When COVID hit last year, having an online presence (often including live streaming of our worship services) became a more common tool to help churches stay connected with their congregations.  However, many people may have discovered the hard way that we can’t just put anything we want online.  There are legal obstacles that need to be taken into account.  Chief among these is copyright.  As both an attorney for over two decades and the Media Director at Trinity Lutheran Church in Joppa, Maryland, this presented a proverbial dance that I was all too familiar with.

What is copyright?  In short, it is the protection given to content creators to make sure other people don’t take or use their content without their permission.  If you write a song, you don’t want another singer recording it and passing it off as their own.  If you make a movie, you don’t want a rival studio distributing it to theaters and making all the money off of it.  Copyright is a way of making sure that if you create something, you get to decide what to do with it.

A lot of the things we are used to having in our worship services are subject to copyright.  Do you sing music?  There are probably copyright issues.  Have you shown video clips?  Again, someone owns the copyright.  There are multiple levels of copyright.  The original composition/tune, particular arrangement, individual performance, and even the recording can all have separate levels of copyright.  So just because a hymn, for example, is in the public domain does not mean you can pull up a recording of the Westminster Children’s Choir singing it and play it on your stream.  Public domain only covers the original tune, not the arrangement, performance and recording.

So, does this mean we throw in the towel and don’t live stream anything?  Fortunately, no.  We just need to make sure we are doing it the right way.  For anything you put online, you need to make sure you have permission, and the way you get permission is by purchasing a license.

In Christian circles this means Christian Copyright Licensing International, or as they’re more commonly known, CCLI.  CCLI offers different levels of licensing depending on the needs of your church.  They have an enormous selection of Christian songs, both traditional and contemporary, in their Song Select library.  In fact, you’ll probably be hard pressed to find a Christian song that isn’t included.  One level of licensing covers things you may not even have known you need a license for.  For example, even if you aren’t live streaming, making photocopies of music to hand out to your choir or displaying copyrighted lyrics on a screen for your congregation to read are things for which you should have a license.  CCLI licenses allow you to do all of this.  Their lowest level also gives you permission to record your services to be viewed later.  If you want to live stream with your own musicians, you’ll need their Streaming License.  They even offer a Streaming Plus level that lets you use backing tracks or play the original artist’s master recordings during your service if you like.  The important thing is to look at the needs of your church, compare them to the various licensing options, and make sure you get the correct license for your needs.

There are two final caveats.  First, a CCLI license only covers songs played or sung during worship services.  It does not allow churches to make other online content with the music (i.e., podcasts, church produced music videos, etc.).  Second, it covers only the songs, not someone else’s music videos.  So, for example, you may be able to play the audio of a song over your stream, but that does not authorize you to show all the images contained in the artist’s music video for that song.  There is another layer of copyright protection for the video images.

The ramifications if you do not have an appropriate license could be severe.  First, your church could be sued for a copyright violation.  Second, whatever online platform you are using to live stream your services could revoke your ability to do so.  But most importantly, getting the proper licenses ensures that the person who put in the creative effort to make the content is getting properly compensated for their work.  If we are trying to set a Christ-centered example, then one way we can do that is to not use someone’s else’s property without their permission.

Editor’s note: Congregations using music, videos, and other items downloaded from the internet should check on whether they have copyright permission for streaming them over the internet as part of worship services. CCLI and similar licenses often do not grant such permission. Read carefully in the documentation of your license to learn what you do and do not have permission to stream outside the building, or seek legal advice.

I know: The above title is too long.  But let’s not quibble.  This is too important an issue.  And many of you reading this can do something to address this ministry challenge; hopefully sooner rather than later.

Fundamentally, this is about what is passing for streamed worship services during this pandemic, and how we can do so much better.  Because here is the brutal truth: Worship life post-COVID will not be returning to the “normal” we remember before the year 2020.  Why?  Post-pandemic, in-person worship attendance will, for most congregations, be at least 25% to 40% below what they had in 2019.  Too bleak?  Well, as the saying goes, “Just wait.”  Most congregations — especially those that just launched their online, streamed worship services in 2020 — will find that many of their members have grown too comfortable with the ease and comfort of in-home worship.  And for those members who have largely avoided in-person worship since early 2020, it’s almost like they’ve left their congregational community for a one-year (or longer) deployment.  As a result, many of them will find it’s easier to stay away than it is to return to in-person congregational life and worship.

So what can be done about this?  The biggest initial challenge will be to focus on the mission opportunity that is before us.  Because improving the quality of your online worship ministry can not only retain members; it can reach new people with the Gospel.  However, before going over practical ways to improve your online worship ministry, one caveat: It will take a very intentional and on-going effort to motivate online worshipers to grow in their faith.  More on that later.

Now for practical suggestions for improving the quality of your online, streamed worship services.

Online Worship Music

The first step is to recognize the obvious: That the online worship experience is very different than pre-COVID, in-person worship.  I have watched online services from scores of different Lutheran churches over the last year.  Some have been inspiring; most have been disappointing.  My biggest disappointment has been online worship music; especially in the case of small and mid-sized congregations.  Disappointing in what way?  The lack of quality music.  This has been true in respect to both congregational hymns/songs, and performed music such as anthems and solo performances.

Part of the problem here is that with online worship I find myself becoming even more of a music critic.  With in-person worship not so much; partly because in the case of hymns and songs I am participating.  With “couch potato” worship I tend to be a passive member of an audience of one.  So if I notice the worship vocal team is struggling, or an instrument is slightly out of tune, the music becomes an unfortunate distraction.  This critical appraisal also applies to solos; whether vocal or instrumental.

The solution?  Only select the songs and hymns that can be done well.  Remember that, in the case of online worship, this is essentially a performance for your online audience.  So it needs to not only be easy enough for your musicians to do well; it also needs to be of high enough quality — both musically and lyrically — to do at all.  For some smaller congregations with a limited number of talented musicians and vocalists available, this might mean less worship music than you offer at your in-person service.  So in this case, “less is more.”

However, if you can access Christian music available from the internet for your online service, do so.  This can be an invaluable and inspirational resource.  If your congregation has the necessary technological capability to access online music videos, contact me.  I have specific videos I can recommend.

Worship Liturgies for Online Worship

Move toward a “service of the Word” more than a full musical liturgy.  Again, this is because your online worshipers are unlikely to participate in sung responses.  The one exception to this principle might be if your liturgist has a solo-quality voice.  In that case hearing the chanter sing both call and response portions of the liturgy might still be meaningful to your online worshipers.  However, the overall principle is this: Online worshipers are more likely to participate in spoken liturgical responses than those that are sung.

Sermon Message

I have found sermons, by in large, to be effective and meaningful online.  Suffice it to say that the great majority of recommendations for what constitutes quality preaching in person also apply to online messages.  My one suggestion would be this: For pastors who have the time and energy, you might want to do a video sermon that is specifically crafted for an online audience.  Especially post-COVID, the majority of your online worshipers will be very different than most of your in-person attenders.  And the biggest difference will be the contrast between those with an unchurched vs. churched background.  As an added bonus give different messages for your in-person and online service. You can encourage members to participate in both services on a weekly basis.

Communion Practice

It depends.  If your congregation is more high-church you might want to offer consecrated elements to be picked up at church in advance.  Perhaps you can even offer to deliver the elements to the homes of some members.  If your congregation is more low-church, then invite online worshipers to have the elements ready at home so they can participate during that part of the service.

Online Worship and Technology

One final and obvious challenge in regards to providing meaningful online worship is the matter of the technology involved.  There is no way to address this with detailed, specific recommendations due to the unique challenges faced by each congregation.  But one important and more general recommendation: Whether it be your video streaming or sound system, only offer what you can do well.  In other words, don’t let your creativity in worship planning get ahead of what your “systems” and tech volunteers can handle without major glitches or disruptions to the “flow” of your service.

None of the above recommendations address the significant and often overwhelming challenge of actually discipling online worshipers.  I will address that in the May issue of this newsletter.  (This article is already long enough.)  My next article will cover, in some detail, the following strategies for discipling online worshipers:

1. in-home, “micro” worship gatherings

2. small group Bible studies

3. one-to-one coaching ministries; online, by phone, or in-person

4. organizing discipleship/accountability triads

5. pastoral care and discipleship

Pastor Don Brandt

Director, Congregations in Transition ministry

pastordonbrandt@gmail.com

The Great Commission Society of the North American Lutheran Church is to be commended for the three-day, online missions conference which they held in early November under the theme, “Unveiled: Shining Light in the Darkness.”   The comment was made at the beginning of the event that the only person that the conference organizers wanted to lift up is Jesus – not the structures of the church, not our own resourcefulness or efforts, but Jesus.  I need a faith that focuses on Jesus.  That is the kind of faith that I found nourished and sustained at the Unveiled Conference from the NALC’s Great Commission Society.  I also give thanks for the gift of today’s technology, which made it possible for us to be blessed by such an event, even during the time of a pandemic. 

Later in the day of the third session of the “Unveiled” conference I watched a webinar with Dr Thom Rainer of Church Answers.  You can learn more about his ministry at https://churchanswers.com.  His webinar was entitled, “Preparing for Revitalization in a Post-COVID World.”  One of the points that he made that I thought was most insightful was his comment about how much COVID has accelerated change.  Whatever dynamics and trends a congregation was experiencing prior to COVID have been accelerated by about four years.  If a congregation was in decline, its decline has been accelerated by four years.  But he also gave hope.  He gave strategies for revitalization, and he is working to train coaches who will work with congregations in the process of revitalization.

Both of those webinars were life and hope giving.  But what do I receive from the ELCA?  A word that tells me that I need to repent of systemic racism and white supremacy. 

The law is not life and hope giving.  The law rightly applied shows me my sins and drives me to Christ.  But the law wrongly applied only crushes, demoralizes, and discourages.  If the main message the ELCA has to give is all of the ways in which I need to repent because I have acted contrary to all of their chosen priorities, then how can I ever expect that the ELCA knows how to renew congregations and help them recover from COVID?