The people who are searching for a church and visit your church website want to get to know you. They want to know who the lead pastor is, what worship services are like, what the people are like, and what they would experience if they visit in person.
It’s difficult to communicate that on your church website with text. Adding vibrant images can help a great deal. But nothing gives people a look inside your church, your people and your heart like video.
A few years ago, my church went through the process of creating a welcome video that’s now on our homepage. This is the first church welcome video I had been a part of creating. So, I watched lots of videos, did lots of research, and asked questions of those who have done this before. In the process, I learned a lot and want to share some insights with you here.
If your church doesn’t have a welcome video or has an old one, why not start on it now?
During your next season of outreach, wouldn’t it be great to have a welcome video on your website to help visitors connect with your church?
What do you say?
Start by Learning from Others
Robin Sharma said, “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.” So, the first step towards creating our welcome video is to get a mental picture of what we want our video to be like. There’s no better way to do that than to watch other welcome videos.
Here are 4 church websites that have welcome videos on them
- Good Shepherd Church, Naperville, IL
- Christ Gospel Church Love Center, Whitesboro, NJ
- Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Tampa, FL
- Journey Community Church, Safety Harbor, FL
While you watch the videos make notes about what you like about each one, what you don’t like, what you would want to do in your welcome video. Even better – do this together with other leaders of your church.
Welcome Video Observations
- Compelling – All of the videos helped me understand more about the church and the lead pastor. After watching the videos, I’m more convinced than ever about the benefits of having a welcome video on our church website.
- Keep it short – All these videos range in length from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
- Write a script – Only one of the videos (Christ Gospel Love Center) seemed ad-libbed. The others seemed to flow a bit better, so I lean strongly towards writing a script in advance of the recording.
- Lead pastor – 3 of the 4 videos were narrated in part or entirely by the lead pastor. If you’re not the lead pastor, you’re going to need his buy in, both to be in the video and on its content.
- Video footage – I liked the way the Good Shepherd and Journey videos showed footage of the things they described as the narration continued. Prepare to capture other video footage and do a little editing.
- Outro image – It’s good to finish the video with an image showing the church name and logo. Including the church web address is good as well in case the video is found on YouTube or shown some place other than the website.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. -Troy Olson
Next week, in part 2, we’re going to look at what I think may be the most challenging part of creating a church welcome video – writing the script. Who should do it, how to do it, what should be in it.
In the mean time, here are some action steps:
- Gather your church leaders and watch these welcome videos. Discuss what you like and don’t like about each. If you can’t get everyone together physically, do it on a Skype or Zoom video call, or email links and ask everyone to reply back with their comments.
- Get buy in from your lead pastor.
- Post your observations from the videos in a comment. (Also feel free to post links to other church welcome videos you
- Subscribe – Go to the top right corner and subscribe to our email list so you get the next post in this series.
Comment and Discuss
- Do you have a welcome video on your website? If you do, post a link. If not, are you motivated to create one?
- What questions or comments do you have about church welcome videos?
Continue reading more articles in this series about video.
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.