This article is adapted from an Igniter newsletter.
At this point, most churches have had at least a couple of weeks of practice creating services for an online audience. But for most churches, Easter services are a different animal than a normal Sunday services—and this year is no different...except it's completely different.
This Easter, even more traditional churches that don't utilize screens in their physical spaces will be adopting the use of visual media elements as they create services for the digital space. Here is a master list of the different parts of an online service that might require media, and our recommendations for the videos and graphics that will work best for them.
COUNTDOWNS
Like we mentioned in "Putting Together an Online Good Friday Service," it's always a good idea to add a buffer to the beginning of your stream before the service actually starts to give people a chance to log on. That could be a pre-roll announcement slideshow, or a countdown timer like one of these.
SERVICE OPENERS
An opener video is a great way to transition out of your countdown or announcement slideshow in a way that sets the stage, grabs attention, and lifts the energy.
Our newest mini movie Finished is an excellent option. If you're using it to intro full-band worship, we even have a version in every key, but if your Easter worship is a little more laid back—like most churches' will be this year—we'd recommend cutting straight out of the video to an emcee/host to keep the energy up.
Here are a few more openers we think are pretty great.
DESIGN THEMES
You'll probably use a lot of graphics throughout your service and for promoting your service throughout the week. Stick with one of these collections to keep them all thematically cohesive.
SERMON BUMPERS
Whether you're pre-recording everything or truly livestreaming, a sermon bumper can give you and your audience a quick (sub-60 second) breather before your sermon. Usually, you would want it would be specific to your topic, but here are a few that are generic enough to use no matter the theme of your sermon this Easter.
NARRATIVE MINI MOVIES
It's the greatest story ever told—tell it with a mini movie! He Arose (and the rest of the below) will put your church in the moments leading up to Christ's death to make the victory of His resurrection more real.
CELEBRATORY MINI MOVIES
He's Still Risen, one of our most popular mini movies of all time, is a few years old now, but it's basically perfect for the age of "social distancing." Use it, or one of these others to remind your viewers that the Good News is something worth celebrating.
Check out our entire Easter category to find 2,000+ more options that you can incorporate into your online Easter programming. And don't forget, for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, you have permission to include virtually every product in our library in your online services.
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