3. Shorten It.
My general rule on live communication with a crowd is that there’s no magic length for the perfect sermon or keynote.
While TED talks have changed the game, there’s nothing magic about 18 minutes: 5 minutes of boring is 5 minutes too long and 60 minutes of fascinating isn’t nearly enough. I still stand by that for live communication. (Here are 5 other communication myths it’s time to bust).
Video, though, is different to me. People listen to podcasts and watch videos at 1.5 or 2x speed.
And I don’t know why, but two minutes still seems like an eternity on YouTube. Know what I mean?
For that reason, my rule of thumb on video (with no live audience) is that shorter is better.
I’m up this Sunday, and instead of speaking 38-40 minutes, I plan on doing no more than 25 minutes. It just feels much longer when there’s no one in the room.
Plus, if you look at the reality of what’s happening in the average home, kids are crawling all over parents, half your audience might be cleaning up breakfast while ‘worshipping’ and it’s pretty easy to open multiple tabs on your laptop if you get bored.
This might change over time, but I would leave your congregation wanting more than having them wish you had been done 10 minutes ago.
Remember, online viewing is much less polite than an in-person congregation. To walk out during a message takes guts. To swipe out of the message takes nothing…and nobody would ever know.
So be shorter.
4. Don’t Try to Recreate What’s Gone.
As I shared in an earlier post about how to lead in a digital default church, that you’re probably spending a lot of time doing right now is figuring out how to do what you used to do.
Um, that’s gone. It’s history.
Again, back to Fallon, rather than trying to build the Tonight Show set in his back yard, he just embraced the fact that all of that was gone for now.
I’m not criticizing preachers who have a camera set up in an empty auditorium (I will likely preach that way this weekend…it’s what our church is still able to do), but don’t just re-create. Experiment.
I plan on adding a live-stream Q&A at the end of the message.
And video is endlessly creative.
A friend who leads a mega-church, and has a huge love of movies, screenplays and great art, texted me and asked if finally all the energy he’d love to put into cinema (he wanted to write screenplays) could be put into the message. I didn’t blink. Of course it could.
Don’t spend your energy trying to recreate what was lost. Try to find something new.
When the audience isn’t in the room, new ways open up to connect with the audience.
Let this crisis be a cradle for innovation.
5. Take people backstage.
And by backstage, I mean into your life.
My pastor, Jeff Brodie, smartly opened his message by showing pictures of his family and how everything changed in the last few weeks at his house. Fun, personal and real.
I speak around the world (or at least used to) on leadership, write books, host leadership podcasts and breathe leadership every day. But if you check my Instagram feed (especially stories), it’s a hybrid mix of my leadership ideas, and my life—going out for a run or bike ride, smoking brisket on my Big Green Egg, getting my first COVID haircut, and in the summer obsessing over the lines in my (hopefully very green) lawn.
When I land in a city to speak (on leadership), you know what the top things people talk to me about? It’s often not leadership. Instead, they talk to me about my obsessions with my lawn and barbecuing on the Big Green Egg.
People may love what you say, but they identify with you.
In an age where everything is spun, sold and marketed, people are looking for you. Let them see, well, you.
Quick tip for preachers. People think you say what you say because you get paid to say it. I know that’s crass and it’s not true, but that’s the thought-bubble over people’s heads when they interact with a preacher.
Letting people see that you’re real helps people see that God is real.
I guess we’re back at point 1, but that really is something that will get you so far in the midst of this crisis. And well beyond it.
Letting people see that you’re real helps people see that God is real.
Bonus Tip: Watch Yourself Preaching on Camera
As painful as it is, watch yourself on video.
I know…I still cringe, noticing every little mistake I make.
If you’re really brave—which you should be—get others to evaluate you and give you tips.
Pain can be a great teacher.
If you can’t stand to watch yourself on video, why would anyone else watch you?
If you can’t stand to watch yourself on video, why would anyone else watch you?
