As Christian churches continue to embrace the reality that an attractive online presence is key for connecting with members and extending their reach, the capability to post videos of sermons and other church activities is increasingly desired. While many platforms exist to host these videos, the most common is YouTube.

As one of the largest social media platforms, YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day,
with half of all YouTube views coming from mobile devices. This amounts to nearly 5 billion videos watched every day. In addition, Youtube is available in 61 languages, across 75 different countries. With such mass market appeal, it’s easy to see how hosting sermons and outreach advertising through YouTube gives your congregation a powerful and accessible vehicle for extending your message on a global scale.

To start off, you must create a YouTube channel. This can be done easily by signing in with your Gmail credentials. Once you’re signed up for an account, simply click the upload files button to select your video file (YouTube supports most video formats, including .MP4, .MOV, .WMV, and more). Open your file, give it a title/description, and set your privacy setting to “Public.” Then choose any other advanced settings, save your work, and you’re ready to go.

(This tutorial can help you create your own Youtube channel)

Not only is YouTube great for reaching a global audience, but it saves you the cost of hosting and bandwidth, which can add up quickly with any type of videos. Truepath, a Christian web host, can help you setup your website with simple platforms and Youtube can easily be added to your website to keep the costs low when it comes to your web space.
In our next post, we’ll consider the benefits of streaming sermons live and saving past videos.