcome Everybody to, you know, our church online experience and then kind of have a prayer moment and then go into the worship and then we will have two songs of worship and then we'll create a bumper that goes from the worship into the sermon and then we have the sermon and then we'll exit out of the sermon, usually just straight into a host role. Now if we, if it happens to be.

We've done communion once since then, we add a little bit extra music into the communion and just cut the message down. But we find participation falls off pretty quickly if you get over the 25 minute speaking standpoint.

And so we, we intentionally aim for around 25 to 28 minutes on the sermon length, knowing if we go longer than that, people are going to disengage with the service.

Danny Parmelee: 00:14:12

Depends on how good of a preacher you are. I mean, if I was, if I was doing, I mean, I'd go 45 minutes.

Lee Stephenson: 00:14:18

Oh, I'm sure people are going to be begging for more.

Danny Parmelee: 00:14:21

Yep. That's great. This is a technical question you may not have the answer to, but when you say that you started the timer before.

So if you have a 9:30 service and you're starting it at 9:27, how does that affect, like if you're doing Facebook premiere and you start it early, then doesn't it show up weird as far, like, you can't say I'm starting at nine. Like once you put the time in, you have to put in either 9:27 or 9:30, right?

Lee Stephenson: 00:14:52

Yeah, we, we actually will log it in as 9:27.

Danny Parmelee: 00:14:55

You do? Okay.

Lee Stephenson: 00:14:56

Yeah, yeah. And just pay attention to that. And we've noticed.

So when the service then actually gets going, we've already got a whole group of audience members already dialed in versus waiting. You know, like, oh, they're live and then it takes them two minutes to actually get in and then they miss the first two minutes of the service.

Danny Parmelee: 00:15:15

Yeah, I think that's great.

I have been having discussion with a few church planners kind of navigating that and with the, with the timer thing of just not going too long with that timer.

Because I'm sure we'll talk about this in some of the future episodes that we have, but there's still a huge consumeristic culture and if it's like you've got two minutes, your, your, your mind is our all sudden clicking on other things, clicking on other services, clicking on shopping, and then, and then you're late. I mean, it's funny that people can be late for service when they're sitting on Their couch. Yes. When there's nothing to do.

Lee Stephenson: 00:15:53

Yeah. So anyway, people are people. And Amazon and email have a way of getting in the way. There's no doubt.

Danny Parmelee: 00:16:00

Yeah. Well, man, that. That sounds great. Well, it sounds like you guys have been learning. Learning quite a few things. Any other things for this episode?

Lee Stephenson: 00:16:08

Yeah, my, my biggest thing was I would just tell pastors, watch other churches out there that are doing it and just constantly pick up ways to improve, evaluate every week right now, how did we do engaging people online? And we've just noticed the more we dialed in, we were literally adding hundreds of viewers every week, the better we get.

And so we've seen our reach expand enormously just in the last two months, you know, by maximizing the virtual experience.

And so we're actually looking at this as a long term game plan for how do we expand the church quickly into communities that we want to reach that really honestly don't have a relevant gospel centered church in. And so I think we're looking at this as a long term gift to the church versus being a detriment to the church.

And so I would encourage all the pastors out there to think that and just learn from other guys that are doing it and see what they're doing and try to implement it your best as well. Well, friends, this has been a fun conversation, just talking about lessons learned during the the COVID pandemic.

And we appreciate you tuning into the unfiltered podcast where we're just having real conversations about church planting and church issues. Again, my name's Lee and my co host here, Danny. We're glad to have you. And until next time, keep.