Church Admin Resources
Church Technology
This curated collection of links offers insights into the rapidly evolving landscape of church technology.
Recorded Webinars
This collection of recorded webinars features industry professionals and church leaders diving into the essential aspects of church technology, offering practical guidance and expert insights for faith communities navigating the digital age.
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Additional resources
Boundaries and Social Media
This article is from the Young People’s Ministries page of the United Methodist Church.
This is from the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ and looks at best practices for digital communications.
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.
This article on the FaithTrust Institute website looks at some basic questions and considerations for faith communities who are either considering establishing a virtual identity or presence or those who already have.
Church Websites
This site compares the 5 best church website builders and compares their features.
This list compiled by ReachRight includes what they love about each website.
Equipment Recommended
This is for online meetings where there is a group in one room and others who are conferencing in.
This Logitech USB Headset has a noise cancelling mic and is a good low-cost option.
This is a great camera for live streaming. Here is a tutorial about connecting Mevo to Facebook Live.
This is a vital tool. You can sometimes buy these at media stores, like Best Buy. This links to a version that has both a tripod and an adapter that works with phones and tablets.
This post is on the United Methodist Communications page.
This article from Outreach gives details about setting up your church Facebook page and what to post on it.
This article discusses the basics of creating a Facebook page and offers tips for using your Facebook page.
Faith Formation
This article offers ways to use a popular Zoom meeting feature in faith formation.
This blog post has basic information for leading an online study.
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 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.
This article discusses the pros and cons of several meeting formats—video, audio-only, or asynchronously.
This is a free forum hosting service if you want a simple way to hold an online study.
Finance
This site offer a comparison of online giving platforms with rates.
PayPal’s help center offers instructions for setting up your 501(c)(3) nonprofit to accept online donations.
Getting Started
This article is from Faithward, associated with the Reformed Church of America.
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.
This article discusses top strategies and trends on social media that will help your church reach more people
The Creative Pastor offers a variety of ideas for Instagram posts.
This post lists six church Instagram accounts and what makes them great.
Vanco Faith offers detailed information about setting up an Instagram account and offers suggestions for posts.
Licenses
The CCLI website lists the terms of agreement and permitted activities for its streaming 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.
Livestream from Zoom Pro Meetings
This document from PRC shows how to livestream from Zoom Pro without having to purchase the webinar add-on.
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, which 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
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.
They offer video meetings, calling, messaging, webinars and more. They were previously called GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar.
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
Church Tech Today reviews church apps for presenting media, tracking membership, helping with budgets, updating their websites, and more.
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 /Images to Use for Free
Note: Some free photos/images have restrictions. Please read the information on these websites carefully.
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 stock and royalty-free photos and images are organized in categories for easy searching.
Freely Photos is a hobby-run website to help smaller churches and ministries.
You can find free quality photos here, licensed for commercial or private use.
They offer over 400,000 free stock photos for commercial use.
There are over a million royalty free images on this site.
They offer millions of free images and royalty free stock video and music.
They offer thousands of photos and illustrations.
They have free to use, high-definition photos.
This is a huge collection of free usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
Click here to see PRC’s Pinterest Boards!
This post covers the basics about Pinterest and suggests ways your church can use it.
Using Pinterest for Your Church
You’ll find here ways churches can use Pinterest to connect, share the Gospel, find inspiration and collaborate.
PRC Pinterest Boards
TikTok
Besides discussing what TikTok is, this post also suggests the best ways for churches to use it.
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:
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
The Twitter Help Center provides this information along with New User FAQ.
This article gives tips on using Twitter successfully for your church.
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.
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
This informative 30-page guide was created by Angela and Paul Gorrell in partnership with the Yale Youth Ministry Institute.
YouTube
This video from United Methodist Videos shows you how to set up a YouTube channel for your church.
This video from United Methodist Videos explains how to upload a video on your church channel.