The second week of December is an especially important week for churches. As the holiday season approaches, it’s important to engage your church members and provide them with a meaningful experience that captures the spirit of the season. One great way to do this is by hosting live stream events. Live stream events are virtual experiences that you can host on your own website. Here are five examples of live stream events that you can schedule this week in the second week of December.
5 LIVE STREAM EVENTS YOUR CHURCH CAN HOST IN DECEMBER
1. Christmas Bake-Off
Have multiple people from your congregation participate in a simultaneous baking live stream event that is a timed event. They can connect from their home kitchen with their own webcams and your live stream can show them all on the same screen for the audience to watch throughout the show. How long is the show? 30 min, 45 min, 60 min, etc it’s your choice! Have a host talk to each of the cooks from their own home kitchens to make it lively, asking questions about their techniques and delicious recipes, show off what was baked, and finally offer little packs of the decorated cookies as a fundraiser for a local charity before or after Sunday worship services at church.
2. Local Charity Interviews
Invite representatives from local charities and outreach partners that your church works with, supports, and volunteers for in the community to come on and talk about their work and mission during one of your weekly live streams. This will give them exposure while giving members of your church an opportunity to learn more about the organizations they are supporting with their time and money. Bonus points if these organizations is part of your church’s year-end fundraising campaign for the next year’s ministry efforts.
3. Counselor “AMA”
Have one of your counselors or affiliate counselors host a “ask me anything” (AMA) session around topics such as loneliness or anxiety during one of your live streams this week. This will be a great opportunity for members of your church who are struggling with mental health issues during this holiday season to get the help they may need without having to leave their homes. Another angle to attract families is to host AMA’s to equip parents with circumstances that they are encountering with their kids.
4. Christmas Carol Sing-a-Long
Host a virtual sing-a-long featuring some classic Christmas carols! Invite members from all over the community to join in singing together online as part of your weekly live stream event! This could even be turned into a competition where viewers can vote on their favorite version of each carol! What better way is there to kick off the Christmas season than by coming together through song? Perfect to put the final recording clips onto your YouTube channel.
5. Virtual Dirty Santa Gift Exchange
Hold an interactive gift exchange between community members who join in on the fun! The first person picks a numbered gift on the live stream – have one of your on-site hosts open it and show it to everyone. This is where the fun begins to happen. The next participant can either pick a new unwrapped gift or choose to “steal” one of the opened gifts. If a steal happens, the person who lost their gift gets a new turn: Pick an unwrapped gift to be opened, or steal someone’s gift! You can have everyone pick-up their final gifts at church when the •come to church• on Sunday — or they can choose to donate it to a local charity that the church can designate.
Weekly live streams are impactful for engaging with members at any time of year, but December in particular is a time when you can tie it to invitations to your Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services.
By hosting unique events through a live stream, you can extend an invitation and provide meaningful experiences with more people throughout the week – not just requiring people to come to the church building in order to be exposed to the vibrant life your church community has to offer. So why not get creative and simply schedule one live stream this week? You may just find yourself pleasantly surprised by how successful these virtual events become!
Need help live streaming? Our friends at StreamingChurch.tv is offering free consultation calls to help you figure out your equipment, software, or just brainstorm with you on how to improve and host live streams to help grow your church. And right now, they’re offering completely free live streaming services for the rest of this month PLUS a $200 donation to your church just for starting to live stream this month. Check out the details in this article.
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