Build your live stream audience

Ben Stapley Nov. 4, 2024

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Churches have an incredible opportunity to grow their reach through live streams. This model of ministry can act as a front door for new guests. It also allows you to reach a wider audience and make a larger kingdom impact.

We saw explosive growth through the live stream while I was the Church Online Pastor at Liquid Church. And that was pre-pandemic. But some of our live streams have become trickles. So I want to help identify why there has been a decrease in live streams over the past year and give you best practices to open up the faucet to help those streams become floods again.

Lifeway Research recently put out an article with some encouraging and illuminating trends for live streams. Here are additional recent articles about church online from the Pew Research Center and Christianity Today if you want to geek out. The encouraging trend from the Lifeway article is the 4% to 15% growth in people who consistently watch their churches live stream from 2019 to 2022. That's almost a four-fold increase. This increase is an indicator that the Church has gotten better at helping others attend online.

The illuminating trend last year is that more people are checking out live streams from 24% to 35%. But less people are attending long term from 32% to 15%. This means that the front and back doors are both widening. It means that more people are using the live stream to try before they buy. They are checking out the digital campus before committing to a physical campus. But it also means they aren't committing to an online campus like they did in the past. A number of reasons behind that decrease are below.

Why the decrease

Increased onsite attendance - Anybody who wanted to come back from an online church to an onsite church has done that. But beyond losing them you have also lost their evangelistic impacts online. When the pandemic first hit people would not only attend online but they would also spread the word. Those digital disciples have gone back to being physical disciples. So you have lost their attendance AND the attendance of their social circles.

Deceased online promotion - When the pandemic hit churches had one message they were communicating. Watch the live stream. OK, they may have had two messages. Watch the live stream and give online 🙂. Now the church has gone back to its old ways of communicating too many messages. And because of that the push for live streaming is getting lost in the noise.

Lack of community- Although online church services and small groups can be a great way to connect with others, they may not provide the same level of community as in-person services and groups. Some people may be craving more social interaction and may choose to attend in-person options for that reason. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence that would lead me to believe there is some truth to this factor.

So those are some reasons why we have seen a decrease with the attendance in our live streams this past year. Below are some ways to reverse that trend.

How to increase

Soft-sell it throughout the year- If you have a live stream you need to pepper that in throughout your communications all year. And make sure that you communicate it verbally and in writing. It should be clearly listed on your website and social platforms. When verbally communicating I like to say "we would love to have you visit online or onsite". So not only do I reference the campus but I also put it first to subliminal emphasize its importance. Below are a number of other ways to soft-sell the live stream to keep the language fresh over the course of the year.

• We are one church with two campuses.
• We worship together onsite and online.
• We believe that community can happen physically and digitally.

Hard sell it before summer - My church is in New Jersey which has a big shore, not beach, culture during the summer. Because of this a lot of faithful members of our congregation will bounce during the months of July and August. But before they do we repeatedly remind them about the live stream in June. Because of that we see a decrease onsite but a corresponding increase online during the summer. Whenever people take a break in your setting, be it summer or another time, make sure to hard sell the live stream before then.

Reference throughout the message and service - You want your teaching team to repeatedly reference the live stream throughout their message. Bonus points if they are looking into the camera lens when this happens. Also coach them towards uniquely trying to engage the online campus with comments that apply only to them like "if this point is resonating with you then put amen in the comments". Beyond the message make sure to reference the live stream during other times in the service. Two quick and easy ways are when the worship leader kicks off the service or when the hosts introduce themselves during your announcement package.

Share and celebrate the link - Think through multiple ways to encourage people to share the link of the live stream before, during and after the service. And when they do share make sure to celebrate that with a quick comment of thanks. Because what gets rewarded gets repeated. You can see that in action in the circled portion of the accompanying graphic. Below are ways to encourage folks to share before, during, and after the stream.

• Before - I've sent a Sunday morning calendar invite to the staff with the link. That way they get a notification with the link when the service is live which is an easy reminder to share it.
• During - Your chat online hosts should encourage the guest viewing live to share. But this should not be during your giving moment 😂.
• After - Don't forget that a percentage of your congregation is working—or let's be honest, sleeping—on Sunday morning. So figure out a way (email, social post, etc.) to get the link of the stream to people so they can watch on demand throughout the week.

Foster generosity - People give to what they value. They also value what they give to. In other words, if you are depriving them of the opportunity to financially support the live stream you are depriving them of receiving value from the live stream. Fostering generosity also transforms people from consumers into contributors. So don't shy away from this moment during the live stream.

Remember, building an audience takes time and dedication. Stay persistent, experiment with different strategies, and analyze the results to optimize your approach.

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For over twenty years Ben has created & captured moving and memorable moments for individuals, non-profits & corporations across the globe. He has served on the executive team of multiple megachurches and currently serves as the Executive Pastor at Zarephath Christian Church in New Jersey. Ben also consults for churches, teaches at universities and speaks at conferences about leadership, communication and creativity. For more information visit www.benstapley.com. Learn More »

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