As we are redefining the new normal for the church in our post pandemic and turbulent world we are reaching more and more online viewers along with a considerable number of first time viewers each week, proving that the world is hungry for the word of Christ.
In the past 12 months we have had over 280,000 views on Vimeo, with over 940 first time views. These views consisted of 46.3% that were 35-44 years of age, 38.5% that were 65+ and 15.2% that were 45-64.
YouTube was the main outlet for our online content in 2021. Over the past year the number of views has declined to just over 6,000 with a first time view total of just over 275. Of these views all were 65+ years of age leading us to consider making some changes in the way we present our church online.
In April 2022 we hired Ernie Gutierrez as our Online Minister to be the face of Lakeview Online. Our goal for hiring Ernie was to make a connection with our 35-64 year old viewers. At the time of this writing we are making progress towards this goal, however, we still have a long way to go in connecting with our target demographic of the soon to be or just retired members of our community.
In the summer of 2022 a proposal was presented and approved for some long needed upgrades to our audio systems of the church. These upgrades include a complete digital audio system in the Worship Center, moving the system formally in the Worship Center to Smoot Hall along with moving the Smoot Hall equipment to the Chapel. The audio system in the Worship Center had not been updated since the early to mid 90’s and the Chapel system is even older than that.
Looking forward to 2023:
Additional changes are being made to the way we add content to our YouTube channel with the goal of bringing in more views and first time viewers. These changes are described below.
- Our live streaming of the 8:00 am service will not change at this time. It will be available on all of the platforms as it is now.
- The 9:30 am service will only be live streamed on the church website. The service will then be edited to provide a cleaner more streamlined version that will be available on Vimeo and in the 9:30 am service archives on our website.
- Then the YouTube version of the 9:30 am service will be restructured in length through editing to include a brief welcome and announcements from Ernie, a brief description of the upcoming message, the day’s special music, an offering appeal, the message from the 9:30 am service and a closing and invitation to join us again online or in-person from Ernie. The total run time for the shorter version of the service will be no longer than 25 minutes. This will then be made available on YouTube no later than 1:00 pm on Sundays.
Additionally we will be working with the Membership Committee on community orientated events that will aid in attracting first time visitors to the church such as vintage car shows, food truck events, drive-in movies, special dinners, and the list goes on. We will promote these events on the church social media accounts along with the internet in general by making video “commercials” with church members participating in and having fun at these events.
The Media Arts team is excited with the possibilities of what the Lord has in store for us.
