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Small church live stream setup

You can put Sunday online with the camera you already have, a YouTube channel, and The Gathering. This is the free church live streaming path: YouTube carries the video, and the app tells the church you are on.

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What you need

  • A YouTube channel the church controls.
  • A way to start a YouTube live video: a phone, a laptop, or a camera that already sends to YouTube. The Gathering does not sell or set up that equipment.
  • An admin on your church in The Gathering.

Set it up once

  1. Create the YouTube channel if the church does not have one, and confirm you can start a live video there. YouTube's own help covers the encoder and the phone app. Those steps change, so follow YouTube for that part.
  2. In The Gathering, open your church page and save the YouTube channel link.
  3. Invite the people who should see the alert. A member who turns live alerts off, or turns push off, will not get the push.

On Sunday

  1. Start the live video on YouTube first, the same way you would if The Gathering did not exist.
  2. Copy the link of that live video.
  3. On the church page, paste the link and tap Go Live.
  4. Members with alerts still on get a LIVE NOW notice that the church is live. The feed shows a LIVE NOW banner. It opens a worship room where the YouTube video plays and people can chat.
  5. When the service is over, tap End on the church page. The live session closes. A replay can be opened later from that same page, back into a worship room.

If the picture is wrong

The video file never moves into The Gathering. A bad link, a private YouTube video, or a stream that has not started yet will look wrong in the room. Fix it on YouTube, then paste the live link again. People who are simply nearby can also see a discoverable church's LIVE NOW banner, within about 25 miles, when their account has a location.