SALT Q&A: Creating During Crisis

kamil_hopeware — Tue, 05 May 2020 03:30:40 +0000

Creating During Crisis

Recently Visionary and Founder of SALT Conference, Luke McElroy, was able to chat with coach, speaker and leader, Stephen Brewster. Stephen has been a big advocate of our SALT Community using his gifts to help the local church and Luke was fortunate to have the opportunity to chat with Stephen about everything from creative meetings to the best ways to utilize an online platform during this time of church shutdowns. Here are 4 tips to help make the most out of your time and your team’s time during the shutdown.

Keep Learning.

(5:36) It is so easy, while at home, to get side-tracked and unfocused. Creating can become burdensome, however, is so important to keep learning during this time. Great things don’t come out of normal, we have to push ourselves. We should be consistently learning about ourselves, our team, our organization structure, organization, your church’s communication, your abilities as a technician. By taking this time of church shutdown and lack of “busyness” we have an opportunity to create better structure, to be better.

Leverage your content

(10:50) Stephen says “our content on Sunday shouldn’t just live on one shelf it should live on several shelves.” Meaning how can we take what was taught during our Sunday live gathering and utilize that throughout the week, with a bible study, devotional, podcast etc. Break it out into several pieces so that your community is able to ingest throughout the week. In the book, Content Inc., the writer discusses different ways to take a piece of content, like a video, and break it down into multiple pieces to use on multiple channels. You could take a 1 minute bit from the video and use it on Instagram, make a quote graphic from the video, create a quick devotional using one of the points from the video. By creating multiple “shelves” you engage a broader audience.

Communicate More

(16:27) Right now we are working in a virtual environment and it can be very easy for our communication to become a check list of what tasks are being done. If you are a leader, it is important that you aren’t just communicating tasks but also communicating value. Until the pandemic caused us to shut down our workplace we took for granted the “water cooler” talk. You know the times we ask about the spouse and the kids. No one wants to create a zoom meeting to discuss those things, we want to get to point and move on. We have to be careful to make sure we make time for those important conversations.

For instance, our team does a meeting every Monday morning and the first question our leader asks “How are we?” then proceeds to see how things have been going (personally) since our last meeting. This becomes a chance for us to give a 2 minute update on the family. After that we move on to tasks and projects. It’s quick and beneficial for the team.

Dream with your team

(23:59) Is your team in the habit of doing a creative meeting? We do a lot of creative meetings and we are big believers in the creative meeting. We did a series on them, you can check that out here. That said just because we can’t do a creative meeting in person doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do them. I love how Stephen Brewster broke down the idea of doing a virtual creative meeting then discussed the important aspects of that meeting. Here is the breakdown:

What does a Zoom creative meeting look like? (25:42)
What are the 10 disciplines of a creative meeting? (27:21)
Why do most creative meetings fail? (29:40)
Who should you invite to a creative meeting? (31:02)
How to conduct your online creative meeting? (32:50)
What is the 4 door process to refining the creative ideas? (33:52)
How to invite people into a creative meeting? (36:10)
Getting someone to commit to coming to a creative meeting (45:09)

Lastly, if you decide to take a cue from Point #1 and “Learn More” then we suggest checking out Brewster’s new podcast called the Blue Collar Creative. Each podcast is only about 20 minutes and gives very practical advice on creativity within the church.

The post SALT Q&A: Creating During Crisis appeared first on SALT Community.

3 Tips to Live Stream from Your iPhone

kamil_hopeware — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 21:17:34 +0000

Call it a new normal or plan B, either way churches are having to think outside the box when it comes to church these days. More people are watching churches online for a variety of reasons: bad weather, a pandemic, traveling out of town etc. That being said, spending $2000 on new tech and equipment isn’t a viable option for many churches. So what should you do if you want to get into the world of live stream but don’t have a large budget? Consider using an iPhone or iPad. Here are 3 things to consider when doing a live stream from your iPhone or iPad.

Don’t forget the audio

If you want people to stick around for your stream then you are going to need better audio than what you would get with the microphone on your iPhone or iPad. There are a few options to consider if you want to stream from your iPhone.

Option 1. For less than $150, the iRig Pro is a great option. It has a nice audio interface that can be used as an internal mic for preaching segments or similar. It also has an XLR input for mics or a feed from an audio console, which would allow the option of including a worship segment.

Option 2. Connect directly from the soundboard. If you have a USB audio output you will need a USB cable and a USB to lightning adapter (preferably one that also allows you to plug your phone in at the same time).

Option 3. If you don’t have a USB output then you will need an XLR to USB interface. Here is a good option for less than $100.

Stabilize the Video

There is nothing worse than trying to watch a video for an extended length of time and the camera being constantly moving. If you choose to stream from your iPhone or iPad you will need a mount so you can stabilize the video. This will save your arm and keep those watching from getting motion sick. There are several mount options to choose from and most are reasonably priced. This tripod style mount is a good option and it also has Bluetooth connectivity.

Streaming Option

Now that you have the equipment in place you will need a medium for broadcasting. A good and FREE option would be to use Facebook and/or YouTube. If you choose to use YouTube you have the option of adding the stream to your website. However, if you plan to stream worship both YouTube and Facebook have tracking software and that could cause you an issue with the music, so keep that in mind.

If you have a little budget there are some very cost-effective options that will give you more flexibility than just streaming, everything from on-demand playback to an “ad free” platform. Here are a few options to consider:

Pros:

Easy setup
Free to stream to Facebook or YouTube
Portable setup that can go anywhere with you
Done for under $100
Perfect for one person

Cons:

Difficult to stream to a custom platform
Unable to embed on a website ahead of time
Limited to one person (unless you use the soundboard device)
Low quality stream with iPhone
No graphics

I hope this helps give you some direction. It may not be a solution long term but considering the cost-effective nature and how quick you can put this together it is definitely an option in the short term. Just check out what Tramway Community Church in New Mexico did (all shot on an iPhone 11). In addition to these tips we also have a class on SALTu, taught by our friend Brad Zimmerman, Live Streaming – Everything You Need To Know, in case you want some additional resources.

The post 3 Tips to Live Stream from Your iPhone appeared first on SALT Community.

live stream Archives - SALT Community