Tomorrow I’m going to try an experiment with the format of our online church service and reduce it to a shorter form. The rationale is that viewing numbers have significantly dropped off. This time last year, we typically got 40+ views in the first few days with quite a few people watching the premiere release together. At present, it’s over a month since the last service video that scraped into double figures. I often briefly pop on during the live service to say good morning in the chat and there are only 1-2 people who make a habit of watching live.

What we don’t want to do yet is to give up on creating online services altogether. It is valuable for a small number of people who routinely can’t attend in person and also those who can’t make it on a given week. We used to record the talks and I think video is an equally accessible but more appealing format. However, I need to start reducing the time I spend on video production.

What takes most of the time is responding to the many decision points needed in the editing. What graphic do I want to use as the thumbnail? What song will I include? What words are used and have I got each ‘slide’ lined up with how they are spoken? We will still keep on filming the Tuesday service to use on Sunday but I’m planning to simplify, keeping the content that is unique from week to week but minimising the necessity to overlay words.

We’ll see how it goes. I’ll ask for feedback in the first video or two and see what I get. It might knock the whole process on the head as people give up watching but it could also rejuvenate things. If people want a full service to follow they have over a hundred to choose from so it will concentrate the experience on what is fresh. There is always the possibility that we will see another wave of some new variant that requires further restrictions meaning a larger group of people will need an online version. Anyway, at least the next online service or two will be in a new, short form format and we’ll see if that works out to offer an effective support to those who like to use it (keep your eye on the playlist).