Church Tech

Putting a Window in Your Virtual Door
This is from the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ and looks at best practices for digital communications.

Social Media and Boundaries for Authorized Ministers
These recommendations are designed to address authorized ministers in the United Church of Christ, although they have value for all persons who have paid or volunteer roles in congregations as well as the wider church, particularly if they minister to children and youth.

Social Networking and Healthy Boundaries in Ministry
This article on the FaithTrust Institute website looks at some basic questions and considerations for all faith communities and their leadership who are either considering establishing a virtual identity or presence or those who already have.

CHURCH WEBSITES

5 Best Church Website Builders
This site compares the 5 best church website builders and compares their features.

Top 100 Best Church Websites of 2023
This list compiled by ReachRight includes what they love about each website.

What Makes a Good Church Website?
This article explores a few characteristics that make up a good church website.

EQUIPMENT

Recommended

Condenser Microphone
This is for online meetings where there is a group in one room and others who are conferencing in.

Headset
This Logitech USB Headset has a noise cancelling mic and is a good low-cost option.

Mevo Camera
This is a great camera for live streaming. Here is a tutorial about connecting Mevo to Facebook Live.

Tripod
This is a vital tool. You can sometimes buy these at media stores, like Best Buy. This links to a version has both a tripod and an adapter that works with phones and tablets.

FACEBOOK

6 Simple Tips to Get More Likes on Your Church's Facebook page
This post is on the United Methodist Communications page.

Church Facebook 101
This article from Outreach gives details about setting up your church Facebook page and what to post on it.

How to Create a Church Facebook Page
This article discusses the basics of creating a Facebook page and offers tips for using your Facebook page.

FAITH FORMATION

3 Ways to Use Zoom Breakout Rooms in Your Bible Study
This article offers ways to use a popular Zoom meeting feature in faith formation.

10 Tips for Leading a Great Bible Study Group on Zoom
This blog post has basic information for leading an online study.

Improving Your Zoom Studies
Along with some basic suggestions, this article also has a link to a YouTube video about Zoom meetings, as well as a link to games to play on Zoom.

Lifelong Learning YouTube Channel
Lifelong Learning of the Virginia Theology Seminary has a YouTube channel with four eFormation 101 videos: Introduction, Best Practices for Film and Audio, Zoom, and Facebook Groups and Pages.

Online Small Groups
This article discusses the pros and cons of several meeting formats—video, audio-only, or asynchronously.

ProBoards Free Forums
This is a free forum hosting service if you want a simple way to hold an online study.

Please help us keep this information up to date.Send Us an E-Mail when you find a broken link!

FINANCE

Giving Fees
This site offer a comparison of online giving platforms with rates.

How to Get a Nonprofit Set Up with PayPal to Accept Donations
PayPal's help center offers instructions for setting up your 501(c)(3) nonprofit to accept online donations.

GETTING STARTED

How to Develop an Effective Social Media Strategy for Your Church
This article is from Faithward, associated with the Reformed Church of America.

Social Media Planning and Procedures: Best Practices for Congregations
This document from the ELCA incudes an introduction to social media, elements of a social media strategy, advice on developing a social media policy, and social media procedures.

Top 7 Social Media Strategies for Churches in 2023
This article discusses top strategies and trends on social media that will help your church reach more people.

INSTAGRAM

20 Great Ways to Use Instagram at Your Church
The Creative Pastor offers a variety of ideas for Instagram posts.

Best Church Instagram Accounts in 2023
This post lists six church Instagram accounts and what makes them great.

How to Set Up an Instagram Account for a Church
Vanco Faith offers detailed information about setting up an Instagram account and offers suggestions for posts.

LICENSES

CCLI Streaming License
The CCLI website lists the terms of agreement and permitted activities for its streaming license.

One License
One License provides access to thousands of congregational hymns, songs, and service music from today's top liturgical music publishers.

LIVESTREAMING

Church Online Platform
This free streaming platform integrates with Facebook, Zoom, and other live streaming sources. It allows for real time engagement scheduling "simulated live" services with volunteers.

Livestreaming Meetings from Zoom
These how-to articles provide detailed instructions on how to stream a remote meeting on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.

OBS Studio
This site offers free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.

It works on Windows, Mac or Linux.

Stream Your Church Services with Facebook Live
The Church Tech Today website has instructions on how to stream your church services with Facebook Live.

MEETING/WEBINAR SOFTWARE

Free Conference Call
On this site, you can start a free video or voice conference call, share a screen, or create a meeting room. No credit card is required.

GoTo
They offer video meetings, calling, messaging, webinars and more. They were previously called GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.

Zoom
Zoom allows users to connect with video, audio, phone, and chat. They offer free software for meetings up to 40 minutes with 100 participants, as well as numerous options with different pricing.

MOBILE APPS FOR CHURCHES

Top 8 Church App Providers
Church Tech Today reviews church apps for presenting media, tracking membership, helping with budgets, updating their websites, and more.

Top 10 Best Church Apps for 2023
This article takes a look at the 10 best companies that offer apps for churches–and how they can help your church community grow, connect, serve, and give.

PHOTOS AND IMAGES TO USE FOR FREE
Note: Some free photos/images have restrictions, such as requiring that you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, indicate if changes were made, etc. Please read the information on these websites carefully.

Canva
Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. Use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more. Nonprofit organizations can apply for free access to Canva's premium features.

Free Images
Free stock and royalty-free photos and images are organized in categories for easy searching.

Freely
Freely Photos is a hobby-run website to help smaller churches and ministries.

Freerange
You can find free quality photos here, licensed for commercial or private use.

Morguefile
They offer over 400,000 free stock photos for commercial use.

Pexels
There are over a million royalty free images on this site.

Pixabay
They offer millions of free images and royalty free stock video and music.

StockVault
They offer thousands of photos and illustrations, including a large selection of texture images, all free. Submissions and/or comments are also welcomed.

Upsplash
They have free to use, high-definition photos.

Wikimedia Commons
This is a huge collection of free usable media files to which anyone can contribute.

PINTEREST

Click here to see PRC's Pinterest Boards!

7 Ways Your Church Could Use Pinterest
This post covers the basics about Pinterest and suggests ways your church can use it.

Pin the Good Word: How to Use Pinterest for Churches
This articles tells how to create a Pinterest account, suggest boards to create, and offers links to some church Pinterest accounts.

TIKTOK

15 Tips for Using TikTok for Churches
Besides discussing what TikTok is, this post also suggests the best ways for churches to use it.

Does My Church Need to Be on TikTok?
This post from the Church of England website looks at TikTok and whether your church should use it. There are also links to other posts:

Is There a Place for Your Church on TikTok?
This article from United Methodist Communications has ideas for TikTok videos your church can make and how you can use the app to promote your mission, engage your congregation and possibly reach a wider audience.

TWITTER

Effective Uses of Twitter for Churches
The Orange website suggests ways churches can use Twitter.

How to Sign Up for a Twitter Account
The Twitter Help Center provides this information along with New User FAQ.

Tips on How to Use Twitter for Your Ministry
This article gives tips on using Twitter successfully for your church.

WORSHIP

How to Facilitate Hybrid Worship
Resource UMC lays out the unique challenges that church leaders need to resolve to best serve the needs of the congregation when offering both in-person and virtual worship.

Worship Online Article Series
Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church has a series of articles which specifically deal with worship issues in an online or hybrid format.

YOUTH

Guide to Taking Youth Ministry Online
This informative 30-page guide was created by Angela and Paul Gorrell in partnership with the Yale Youth Ministry Institute.

YOUTUBE

YouTube Basics: How to Set Up a Channel for Your Church
This video from United Methodist Videos shows you how to set up a YouTube channel for your church.

YouTube Basics: How to Upload a Video
This video from United Methodist Videos explains how to upload a video on your church channel.