Why Your Church Absolutely Needs to LiveStream Services

To stream or not to stream? That’s a great question.

Though there certainly are a wide range of potential reasons why your church might consider broadcasting your services live online, one justification far outweighs all others...

God’s Word changes lives. It’s unlike any other book.

The Bible changes lives and has been doing so since it’s initial divine out breathing (2 Tim. 3:16-17). For this reason, in Mark 4, Jesus encouraged His followers to be like a sower who went out into a field to sow the seed of His Word as widespread as possible.

In other words, Jesus wanted His disciples to know that the power of their ministries came down to His Word (the seed) rather than their ingenuity, gifting, or skill (the seed throwers). The job of the sower, therefore, is merely to be about widespread seed distribution, and nothing else.

Here’s the crux of the matter: God’s Word changes lives. You and I need to do everything that we can to get that message in front of the eyes and ears of as many people as possible. That’s really all that Jesus desires for us to do, though from time to time we might get distracted by doing things based on our vision, strategy, and plan.

Why your church should stream your services

We live in the 21st Century.

When we think about the activities and objectives of our ministries we often think about the immediate traditions and recent trends of our culture. So, if we were asked to brainstorm about how we can faithfully sow the seed of God’s Word, we will likely default to Sunday morning activities like preaching, teaching, and worship.

All of these ministry activities are God-honoring and heavily incorporate spreading God’s message. But Jesus’ parable in Mark 4 includes sowing seed in four different soils, which might involve a bit more creativity and contextualized trailblazing.

For instance, we live in a video culture.

Videos are everywhere, and more and more, live video is everywhere. Social media, such as Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat (and more), all build their platform and primary offering around the concept of live video. So, in our video oriented culture, live streaming is another tactic in the arsenal of the church to widely distribute the Word of God.

Reaching people with video

When we talk about things like streaming, we exchange discourse about technology. But from a fundamental perspective, we really dialogue about another way to fulfill Jesus’ 1st Century call to be liberal sowers of His message.

If your ministry isn’t streaming your services online, then you’re likely only allowing the Word to reach those who can gather within your four walls every Sunday. You pour your heart out into your ministries from a week to week basis. But if folks can’t make it through your doors on Sunday, then they’ll miss the chance to be changed by the contents of your service.

The reality is that very few people within your congregation make it to all 52 Sunday worship services each year. From time to time, members of your congregation will get sick stuck at home in bed. Perhaps even more regularly, parents with children wind up staying home whenever their child or children get the chickenpox, flu, or an illness of some sort.

People travel on vacation, they go out of town on work, spend unplanned time in the hospital, and on and on. All of this being said, live video allows you the opportunity to reach more people.

Check out 6 Ways Your Church Can Use Live Streaming to Reach More People

Beyond this, before people step foot within your sanctuary for the first time, there’s a good chance that they looked you up online before their initial visit. Streaming is a great tool to improve your SEO rankings so that folks can find your church, but it’s also a great way to show people who you are in a real and tangible way before they stop by for the first time.

At the end of the day, when a church begins streaming, then the reading of the Word, the singing of the Word, the praying of the Word, and the preaching of the Word can be distributed to anyone in the world.

Jesus put it this way; “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” (Matt. 5:15). Along these same lines, live video streaming is a 21st Century way for your church to light a bright light for Christ to shine in countless places through our world in great need of a Savior.

Tithe.ly + BoxCast Church LiveStreaming!

In recent months, Tithe.ly and BoxCast have partnered together to offer churches the easiest way to offer a high quality and wide-reaching streaming solution for churches.

So, if I was asked, “To stream or not to stream?” I’d answer with a resounding, “Yes, of course!”

We can help you with this endeavor, so if you’re up for it, check out our discounted streaming tool and let’s partner together in sowing the seed of God’s Word to as many people as possible.

I believe that the most compelling reason why your ministry should consider broadcasting your services online comes down to the reality that doing so can change lives eternally through God’s Word.

Ready to get started?<

Interested in getting your ministry up and streaming?

Click here for more information, and as always, happy streaming!