Digital Tools for churches during the Coronavirus

A crowdsourced index of useful digital communication tools for church leaders, communications teams and church staff to refer to during the coronavirus outbreak.

This is a working document that is being updated regularly.

URL for sharing:
covid.churcheshandbook.co.uk 

Digital Tools for churches during the Coronavirus

Starters Guide

Prayer

Webinars

Live Streaming

Copyright/Music Licensing

Crisis Management

Facebook Groups and Resource for Church Comms

Mental Health & Community

Church Responses

Denomination, Movement and Network Responses

Churches and groups

Youth and Children’s Work

Free Resources

Giving and Tithing

Apps, Software & Other Useful Tools

Church Administration

Remote work

Further Questions?

Contributors

Content

Tech

Starters Guide

Where to start and what to consider.

  • Digital Platforms for Churches During Coronavirus [Mark Crosby | article] - link 
  • Top tips for doing church digitally [Mark Crosby | article] - link
  • The Impact of the coronavirus on Church Comms [Digital Church Toolkit | video] - link
  • Free Consultation with Digital Church Toolkit to help implementation in your church [calendly form| - link
  • Latest Advice from UK Government [gov.uk website] - link
  • UK government advice on religious gatherings not meeting [16th March | YouTube] - link
  • Taking Church Online in a Coronavirus Age [Gospel Coalition | Article] - link
  • COVID-19 and your church [article from Sunday Mag] - link
  • The New Church [article from Sunday Mag] - link
  • Alpha Online | Running Alpha During Coronavirus Outbreak [Article & Webinar] - link
  • The Ultimate Coronavirus Guide For Churches - [Church Marketing University | article] - link
  • Running Digital Small Groups [Article | Vineyard Churches] - link
  • Getting started with filming [Article and video | Vineyard Churches] - link
  • 10 ways churches can help during the coronavirus pandemic [Premier|Article] - link
  • Digital communion [John Dyer | Long Read] - link

Prayer

Prayer is not our only response, but it should be our FIRST response

  • National Day of Prayer, Sunday 22nd March [Evangelical Alliance | article] - link
  • A guide to praying for Coronavirus #PrayToEndCov19  [SIM] - link 
  • A coronavirus prayer and other resources [Pete Greig | Article/slides] - link
  • 24/7 Prayer virtual prayer room for the coronavirus pandemic - link
  • Tools like Prayermate and Time to Pray may be helpful

Webinars

A number of groups are hosting webinars in the coming days to help and support churches and ministries:

Coming up

  • Tuesday 31st March

Watch back

  • Tuesday 17th March

  • Wednesday 18th March
  • Wednesday 18th March - Monday 23rd March - Church of England webinars
  • Wednesday 25 - Friday 27th March
  • Thursday 26th - Friday 27th March

        

Live Streaming

Guides to setting-up live streaming

  • A beginner’s guide to going live with your service or event for free [Church of England | article] - link 
  • Streaming Guide for Churches [Digital Church Toolkit | PDF] - link
  • Livestream to Youtube with just a phone [7 step Tutorial] - link
  • The most affordable live streaming cameras for churches [ProChurchTools | Podcast]  - link
  • How to Livestream Your Church Service: A Practical Guide [Gospel Coalition | Article] - link
  • How to stream your Church service on Facebook Live - [CBN | article] - link
  • Best practices for going Live from a Facebook Page [Facebook Article] - link
  • Live Streaming: Facebook or YouTube [Mark Crosby | Article] - link
  • How to speak to camera [SpeakLife | Video] - link

More details about live streaming including information about song licensing here:
https://covid.churcheshandbook.co.uk/livestreaming

Copyright/Music Licensing

  • Live streaming worship music & staying legal (Bespoke Records | UK) -  link
  • Songs in the public domain - [CCLI | list] - link
  • Recording, streaming and podcasting your services [CCLI | Article] - link
  • A note about live streaming and song licensing in churches - [James Doc | Article] - link
  • Licences to live stream worship [Vineyard Worship | article] - link

Crisis Management

What to think through for your church

  • All Things Coronavirus [Northshore Church | Google doc] - link 
  • Guidance for churches [Church of England | Article] - link
  • Communicating your response [CPO | Google doc] - link 
  • Templates for Public Statements; emails, social posts, etc [Google Doc] - link

Facebook Groups and Resource for Church Comms

Places to go for support and advice from experienced Church Comms teams.

  • Church Tech UK - [Facebook] link
  • The Church Comms Collective UK [Facebook] - link
  • CMG / Visual Church Media [Facebook] - link
  • US-based, lots of feeds about live streaming and tech setup for churches
  • Coronavirus Tech Handbook [directory] - link
  • Leveraging Facebook for Online Church During COVID-19 from Nona Jones (Head of Global Faith-Based Partnerships at Facebook) [Facebook Post] - link

Mental Health & Community

Resources to point your church to in this unprecedented time.

  • Coronavirus and Anxiety - [Will Van Der Hart | Article] - link
  • How to stay connected during the coronavirus pandemic [live Q&A via Sunday Mag] - link
  • 4 Ideas to be FOR Your Community During COVID-19 [article from Sunday Mag] - link
  • Joy - Support for people self-isolating  [service] - link

Church Responses

Best practise examples of how churches, key leaders and networks have responded to the coronavirus, either continuing services, cancelling services, sharing encouraging words, direction or providing language around this pandemic.

Denomination, Movement and Network Responses

  • Assemblies of God - Link
  • Baptist Union - Link
  • Catholic (UK) - Link
  • Church of England - Link
  • Church of Scotland - Link
  • Co-Mission - Link
  • Elim - Link
  • FIEC - Link
  • Methodist - Link
  • Presbyterian Church (Ireland) - Link
  • Quakers - Link
  • Salvation Army - Link
  • United Reformed Church - Link
  • Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland - Link

Churches and groups

  • Vineyard Columbus - Historical context for pandemics [article] - link
  • Causeway Coast Vineyard - Services postponed [article] - link
  • Evangelical Alliance - Coronavirus: a Christ-centred response [article] - link
  • Gavin Calver - Responding well to the coronavirus [Instagram] - link
  • Andy Crouch - Love in the Time of Coronavirus - [article] - link

Youth and Children’s Work

  • Church of Ireland Youth Department handbook - link
  • Complete Online Kids Services [Life Church] - link
  • The Bible App for Kids - link
  • A new era for Youth Ministry [Dreaming the Impossible | Guide] - link
  • Youthscape liveblog and resources - link
  • Using Zoom with under 18’s [Zoom | Education guide] - link

Free Resources

Easily accessible resources to use in your church communications

  • Custom video for announcements [GoChatter] - link
  • Coronavirus graphics [Sunday Social] - link
  • Updates and cancellations graphics [Pixel Preacher] - link
  • Coronavirus photos [Unsplash] - link
  • Viral kindness neighbourhood print-out [PDF download] - link
  • Love our street print-out [PDF download] - link
  • Viral kindness postcard [print at home or professionally print | PDF] - link
  • Dwell (scripture listening app) is free for the next 60 days - link
  • Various community Google docs (like this one) [Sourceful.co.uk] - link
  • Service order creator - link
  • Christian BSL: Prayers and Readings videos in British Sign Language the catalogue link
  • Coronavirus icons - link

Giving and Tithing

  • Givt - Let your church participate in the moment of giving during the streamed service - video - special Corona website - Up and running to receive donations in one day
  • SMS giving via Donr [Service] - link
  • Churchsuite giving [Service] - link
  • Elvanto + Tithe.ly [Service] - link
  • iKnow Church (Service) - link

Apps, Software & Other Useful Tools

Digital tools that will be useful for churches in this season (and beyond!)

For those who can’t access the internet

  • How-to: Set up sermon recordings to play from a phone line - link

For live streaming

  • Church Online Platform free - link
    A platform to show a live streamed video or a pre-recorded video with a link. Includes online chat, prayer request and integrated YouVersion Bible App.
  • OBS free - link
    Free & open source broadcasting for live streaming. Connect to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch etc.
  • Restream - link

        Stream to multiple social media platforms at the same time.

For the remote production of live streaming

Autocue apps for live streaming or recording

  • Video Teleprompter Lite [iOS] - link
  • Teleprompt.me [browser] - link
  • Teleprompter for video [iOS] - link
  • BIGVU - iOS link | Android link
  • Prompster - iOS link | Android link

Remote working for teams

  • Slack free link
    Messaging, file sharing, group chats, video calls
  • Facebook Workplace link
  • Microsoft Teams link
  • Google Drive free link
    Free for charities to use team drives with unlimited space

For Small Groups

  • Running Digital Small Groups link
  • Training course to run digital small groups [Fusion] link
  • Google Hangouts link
  • Bible reading plans [from YouVersion Bible App] link
    Idea - ask others in your small group to join you in a Bible App reading plan. You can share a plan with friends and read the Word together. There’s lots being highlighted at the moment about fear & anxiety!
  • Prayermate Share enables you to keep your small group updated with prayer needs link
  • iknow Church - The team at iKnow have made their platform completely free for churches until September 2020. link

Running Alpha

Content Creation

  • Canva free link
    Easy to use graphic design templates, pre-made sizes for social media platforms 
  • Affinity Design tools are free for the next 3 months link
  • Church Comms Create - free to sign up and use (desktop based)  link

Video calls

Podcasting

  • Recording a podcast with anyone, anywhere - link

Project management

  • Trello link
    To do, doing, done
  • Airtable link
    Part spreadsheet, part database
    They are giving out free pro-upgrades for groups working on covid-19 projects.     details

Church Administration

  • ChurchSuite - link
  • iKnow Church - free until September 2020 link

Remote work

It is possible that you will have to work remote, or support those who are…

  • Learning from running a remote team for seven years [Article] - link
  • Four tips for staying productive working from home [Google | Article] - link

Further Questions?

We would love to help resource you as you serve your church at this time.  Let us know what your questions are which haven't already been answered in this document.  As we answer questions, new resources will be created and posted here.

Ask your questions

Contributors

A collection of those involved in Church Communications who have contributed and collaborated on resources and links.

Content

Mark Crosby, Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland

Benjamin Lyon, Living Rock Church

Ben Elliott, Christian Publishing Outreach

Peter Murden, Digital Church Toolkit

Finn Johnston, Digital Church Toolkit 

Liz Morgan, Church of England

James Doc, Kingdom Code

Tech

The custom domain for this document is made possible thanks to the Google Docs Enhancement Suite: gdes.app

DNS and SSL certificate via CloudFlare: cloudflare.com

James Doc, Kingdom Code / OneSheep

Joe Reeve